ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Sports Act. Living
Sec. Sport, Leisure, Tourism, and Events
Volume 7 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fspor.2025.1582658
This article is part of the Research TopicSport Practice and Physical Activity - The Social Function of Sport in Contemporary SocietiesView all 11 articles
Measuring the physical activity in the EU using a fuzzy hybrid synthetic index and an ordered probit model
Provisionally accepted
- University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain
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Physical activity can be measured by different attributes, such as sports activities, moderate exercise, or even walking time. The most recent Eurobarometer on Sport and Physical Activity included nine questions that permit physical activity measurement at the EU. The study uses a Fuzzy Hybrid Analysis approach to calculate a synthetic index that measures the physical activity of EU citizens. The method is applied to the dataset obtained from a survey administered to a total of 26,578 respondents who represent the EU. Nine items measure the physical activity latent variable with an answer format based on three different semantic ordinal point scales. The method provides a synthetic indicator at aggregated and individual levels. Seventeen covariates were used to analyze the main determinants of physical activity, particularly gender, age, education, social class, and political orientation. The results reveal that certain covariates influence the latent variable under study, providing interesting insights to inform the development of targeted programs that reduce physical inactivity in the EU.
Keywords: Physical activity, Sport participation, walking, moderate exercise, Eurobarometer, Fuzzy-Hybrid Analysis physical activity, Eurobarometer, fuzzy set theory, TOPSIS, ordered probit, Sedentary Lifestyle, Daly normalization
Received: 24 Feb 2025; Accepted: 17 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Martin and Moreira Gregori. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Juan Carlos Martin, University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain
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