The first-ever global trends for adolescent insufficient physical activity show that urgent action is needed in girls and boys aged 11 to 17.
The study by World Health Organisation researchers has found that more than 80 per cent of school-going adolescents globally did not meet the current recommendations of at least one hour of physical activity per day — including 85 per cent of girls and 78 per cent of boys.
Corresponding proportions of physically inactive school goers are much lesser than the global average for India and Bangladesh — at 69 per cent and 66 per cent, respectively, which means children in these two South Asian nations are fitter than their global counterparts.
Authors credit community cricket for better physical activity among Indian and Bangladeshi boys and social requirement of family support for comparatively better fitness levels among girls in India and Bangladesh.
“Some of the lowest levels of insufficient activity in boys were found in high income western countries like the US and South Asia driven by Bangladesh and India. The quite low prevalence of insufficient activity in boys in Bangladesh and India might be explained by the strong focus on national sports such as cricket which is frequently played unstructured in local communities,” says the WHO study “Global trends in insufficient physical activity among adolescents” published in The Lancet.
The high-income Asia-Pacific region showed the highest levels of insufficient activity among girls, driven largely by South Korea. “India and Bangladesh report the lowest levels of insufficient activity among girls potentially explained by social factors like girls being required to support their families and do household chores,” authors note.
The research — based on data reported by 1.6 million school goers — finds that across all 146 countries studied between 2001-2016 girls were less active than boys in all nations save Afghanistan, Tonga, Samoa, and Zambia.
The difference in the proportion of boys and girls meeting the recommendations was greater than 10 percentage points in almost one in three countries in 2016.
“Urgent policy action to increase physical activity is needed now, particularly to promote and retain girls’ participation in physical activity,” says study author Regina Guthold of WHO.
Health benefits of a physically active lifestyle during adolescence include improved cardio-respiratory and muscular fitness, bone and cardiometabolic health, and positive effects on weight. There is evidence of activity having positive impact on cognitive development and socialising.
Authors note that if the current trends continue, the global target of a 15 per cent relative reduction in insufficient physical activity — which would lead to a global prevalence of less than 70 per cent by 2030 — will not be achieved. This target was agreed to by all countries at the World Health Assembly in 2018.
