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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.
Re-evaluating the effect of age on physical activity over the lifespan (DOI: 10.1016/j.ypmed.2017.05.030) (DX)
(Score: 4, Insightful) by PiMuNu on Friday August 18 2017, @08:16AM
As a European "walker" who has spent some time in US... US is built around the car. The infrastructure is completely screwed up compared to Europe.
Most European conurbations are structured with shopping districts distributed about 30 minutes walk from housing. So one can conveniently walk to the shops, buy and then walk home. The shopping districts have cramped multistorey parking, so all the shops can be pretty close. This has a problem; houses tend to be smaller with less parking/yard space.
US seems to have shopping districts distributed at about 60-90 minute walk interval, with lots of low-rise shops with big parking lots. This means that it is a pain to walk to the shops and once you get there, it is a pain to walk around different shops to buy . So everyone drives. They even drive from one shop to another! Worse, the provision of sidewalks is patchy in suburban US towns, so you can't walk without going on the road in a lot of places - and then you get stopped by the cops for jaywalking.
The problems are structural and would take many generations to fix, if they wanted to.
ps: also US is a much bigger land mass, so the climate works against you as well. It is often colder in the winter and warmer in the summer, which tends to deter many from walking. AirCon is nice!