Children’s physical activity levels drop after primary school

There is a dramatic drop in children’s physical activity levels by the time they finish primary school, a study has found.

Children lost on average more than an hour of exercise per week between the ages of six and 11, with a greater fall at the weekends, the research found.

Researchers monitored the behaviour of more than 2,000 children from 57 schools across the south west of England during primary school.

They found children became 17 minutes less active per week each year.

Russ Jago, professor of paediatric physical activity at Bristol University, said: “Evaluating patterns of physical activity across childhood is an important way to identify key ages in which to intervene to change behaviour – and establish healthy habits for life.

“These numbers prove that more needs to be done to ensure children keep active as they approach adolescence.

“This isn’t about getting children to exercise more, but rather maintaining their activity levels.

“Developing early intervention strategies that help children retain activity levels could include after-school physical activity programmes, focusing on participation and enjoyment in addition to popular sports – and a greater emphasis on promoting weekend activities.”

In the study, children wore an accelerometer for five days, including two weekend days.

This provided an assessment of how many minutes per day the children participated in moderate to vigorous physical activity – defined as making them slightly out of breath and sweaty.