Children less active than before Covid
CHILDREN are getting eight minutes less exercise in the wake of Covid, experts have suggested.
Little more than a third of 10 to 11-year-olds (36 per cent), were active for the recommended hour a day of physical pursuits by the end of last year.
While there was no change in their parents’ levels, the children had just 56 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical weekday activity from April to December.
That is about eight minutes less on average and a drop of 13 per cent on youngsters of a similar age before Covid, a study by Bristol University found.
Professor Russ Jago said: “It was surprising the extent children’s physical activity levels had fallen after the pandemic, indicating changes in physical activity patterns did not revert to previous levels once freedoms had been restored.
“These findings highlight a greater need to work with children, families, schools and communities to maximise the opportunities for children to be physically active as we emerge from the pandemic.”
The study of nearly 400 children and their parents from 23 schools in the Bristol area showed youngsters were less active at the weekend, doing just 46 minutes of exercise.
They were also 25 minutes less active every weekday than previously.
The children wore an accelerometer device to measure their activity and answered a questionnaire.
That information was compared with data from 1,296 children and their parents recruited from 50 schools in the same area before the pandemic.
Statistician Dr Ruth Salway, from the university, said: “The data clearly demonstrates children’s physical activity had deteriorated once Covid restrictions were lifted.
“This emphasises the importance of understanding how such habits change over time, so appropriate support and interventions can be introduced as normality resumes.”
The study appears in the International Journal of Behavioural Nutrition and Physical Activity.