Who did the ALS ice bucket challenge?

One in every seven respondents contacted in a MaltaToday survey has declared they had a bucket of ice water thrown on their heads in joining the global ALS ice bucket challenge to promote awareness of the disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

According to MaltaToday’s data, this would mean that some 50,000 Maltese adults would have participated in the challenge. 

The survey was conducted among 350 respondents by MaltaToday over the past week, showing however that 13.6% claim to have performed both the physical challenge and made a donation to charity.

A further 1.5% said that they have performed the ice bucket challenge without making a donation, while 2.5% only made the donation and refrained from joining the Facebook spectacle, by posting a video of their challenge online.

The percentage of those who performed the ice bucket challenge rises to nearly one-third of respondents among those with a university education and among those aged under 34.

Under 34-year-olds were also the most likely to only give a donation, or to perform the physical dare without giving a donation.

This suggests that the challenge was most popular among the segment of the population who are most connected to the social media: namely the young and the more educated.

In a reflection of the wider digital divide, the vast majority of people aged over 55 years (94.2%) and those with a primary level of education (96%) have not performed the challenge.

Males were also more likely to perform the physical challenge than females – only 11% of females completed the physical challenge.