The University of Queensland's Dr Stewart Trost investigated how physical inactivity affects obesity levels in children. He worked with 20 obese children in Brisbane to increase the amount of exercise they were doing.
The program was carried out over 10 weeks with children referred to Dr Trost by paediatricians. A pedometer was used to count the number of steps taken by each child per day. Goals were then set to gradually increase the number of steps by around 40 per cent.
"These children were taking around 9,000 steps per day; an active child would take around 16,000," Dr Trost said. "By the end of the program they would do 14,000 steps a day.
"The results have shown that a home-based activity program can be implemented successfully. It is an alterative to these children going to hospital and being watched over as they are exercising."
Parent-supervised exercise programs may be increasingly important as obesity levels continue to climb. Recent figures from New South Wales reveal that 26.1 per cent of boys and 23.1% of girls in New South Wales schools are obese or overweight.
The tenth biennial report of the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, Australia's Health 2006, states that children are generally less physically active, in part because they are less likely to play outdoors or use walking or cycling as a means of transport. They are also spending more time in sedentary activities such as computer games.
The Australian Government recommends children and young people spend at least an hour a day in physical activity of a moderate- to vigorous-intensity.
- Kristin Owen is a Melbourne-based journalist
Reference:
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare 2006. Australia's health 2006. AIHW cat. No. AUS 73. AIHW, Canberra
Booth M, Okely AD, Denney-Wilson E, Hardy L, Yang B, Dobbins T (2006). NSW Schools Physical Activity and Nutrition Survey (SPANS) 2004; Full Report. Sydney. NSW Department of Health
Trost SG, Kerr LM, Ward DS, Pate RR (2001) Physical activity and determinants of physical activity in obese and non-obese children. International Journal of Obesity and Related Metabolic Disorders 25: 822-829.
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