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MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard

Physical activity among children and teens is lower than previously thought, and, in another surprise finding, young adults after the age of 20 show the only increases in activity over the lifespan, suggests a study conducted by researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. And, the study found, starting at age 35, activity levels declined through midlife and older adulthood.

The study also identified different times throughout the day when activity was highest and lowest, across age groups and between males and females. These patterns, the researchers say, could inform programs aimed at increasing physical activity by targeting not only age groups but times with the least activity, such as during the morning for children and adolescents.

The findings, which were published online June 1 in the journal, Preventive Medicine, come amid heightened concern that exercise deficits are contributing to the growing obesity epidemic, particularly among children and teens.

"Activity levels at the end of adolescence were alarmingly low, and by age 19, they were comparable to 60-year-olds," says the study's senior author, Vadim Zipunnikov, assistant professor in the Bloomberg School's Department of Biostatistics. "For school-age children, the primary window for activity was the afternoon between two and six P.M. So the big question is how do we modify daily schedules, in schools for example, to be more conducive to increasing physical activity?"

This is what comes from not teaching your kids how to fish.

Source: http://www.jhsph.edu/news/news-releases/2017/nineteen-year-olds-as-sedentary-as-sixty-year-olds-study-suggests.html

Re-evaluating the effect of age on physical activity over the lifespan (DOI: 10.1016/j.ypmed.2017.05.030) (DX)

Original Submission