Canadian kids rated among the least active

TORONTO — Canadian children may be among the least active in the world, a new study suggests.

The annual ParticipAction report card gave Canadian kids a D- for their level of physical activity, the fourth year in a row they received that grade. Researchers estimated only nine per cent of children aged five to 17 get the recommended minimum of 60 minutes of “heartpumping activity” a day.

The new ParticipAction study, carried out in June and published this week, compared Canada’s dismal record with 37 other countries.

Canada was placed toward the bottom of the pack, alongside other developed countries including Australia, England, Spain and the United States. In Slovenia, which received a top mark of A-, 86 per cent of boys and 76 per cent of girls get enough physical activity.

Lead researcher Dr. Mark Tremblay said there is no reason why Canadian children cannot be more active. In large part, he said, it is because “we choose not to.” He placed some of the blame on too much screen time and not enough free, unstructured play.

Twenty-six countries earned a D or worse. Belgium, Chile, China, Qatar and Scotland were among those with an F.

More-developed countries tended to score poorly in the study while less-developed countries were placed relatively high, including Cs for Kenya, Mozambique and Nigeria and C+ for Brazil and India.

“This is a paradox,” said Tremblay, who suggests those countries might have stronger social and cultural connections to physical activity than Canada does.

“You can build all the infrastructure and policies and programs and so on that you want, but if it’s not something that is internally valued and normative, or even the default behaviour, then it’s just not going to happen.”

The cold Canadian winter came up all the time “in the excuse bucket,” Tremblay said.

“Maybe Canadians just can’t handle the cold as well as we used to, or as well as Finnish people currently do, or Swedish people currently do, or Danish people currently do,” said Tremblay, who is also director of the healthy active living and obesity research group at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute in Ottawa.

“Our norm is to drive even very short distances in any inclement weather because we might get wet, we might get cold, we might get snow on us, whatever. And it’s not the case in other parts of the world that are comparable.”

Tremblay pointed out that Canada ranked relatively high in some individual markers — including an A- for community and environment, and Bs for organized sports and school.

But Canadian children scored an F for sedentary behaviour.