Tackling physical activity inequalities for South Asian girls

Physical activity has many benefits for people of all backgrounds and abilities. South Asian populations have higher rates of heart disease and diabetes, which could be reduced through regular physical activity.  

Research has shown many girls from South Asian communities aren’t meeting World Health Organization physical activity recommendations.  

Project aims

We want to understand physical activity inequalities amongst South Asian girls and develop an intervention to help increase their physical activity. 

We will: 

• Review all the research undertaken with South Asian girls from the year 2000 until 2024 across Europe. We want to identify what helps and hinders South Asian girls from being physically active 

• Use data from Born in Bradford to identify at what age young girls are most active and when this declines, plus the possible reasons for this 

• Interview and run focus groups with Imams, faith leaders, young girls, parents, leisure centre workers, community leaders, health advocates and physical activity leaders in Bradford 

We’ll combine these findings to co-develop an intervention to increase the uptake of physical activity among South Asian girls. 

What we hope to achieve

We hope our intervention will help increase physical activity amongst South Asian girls. This would lead to reduced diabetes and heart disease and other health benefits among this population.