How Do Chinese Migrant Workers Avoid Leisure-Time Physical Inactivity?

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The authors of the article presented a theoretical review of the interdependence of the development of physical inactivity among migrant workers in China.

As it turned out, migrant workers make a huge contribution to the development of Chinese cities, but they themselves cannot use their infrastructure, which they are building due to the marginality of their status.

The purpose of the study: to identify the determinants and limitations of physical inactivity in leisure time (LTPI) among migrant workers. The parameters of physical inactivity have been presented in detail, but in my opinion, relying only on the theoretical sources of the 2016 reviews is not of interest to the modern public.  It is advisable to show a longitudinal study and comparison of 2016 and 2024. It is also advisable to add statistics from official sources.  I would like to draw your attention to the fact that the article uses old sources in the list of references, which may also not be relevant due to the global changes in the world: pandemic, digitalization, robotization. It is advisable to compare migrant workers in 2016 and 2024.

Comments on the Quality of English Language

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Author Response

The authors of the article presented a theoretical review of the interdependence of the development of physical inactivity among migrant workers in China.

As it turned out, migrant workers make a huge contribution to the development of Chinese cities, but they themselves cannot use their infrastructure, which they are building due to the marginality of their status.

The purpose of the study: to identify the determinants and limitations of physical inactivity in leisure time (LTPI) among migrant workers.

Comment 1： The parameters of physical inactivity have been presented in detail, but in my opinion, relying only on the theoretical sources of the 2016 reviews is not of interest to the modern public.  It is advisable to show a longitudinal study and comparison of 2016 and 2024. It is also advisable to add statistics from official sources. 

Response 1:

We conducted a comprehensive search of the existing literature, especially analyzing the progress in recent years in detail, reviewing a few of the most recent updates of the latest literature on leisure recreation physical inactivity among urban migrant populations and adding reports from different levels of government on encouraging the development of physical education and sport public services, for example, the National Health Bureau's release of its "Migrant Population Health Education and Promotion Action Plan 2016-2020" issued by the National Health Bureau, as well as corresponding responsive actions by local governments at lower levels, and similar material helps to enrich the discussion of this paper on enhancing physical education for the migrant population. A slight shortcoming is that we have no way to compare 2016 and 2024 because of the lack of official resources and statistics available at all levels of government. We hope to redo the survey in the future with the support of a new program on a new time cross-section to achieve a longitudinal comparison. We hope that we can meet the reviewers' expectations.

 

Comment 2： I would like to draw your attention to the fact that the article uses old sources in the list of references, which may also not be relevant due to the global changes in the world: pandemic, digitalization, robotization.

Response 2:

Although the authors feel that the value of the references has not diminished due to the latest global changes, such as pandemics, digitization, and artificial intelligence, we still agree with the reviewers' opinions and have thoroughly reviewed the existing citations. We have removed some relatively older references while retaining a few valuable older ones and combined them with the latest reviews to add a small number of new references. We hope to meet the reviewers' expectations. Below is the list of references removed from the manuscript.

1. Qian, W.; Zhang, Z. The Incorporation of Migrant Workers in the Urban Society. Journal of Zhejiang University 2006, 4, 25–34.
2. Wong, D. F. K.; Leung, G. The Functions of Social Support in the Mental Health of Male and Female Migrant Workers in China. Health & Social Work 2008, 33 (4), 275–285.
3. Li, X.; Stanton, B.; Fang, X.; Lin, D. Social Stigma and Mental Health among Rural-to-Urban Migrants in China: A Conceptual Framework and Future Research Needs. World Health Popul 2006, 8 (3), 14–31.
4. Wu, X.; Treiman, D. J. The Household Registration System and Social Stratification in China: 1955–1996. Demography 2004, 41 (2), 363–384. https://doi.org/10.1353/dem.2004.0010.
5. YE X.; Shi W.; LI L. Health status of migrant workers in cities and policy suggestions. Chinese Journal of Hospital Administration 1996.
6. Ball, K.; Bauman, A.; Leslie, E.; Owen, N. Perceived Environmental Aesthetics and Convenience and Company Are Associated with Walking for Exercise among Australian Adults. Preventive Medicine 2001, 33 (5), 434–440. https://doi.org/10.1006/pmed.2001.0912.
7. Owen, N.; Leslie, E.; Salmon, J.; Fotheringham, M. J. Environmental Determinants of Physical Activity and Sedentary Behavior. Exerc Sport Sci Rev 2000, 28 (4), 153–158.
8. Craig, C. L.; Brownson, R. C.; Cragg, S. E.; Dunn, A. L. Exploring the Effect of the Environment on Physical Activity: A Study Examining Walking to Work. American Journal of Preventive Medicine 2002, 23 (2, Supplement 1), 36–43. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0749-3797(02)00472-5.
9. Humpel, N.; Owen, N.; Leslie, E. Environmental Factors Associated with Adults’ Participation in Physical Activity: A Review. American Journal of Preventive Medicine 2002, 22 (3), 188–199. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0749-3797(01)00426-3.
10. Walker, G. J.; Deng, J.; Dieser, R. B. Ethnicity, Acculturation, Self-Construal, and Motivations for Outdoor Recreation. Leisure Sciences 2001, 23 (4), 263–283. https://doi.org/10.1080/01490400152809115.

