All Ireland Traveller Health Study Our Geels - Department of Health ...

All Ireland Traveller Health Study
Use of a seatbelt varies. From the HBSC SC 5-6 9-year-olds, 86.8% always use a seatbelt when they sit in
a car, compared with 84.9% of ROI but only 65.6% of NI 9-year-old Travellers. Physical activity is shown
in Figure 14. The NI children appear to be less active than ROI and HBSC children, though the numbers
in NI are small. From the NLSC/GUI 9-year-olds, of all children surveyed, only 3% were not physically
active for at least one hour on one day of the week, compared with a similar proportion in ROI Travellers
(3.4%). Again, substantially more NI AITHS 9-year-olds were not physically active (6.8%).
Figure 14: Percentage of 9-year-old children who are physically active for a least an hour a
day, by number of days of activity per week
60
50
% of 9-year-old children
40
30
20
10
0
4-6 days
7 days 4-6 days 7 days 4-6 days 7 days 4-6 days 7 days
ROI Travellers NI Travellers HBSC SC 5-6 children HBSC all children
Fewer 9-year-olds children in the HBSC SC 5-6 group report eating fruit and vegetables, than do parents
of 9-year-olds in the AITHS; only 22.8% of HBSC SC 5-6 9-year-old report eating fruit more than once
a day, and fewer again (15.9%) report eating vegetables more than once a day. 34.3% of ROI Traveller
9-year-olds and 7.7% of NI Traveller 9-year-olds eat sweets once or more a day, compared with 25.5% of
HBSC 9-year-olds in SC 5-6, 23.3% of ROI Traveller 9-year-olds and 12.4% of NI Traveller 9-year-olds drink
sugary, fizzy drinks once or more a day, compared with 17.1% of HBSC 9-year-old in SC 5-6. 5% of 9-
year-olds in the NLSC/GUI lowest income group did not have breakfast regularly, compared with 10.3%
of ROI and 19.3% of NI 9-year-olds, who had a weekday breakfast 2 or less days a week.
Of the NLSC/GUI 9-year-olds, 89% had a computer in their home. This compares with 22.9% of ROI and
18.5% of NI Traveller children.
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