Healthy Ireland Survey: Parents and Health
![Healthy Ireland Survey: Parents and Health](/getmedia/9d6b1830-f457-4b18-83f9-0781179cc0bd/Family-eating.jpg?w=1000&h=512&ext=.jpg&width=1360&resizemode=force)
Healthy Ireland recently published a survey on a variety of health topics in the population of Ireland. This survey included a section on parents and their general health, weight, smoking habits, physical activity levels and sleep in comparison to non-parents.
Healthy Ireland recently published a survey on a variety of health topics in the population of Ireland. This survey included a section on parents and their general health, weight, smoking habits, physical activity levels and sleep in comparison to non-parents.
Key findings include:
- 19% of parents smoke cigarettes to 23% of non-parents.
- 63% of parents are either overweight or obese which is similar to non-parents (66%).
- Fathers are more likely to be overweight or obese (73%) compared to mothers (55%).
- Only half of both parents and non-parents meet the minimum levels of physical activity of 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week (49% and 48% respectively).
- 73% of mothers and 71% of fathers would like to be more physically active.
- On average, parents receive 6.9 hours of sleep per night.
Parents are more likely than non-parents to report their health as good or very good (90% and 85% respectively) however, this survey shows that the majority of parents could benefit from becoming more physically active and losing weight, especially as they are the role models to their children.
Niall Grieve