School-age children should participate in 60 minutes or more of moderate to vigorous physical activity daily, according to an expert panel.
“The take-home message for parents is that it is very important to ensure that their children spend at least an hour a day in some form of appropriate physical activity,” says Dr. William B. Strong, a pediatric cardiologist and retired professor at the Medical College of Georgia who co-chaired the panel.
“It’s important to encourage children and youth to participate in activities they like and show them that physical activity can be fun,” says co-chair Dr. Robert M. Malina, research professor and an expert in growth and development at Tarleton State University in Stephenville, Texas. “All of us need to help children increase the amount of time spent in moderate to vigorous physical activity. This means that parents, coaches, teachers and others who influence youngsters become active role models to get children involved with regular participation in physical activity.”
Recommendations of the 13-member panel were published in the June issue of The Journal of Pediatrics. Panelists were convened by the Constella Group, Inc., a professional health services company headquartered in Durham, N.C., contracted by the Divisions of Nutrition and Physical Activity and Adolescent and School Health of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“We were asked to review the literature and find evidence of the impact of physical activity on the health and well-being of children and to make recommendations based on the evidence, not just on what we all believe to be beneficial,” says Dr. Strong, Charbonnier Professor Emeritus at MCG and founding director of MCG’s Georgia Prevention Institute, where researchers are exploring issues such as the impact of activity on children’s weight and cardiovascular health.
The hope is that the evidence-based recommendations will be taken to heart by children, parents and schools as well as organizations that impact children’s health.
Panelists reviewed more than 850 articles and 1,200 abstracts looking at the impact of physical activity on a wide range of health factors from body fat to lipid levels to how children perceive themselves.
Most of the studies in the literature had children performing 30 to 45
minutes of continuous moderate to vigorous physical activity three to five days
a week. Achieving comparable or greater benefits during intermittent, ordinary
daily activities would require a cumulative time of an hour or more, the experts
write.
Jumping rope, soccer, basketball and brisk walking are all examples of moderate to vigorous physical activity, Dr. Strong says, noting that sedentary children need to increase activity gradually.
Experts say much of the needed activity can be achieved at school with appropriate physical education, recess, intramural sports and before- and after-school programs.
Dr. Strong noted that the recommendations are reasonable and achievable by most children with some effort. Parents, pediatricians, daycare centers and preschools also play important roles in encouraging healthy behaviors, panelists say. Communities can provide safe, appropriate settings such as bike paths and green space, they say.
--Toni Baker