 

Comment 3: It is advisable to compare migrant workers in 2016 and 2024.

Response 3: This research is based on data from an in-depth survey conducted within the communities which official or similar research institutions have not published. After further examination, it was found that there is a lack of available official resources at various levels of government, and the latest materials do not provide the expected quantity to depict the latest changes near 2024, making it impossible to compare 2016 with 2024. We hope to conduct a new survey at a new point, supported by new projects, to enable longitudinal comparison.

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

please see attached document for comments /feedback 

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

Comments 1

Overall, it is a good study that has a place in public health repositories. The authors have identified the main determinants and barriers to LTPI such as household registration, social capital, education, and green open spaces, but they don’t critique their findings as to how acculturation affects the migrants in terms of cultural adaptation, social connections, and access to resources and impact of this on Line 468–471: "With an increase in acculturation into cities, migrant workers and their descendants are likely to adapt to better social and built environment via residential ties, then enable them to engage in leisure-time physical activity in some way."

Line 485: "Institutional measures ought to be initially implemented to promote the acculturation of migrant workers into the urban areas."

My question is but how? There needs a bit more in-depth critical analysis.

Response 1:

Thanks for the reviewer’s suggestions. We have added some discussions based on what was previously stated, and we hope to connect them with the latest practices enforced by governments.

Comments 2

Lines 342-344: The overall sample size of the migrant population is small and therefore raises a question on generalisability, although the authors acknowledge limitations.

 

Response 2: We appreciate the valuable suggestions from the reviewer and look forward to delving deeper into follow-up studies on migrant workers, building on this work, and concentrating on the related discussions.

Comments 3

Lines 48, 97, 103, 111, 148, 171, 180 etc. Is it normal to have the year here if you have the ref number cited?

Response 3:

Following the reviewers' suggestions, we adjusted the referencing method by deleting the year.

Comments 4

From line 240, the authors describe methods for data collection, but no ethical considerations are mentioned anywhere. Was this not necessary? If not, why not? This needs to be discussed here.

Response 4:

We have added content regarding experimental ethics based on the reviewers' comments.

 

Comments 5

Lines The writing contains numerous grammatical errors, awkward phrasing, and inconsistencies. For instance:

Line 25: ‘lied in a lack of education’ could be better written as ‘lay in a lack of education” The authors might wish to go over the paper and review minor grammatical such as these and correct them.

Response 5:

We have thoroughly refined the manuscript and believe the latest version meets the publication requirements.

Comments 6

Lines 476-479: The authors state, “In this study, age might reveal the fact that the migrant workers may have an elderly population who engage in taking care of children and thus

obtain longer outdoor recreation. Education may indicate the inactivity of the migrant

workers due to insufficient awareness of physical exercise, which needs to be supported by evidence, which is lacking to provide an in-depth critical evaluation”. Without evidence, this becomes a narrative overgeneralised statement.

Response 6:

Thanks for the reviewers' comments. We have revised this section to increase confidence in the text. As proof of our survey, we believe our judgment is a fact.

 Comments 7

Another point for critical evaluation is whether the study has any scope for differences in gender behavior. They (authors) tend to mention the elderly population but not gender differences. Does the Socio-Economic status of migrants impact their accessibility to green

spaces, etc? When considering the wider and not just the social determinants of health, it is important to explore all of the above factors and many more related to public health.

 

Response 7:

In our analysis, we performed a stepwise regression on many variables. Thus, the factors you mentioned, such as gender, were initially considered but were excluded during the analysis process and, therefore, were not systematically discussed. We provided additional explanations on this part during our analysis.