Kids slower than parents: study
Children’s endurance slipping, global survey suggests
Canadian children probably can’t run as fast or as far as the generation before them because their cardiovascular health has slipped, a global survey suggests.
“If you took the typical Canadian kid today and compare them to the typical Canadian kid from 1980, they would probably finish about 1-1.5 minutes behind on a 1.6-km run or about 250-350 metres behind,” Grant Tomkinson of the University of South Australia wrote.
The study of kids in 28 countries shows a steady loss of endurance over 46 years, around the globe.
“Canada was included in the data set and we have data on over 11,000 Canadian children aged 9-17 years who were tested using a cardiovascular endurance shuttle-run test between 1981 and 2004,” Tomkinson said in an email to the Citizen.
“The results show that there was a general decline of 12 per cent over the 23-year period, which equates to a decline of about five per cent per decade, and is typical for the rest of the world over the same time period.”
The global survey examined results from 1964 to 2010. Countries that shared Canada’s pattern through 2004 have typically continued the slide since then.
Obesity and inactivity are the main culprits, says the survey. It was presented this week at the annual meeting of the American Heart Association. The report combines many separate studies in different countries, over varying time periods.
In Canada, it found that a majority of children used to walk or cycle to school, but most began to get rides in the 1990s.
The number fell from about 56 per cent in 1985 to about 41 per cent 10 years later. There are no figures since then.
And it says even Inuit children are becoming less fit and carrying more body fat.
There are a few countries bucking the trend. Body fat is down and fitness is up in China, Australia and South Korea.
The American Heart Association says the decline in running fitness “may indicate worse health in adulthood.”
“If a young person is generally unfit now, then they are more likely to develop conditions like heart disease later in life,” Tomkinson told the AHA conference, which was in Dallas.
While there are many types of fitness, such as strength and flexibility, he said the ability to run well is the most likely to bring good health.
Meanwhile, a study from the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute has confirmed that making a sedentary child take frequent breaks from TV or video game helps his or her health.
The study by Travis Saunders measured children’s waist circumference, body mass index, fasting insulin, fasting glucose, triglycerides, HDL cholesterol and C-reactive proteins. It is the number of breaks rather than their length that matters most, he found.