Comparative Analysis of Sports Practice by Types of Activities

Jaume García
Cristina Muñiz
Plácido Rodríguez
and María José Suárez

This paper makes a comparative analysis of the determinants of adult sports practice in different types of activities. Specifically, we analyze frequency of participation in walking, individual versus group sports, indoor versus outdoor sports, and sports that require facilities versus sports that do not require them. In the empirical analysis we use the Spanish Time Use Survey 2002–03 and we estimate zero-inflated negative binomial (ZINB) count data models to explain the frequency of sports participation in the previous four weeks. The covariates included are demographic and socioeconomic factors. We compute individual marginal effects of individual and family characteristics on the expected frequency of participation, on the probability of being a potential participant, and on the expected frequency conditioned on participation. The results show that gender and labor status are significant correlates of participation and frequency in all types of activities. We also find some interesting differences among types of sports.