Lifestyle patterns concerning sports and physical activity, and perceptions of health.

Objectives: To explore the perceptions of health and physical activity, and the associations between these two areas from a theoretical lifestyle perspective.

Methods: Data was collected by means of a self-administered questionnaire, among 3019 adults attending centres for preventive medicine in France. Correspondence analysis examined the significance of the relationships between perceptions of health and perceptions of sports and physical activity.

Results: Four principal types of subjects emerged from the factor analyses expressing four different lifestyle patterns. "Non physically active lifestyle: a feeling of not being healthy", "Physically active lifestyle, pleasure/leisure-oriented", "Necessarily physically active lifestyle, regardless of health", "Physically active lifestyle aimed at stress relief".

Conclusions: The sociological approach helps tackle sports and physical activity as behaviour patterns but also and especially as a health orientation connected with the socio-economical climate. This approach also gives sports practice back its meaningful cultural dimension.