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.
Re-evaluating the effect of age on physical activity over the lifespan (DOI: 10.1016/j.ypmed.2017.05.030) (DX)
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Friday August 18 2017, @06:18PM
Here in SoCal, recess is outside most days, and the kids run a lot. Drives me nuts that they put them in front of a movie at the first sign of rain or heat wave, but at least that's the rare exception. Not too many fat kids (only a few badly unhealthy ones, mostly Latinos).
In the cold/wet areas of the country, it's a lot harder to safely provide exercise for a lot of kids indoors, since you can't let them go out in weather conditions their grandfather fondly recall.
I'm sure the easy answer is going to be shortening the school day, because it saves money, and who cares about education or working parents?