When it comes to be physically active, there is no single size that fits everyone with same effectiveness. People around the world have so much diversities and have so many different cultural and physical parameters that it is almost impossible to design an exercise method that benefits everyone upon this earth with equal degrees of benefits.A recent landmark research study conducted at the ‘University of Alberta’, Canada says that this study has been successful in defining the underlying trends variance and preferences for making a decision about what should be a most correct exercise pattern in case any person wants to be physically active.

People across the world belong to different cultures, ethnicities, genders, and income levels. Each of these people has different influences and different choices even in being physically active.

Professor Jane Ruseski and Professor Brad Humphyes at the University of Alberta included varied parameters in this research study. Some of these parameters include income, education and ethnicity which are prime influencing factors related to a person’s decision of remaining physically active.

Researchers involved the data of government spending on parks and other recreation facilities and examined their impacts on a person’s decision to the extent of participation in physical activities and other sports.

It was observed that simple walking was the most favored physical activity that was counted as an exercise and almost 57% people voted for this pattern. Study results also revealed that with an increasing in age the rate of participation in walking as a physical activity also increases significantly. Brad Humphreys says, “Programs aimed at promoting walking for exercise could appeal to older populations”.

Walking is a main physical activity and it is relatively the cheapest type of physical activity. Walking can be performed in almost every condition, weather and it does not need any special equipment or specific technique and other infrastructural facilities.

Researchers observed that with an increase in income level involvement in other types of physical activities also increases. Compared to the people who were simply high school graduates the people who has higher educational backgrounds were more inclined and participated with more interests in the outdoor recreation, sports, and other activities. On the other hand females on an average were less inclined to participate in such type of outdoor activities, group sports, and even the individual sports compared to their male counterparts.

The average time spent on physical activities in case of female was found to be almost 444 minutes per week less than their male counterparts in outdoor recreational activities. Similarly it was 108 minutes less on group sports and 74 minutes less in case of individual sports compared to males. Researchers feel that the child-care responsibilities and other household duties are mainly responsible for this less time spent in case of females as they normally have to invest one more hour in their homes compared to males on average.

Researchers feel that development of physical activity programs must be focused on these important factors along with other considerations affecting the outcomes of people from different ethnicities ad diverse cultures. Any particular program designed for some specific population group may not hold well with same outcomes in case of other population groups.”Our results have important implications for the design of government interventions aimed at increasing physical activity”, says Brad Humphreys.

It is normal to have a “Post-Natal Depression (PND)” after a child’s birth and the quality of life usually gets reduced. This commonly occurring problem poses threat to mental and physical health of a mother if not diagnosed and taken seriously.

A new study led by Professor Claude de Tychey, from ‘Universite Nancy 2′, France came out with striking results showing that the birth to a boy can lead to higher levels of PND and the quality of life worsens as compared in the case of birth of a girl child.

In a research published in the February issue of “Journal of Clinical Nursing”, it was found that just under a third of the 181 women, they studied four to eight weeks after delivery had PND. Nine percent of these women belonged to a French community where they faced no cultural pressures in terms of the gender of the baby. Three quarters of these women suffering from severe cases of PND had given birth to boys.

They found that the gender of the baby not only determines the severity of PND but also plays an important role in affecting the quality of life. The women who gave birth to boys were found enjoying a reduced quality of life even when there were no signs of post natal depression among them. This was lesser when they delivered girls.

A questionnaire was used to carry out this comparison. There were 36 questions in it asking the women to score eight important parameters of their health like proper functioning of the body, physical role, physical pains, mental health and few questions related to emotional and social health. The researchers provided a 100- point scale to women to measure themselves up on the above dimensions. The results were then further categorized on the basis of male and female births to evaluate their effects on PND and overall physical and mental health among the women. This provided 60 separate quality of life scores.

The overall results depicted clear differences in the overall quality of life and PND in case of birth of a girl and a boy. In 70% cases of women giving birth to a boy reported lower level of quality of life even when PND was absent among them. They showed higher cores of quality of life when the 10 quality of life scores were added together.

Among the women suffering from PND, the researchers found better scores of quality of life among those who had given birth to girls as compared to those who delivered boys.

Gender differences were also counted among the women with no, mild or severe PND symptoms. The gender differences were found to be greatest in women who had no PND. In 90% cases of women who delivered boys enjoyed lower quality of life than those who had delivered girls. Even the women with PND also had more instances of lower quality of life in the case of a boy comparatively. The results varied with the degree of PND of course.

Professor de Tychey concluded that these figures clearly show that having a boy resulted in lower score in relation to the quality of life. These scores were not much affected by the fact of giving birth to the first child or the second one.

Developing severe cases of PND in societies and cultures is natural where more preference to boys are given however this study was carried out in a French community where women were devoid of al the cultural pressures. 

Severe PND and reduced quality of life was reported among them when they gave birth to a boy. Better psychotherapeutic programs should be devised for such women at the earliest stage. Public health should be focused on early diagnosis and prevention of these cases.