More than half of the citizens of Montenegro have not engaged in any physical activity in the last year, and the fact that 59 percent of the respondents want to do sports more than is currently the case is encouraging.
This was announced at the press conference "Participation of citizens in organized physical activities", which was organized by the Directorate for Sports and Youth.
Acting Director of the Sports and Youth Administration, Marko Begović, said that for the first time in Montenegro, a national questionnaire for sports is being conducted, PR Center reports.
"In the previous period, sports development strategies were not made in relation to real needs and conditions, but in relation to more political needs, which resulted in a certain list of wishes. For the first time, we are conducting five surveys with the intention of obtaining exact data - what is the state of Montenegrin sports, what are the real needs and in which direction will the future development of Montenegrin sports go," Begović said.
The representative of the DAMAR Agency, Vuk Čađenović, stated that the research was conducted by that agency, and the data was collected from February 11 to 19 this year, on a sample of 1198 respondents.
He pointed out that the data are not encouraging because they show that 52 percent of citizens were not physically active at all during the previous year.
"Men were slightly more active than women, and that's 51:46 percent. "Of those who were active during the previous year, 13 percent were active as a member of a sports club or association, 71 percent were recreationally active, and 16 percent were not active continuously," said Čađenović.
According to him, of those who were actively involved in sports through clubs, or who engaged in physical activity professionally or semi-professionally, the largest number of them play football (30 percent), 11 percent go to the gym, 10 percent play handball, and nine percent play volleyball. .
"The average number of training sessions during the week is 4.2, and the average training time is 77 minutes. "Of those who were active during the previous year, 55 percent of citizens were active through a sports association, and 37 percent on the field provided for that," said Čađenović.
He stated that 64 percent of respondents pay to play sports, 35 percent of them do not, and on an annual level, respondents spend an average of 264.3 euros on sports.
"The reasons why people engage in physical activity are physical health or fitness (57 percent), fun (40 percent), professional (31 percent), performance or competition (27 percent)," Begović said.
He believes that it is an encouraging fact that, when asked if in the next 12 months they are thinking of stopping doing sports/physical activities, 88 percent of respondents answered that they are not thinking.
"Eight percent of them have left or are thinking of leaving a certain sport, which they played last year, and they state that they have other priorities as the main reason. We asked this group of respondents which sport they are most strongly associated with. A third of respondents from that group recognized football as the sport with which they identify the most, followed by volleyball, karate, basketball, and handball," said Čađenović.
Of those who did not engage in sports or physical activity in the last year, a third of them stated that the reason was that they did not have enough time, and a quarter that age was an obstacle.
"The fact that 63 percent of citizens do not want to start doing music videos this year is worrying. "Only 16 percent said that they plan to start some physical activity, and of those 16 percent, they are most interested in volleyball, fitness, basketball, rugby," said Čađenović.
The most common reasons why respondents would start a new sport/physical activity are physical health and fitness, fun and enjoyment, weight loss and psychological/mental health.
"We also asked this group of citizens which sport they identify with, and we received data that the citizens of Montenegro most identify with football, basketball and handball," said Čađenović.
He pointed out that 59 percent of respondents said that they would like to play sports more than they currently do, while 41 percent of them do not.
"Almost 80 percent of young people want to do more sports, and even half of the population between the ages of 50 and 60, and a third of the population over 60, want the same," said Čađenović.
It is an interesting fact, as he said, that citizens spend an average of five hours sitting, and citizens spend four out of seven days traveling by motor vehicle.
"It is not an encouraging fact that less than one day a week is used by bicycle. Those who use it do so for an average of 50 minutes during the week," said Čađenović.
Begović explained that the obtained data should be viewed together with the data of the Institute of Public Health of Montenegro (IJZCG), which states that every second male and every third female child is obese.
"Almost 50 percent of the population, according to the 2018 IJZCG survey, suffers from one type of non-communicable disease, namely obesity, osteoporosis, cardiovascular problems. It is a red alarm for the country and indicates that the future strategy of sports must solve these challenges," Begović said.
He said that in the coming period, sport will be at the service of the development of society, and "not only top sport as it has been until now."
Bonus video:
