Globally children are less active than they used to be. That could end up having lasting effects on their health, scientists say. This inactivity comes amid rising obesity rates, with one in 10 children and adolescents living with the condition. Increased sedentary time, stress, the quality of food and lower levels of sports participation have all contributed.
Understanding what makes children less active also presents opportunities to encourage them to move more, which will benefit them now and in the future.
Children should have 60 minutes of physical activity per day according to recommendations. Many do not meet them. This can have lasting effects, as physical inactivity in childhood is linked to less activity in adulthood.
One longitudinal study following 712 World War Two veterans for 50 years found that participation in sports at high school was the strongest predictor for better health outcomes at 70, as well as being more physically active in older years.
Numerous studies show similar effects. Exercise in childhood is linked to better long-term health too.
Cognitive benefits
Physical exercise benefits children in the moment too, says Nicole Logan an assistant professor of kinesiology from the University of Rhode Island in the US.
There’s an increasing focus among researchers on helping children and adolescents sit less and move more, according to groups like the World Health Organization (WHO). For instance, in one nine-month after-school exercise programme, Logan and colleagues found that children with obesity had better cognitive scores than those who were not part of the intervention.
This intervention was found to reduce body fat too, which is one reason cognition improved, Logan explains.
Logan proposes that schools should implement 60 minutes of movement per day, which would remove the burden on parents to facilitate access to sports.
Stopping stillness
Increasing physical activity doesn’t need to involve structured sports either. In a study in Massachusetts in the US, simply increasing the opportunities around physical activity before, during and after school, as well as giving children better access to healthy food, resulted in lower BMIs among elementary school children. About one quarter of these children had not taken part in any sports in the year prior to the study.
“The most effective way to actually help prevent obesity among children is to improve the food environment around children, promote physical activity and have rules around screen time,” says Ulla Toft, a clinical professor in the department of health at the University of Copenhagen who is undertaking a large-scale obesity intervention study in Denmark focusing on four key areas: diet, physical activity, screen use and sleep. School-based interventions have shown promise too.
One recent study which encouraged teachers to reduce sedentary time in 30 UK schools found 8% decline in waist-to-hip ratio among the children who took part, as well as a 10% increase in sports participation.
Parental support
It’s unclear if this type of intervention will have long-term effects, but Ronca says fostering healthy behaviours early could have lasting benefits. In line with other studies, Ronca’s study also suggests that the more active children were, the faster they reacted on cognitive tasks involving attention and inhibitory control.
As children often learn from the adults around them, research has shown that children are more likely to be physically active if their parents are active too – as well as if parents exercise with their children. This could be as simple as a bike ride in the local park or a short jog together.
Increased confidence
Another way to increase physical activity is to consider how children feel when they are moving.
Michaela James from Swansea University’s medical school in the UK has found that when children feel confident and competent around movement, it increases their wellbeing.
Increasing unstructured play should be simple to enact too, by encouraging active movement breaks and ensuring that break times are not removed as punishment, which has been used by some schools as a behavioural intervention.
In line with this, designing playgrounds more creatively to encourage free play, using objects like crates, tyres or wooden pallets could help increase activity levels too. (BBC)
