‘Lazy’ summer holidays make children lose their fitness

THE summer holidays are bad for children’s health, with young people being “plonked in front of screens” and losing most of the fitness they gain at school, research reveals.

A study found that, on average, pupils lose 80 per cent of the fitness they build up during term-time through “lazy” time off, with activities such as summer camps and sports clubs out of financial reach for many parents.

The study by ukactive, a not-forprofit health organisation, involved 400 children taking part in a fitness measurement programme.

They completed an average of 740m of a shuttle run test before stopping through tiredness ahead of the summer holidays compared with 605m at the start of the new term.

The results were most pronounced among children from the poorest 25 per cent of families, whose deterioration was 18 times greater than those from the richest 25 per cent.

Ukactive is calling on the Government to divert some of the £415million expected revenue from the sugar tax promised for school sport to better holiday activities.

Dr Steven Mann, ukactive research director, who led the study, said the findings “suggest deprived children are being plonked in front of screens for hours on end”.

“Being inactive as a child sets a dangerous precedent on a number of levels,” he said.

“As well as being linked to impaired physical development, shorter attention span and lower grades, an inactive childhood means that person faces much higher risk of deadly diseases such as heart disease, cancer and Type 2 diabetes in later life.”

Previous research has indicated that half of seven-year-olds in the UK do not meet the chief medical officer’s minimum physical activity guidelines of at least 60 minutes of physical activity every day, and last year a national audit found there were more than 500 children with Type 2 diabetes, 16 years after the first reported case.

“Money from the £415million sugar levy should be used beyond the school gates to plug these gaps in provision and ensure all children can access physical activity and pick up vital healthy habits from an early age,” said Dr Mann. The findings were presented at the annual Congress of European College of Sports Science in Germany.