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Are Kids Exercising Enough? Childhood obesity has been a hot topic and has still remained as a hard-to-tackle issue among many countries around the world. Studies have shown that obesity among children could lead to diabetes, hypertension (high blood pressure), stroke and even heart disease in their later life. Most health experts blame the obesity epidemic to the modern lifestyle, including unhealthy diet and inactivity. A recent study by the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva could at least partly confirm such accusation. The researchers reported in “The Journal of Pediatrics” that children around the world were couch potatoes with nearly one third of the children globally spending at least 3 hours a day sitting in front of televisions (TV) or computers. Couch potato refers to a person who lives a sedentary lifestyle, which includes sitting, reading, watching television and using computer for much of the day with little or no vigorous physical exercise. By looking at the questionnaires submitted by 72,845 schoolchildren aged between 13 and 15 in 34 countries, researchers from the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva found most children, irrespective where they lived (either in a rich or a poor country), are just not exercising enough. The children were from North and South America, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East, and were surveyed between 2003 and 2007. The survey, however, did not include the United States and most European countries.
The data was gathered from the WHO’s Global School-based Student Health Survey, a project designed to help countries measure and assess the behavioral risk factors and protective factors in 10 key areas among young people aged between 13 and 15 years. The WHO’s researchers defined adequate physical activity as at least an hour of exercise outside of gym class for at least 5 days a week. Children who spent 3 or more hours a day watching TV, playing computer games, or chatting with friends via computer were classified as sedentary. The study found only one quarter of the boys and 15 percent of the girls were getting enough exercise. A quarter of boys and nearly 30 percent of girls were sedentary and did not get enough exercise. Girls were less active than boys in every country except in Zambia. There were other findings, too. For instance, when it comes to most active, Uruguay had the highest percentage of active boy (42 percent) while Zambia had the lowest (8 percent). Meanwhile, girls from India were the most active that had 37 percent meeting the exercise recommendations, while girls from Egypt were the least active, with just 4 percent getting adequate physical activity. For least sedentary, children in Myanmar were at the top of the list, with 13 percent of boys and 8 percent of girls being classified as sedentary. St. Lucia and the Cayman Islands were crowned with the most sedentary countries, with 58 percent of boys and 64 percent of girls engaging at least 3 hours a day in sedentary activities. While the study did not find out why a lack of physical activity was commonly found in various nations, the researchers argued that urbanization that leads to cars and TVs abuse could be the cause. They also suggested schools should encourage children to be out of sedentary by scheduling more classes of physical exercise and educating kids about the importance of exercise that is closely related to their health.
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