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 On average, it takes children 90 seconds longer to run a mile than
their counterparts did 30 years ago. Heart-related fitness has
declined 5 percent per decade since 1975 for children ages 9 to 17.
The American Heart Association, whose conference featured the
research on Tuesday, says it's the first to show that children's
fitness has declined worldwide over the last three decades.
"It makes sense. We have kids that are less active than before,"
said Dr. Stephen Daniels, a University of Colorado pediatrician and
spokesman for the heart association.
Health experts recommend that children 6 and older get 60 minutes of
moderately vigorous activity accumulated over a day. Only one-third
of American kids do now.
"Kids aren't getting enough opportunities to build up that activity
over the course of the day," Daniels said. "Many schools, for
economic reasons, don't have any physical education at all. Some
rely on recess" to provide exercise.
Sam Kass, a White House chef and head of first lady Michelle Obama's
Let's Move program, stressed the role of schools in a speech to the
conference on Monday.
"We are currently facing the most sedentary generation of children
in our history," Kass said.
The new study was led by Grant Tomkinson, an exercise physiologist
at the University of South Australia. Researchers analyzed 50
studies on running fitness — a key measure of cardiovascular health
and endurance — involving 25 million children ages 9 to 17 in 28
countries from 1964 to 2010.
The studies measured how far children could run in 5 to 15 minutes
and how quickly they ran a certain distance, ranging from half a
mile to two miles. Today's kids are about 15 percent less fit than
their parents were, researchers concluded.
"The changes are very similar for boys and girls and also for
various ages," but differed by geographic region, Tomkinson said.
The decline in fitness seems to be leveling off in Europe, Australia
and New Zealand, and perhaps in the last few years in North America.
However, it continues to fall in China, and Japan never had much
falloff — fitness has remained fairly consistent there. About 20
million of the 25 million children in the studies were from Asia.
In China, annual fitness test data show the country's students have
become slower and fatter over the past several decades.
Experts and educators blame an obsession with academic testing
scores for China's competitive college admissions as well as a
proliferation of indoor entertainment options such gaming and Web
surfing for the decline.
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China's Education Ministry data show that in 2010 male college
students ran 1,000 meters (yards) 14 to 15 seconds slower on average
than male students who ran a decade earlier. Female students slowed
by about 12 seconds in running 800 meters.
Motoaki Nito of the Sports and Youth Bureau at Japan's Ministry of
Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology said there had
been a decline in physical fitness among youth since the 1980s.
To turn that around, the government has urged municipalities and
schools to promote youth fitness. Nito said that this had resulted
in a gradual increase of physical strength, which while not equal to
levels seen in the 1980s, had reversed the trend.
Tomkinson and Daniels said obesity likely plays a role, since it
makes it harder to run or do any aerobic exercise. Too much time
watching television and playing video games and unsafe neighborhoods
with not enough options for outdoor play also may play a role, they
said.
Other research discussed global declines in activity.
Fitness is "pretty poor in adults and even worse in young people,"
especially in the United States and eastern Europe, said Dr. Ulf
Ekelund of the Norwegian School of Sport Sciences in Oslo, Norway.
World Health Organization numbers suggest that 80 percent of young
people globally may not be getting enough exercise.
___ Online:
Healthy lifestyle guidelines:
http://bit.ly/16ZnV7e
[Associated
Press; MARILYNN MARCHIONE, AP Chief Medical Writer]
Marilynn Marchione can
be followed at
http://twitter.com/MMarchioneAP.
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