Physical Activity and Inactivity

Indicators

Grades

Quick Stats

Recommendations for Action

Physical Activity Levels

F

• Overall, 12% of children and youth are accumulating enough physical activity to meet Canadian guidelines (CFLRI CAN PLAY 2007-2009).

• Only 5% of adolescent girls are meeting Canadian physical activity guidelines

(CFLRI CAN PLAY 2007-2009).

• Policy-makers, funders and programmers should pay particular attention to including the children and youth most in need of help when it comes to physical activity: those who are 1) overweight or obese, 2) adolescent girls, 3) from an Aboriginal community, 4) living with a disability, 5) from a low-income family or low-education household. Interventions need to be sure to target those most in need.

Organized Sport and Physical Activity Participation

C

• Income disparities have consistently lowered the grade for sport participation since the inception of the Report Card. Despite being aimed at lower-income families, the Canadian Fitness Tax Credit appears to be yielding more benefit for middle- and upper-income families. Children involved in organized sport and physical activity programs have higher overall levels of physical activity.²³⁴

• Often physical activity interventions reach those who already have support to be physically active and already engage in physical activity, rather than those most in need. Research indicates that governments, foundations, sponsors and non-governmental organizations need to target resources to participants who are not in “supportive” households, and should target households that require support to overcome barriers associated with income, transportation, work schedules, etc.¹⁰¹

• Health promoters should take note that sport participation rates in the younger generation are decreasing rapidly. As children approach adolescence, organized sport opportunities in the school and community tend to be skewed to those who participate in competitive sport. Policies and programs should focus on ensuring more variety and promotion of recreational sport leagues, with strong youth-led components, and opportunities for programs to be designed and delivered by youth. There is also a need to link sport development objectives to healthy living messages targeting girls.¹⁰¹

• There is a need to consider youth culture and subcultures (e.g., social networking and competing sedentary interests) in planning programs for adolescents. There may be opportunities to use screens to help promote active living, as well as opportunities for media literacy skills for youth whereby they can critically analyze the messages they receive from screens and also think critically about balancing screen time with active time for themselves.¹⁰¹

Active Play

F

• Recommendations indicate that at least half of the physical activity accumulated by children should be in active play.

• 88% of Canadian children and youth are not meeting national physical activity guidelines (CFLRI CAN PLAY 2007-2009), which suggests they are also not engaging in sufficient amounts of active play.

• Yet 74% of a group of children in Ontario said that if they were allowed to decide, they would choose to do something physically active after school (Canadian Assessment of Physical Literacy Study, 2009).

• It is challenging to measure children’s play, and more research is needed on how to best capture this information.

• Even in the absence of the desired objective data needed to influence nationwide changes in this area, everyone can contribute to making small changes that will promote free and active play for Canada’s children and youth.

• It has been suggested that children require blocks of free time to plan, pretend, and enact play as individuals and a group.  Families, child care centres, schools and community settings need to provide safe, supervised yet unstructured play spaces for active play where children and their peers can engage in physical activity of their own design.  This will increase physical activity levels and promote imagination, social interaction and the ability to learn and practice skills independently.  

What are YOU doing to provide opportunities for children to engage in free, unstructured, active play? Do YOU encourage, promote and participate in active outdoor play?

Active Transportation

D

• Evidence is sparse, but regional data indicate that less than 1/3 of children and youth regularly use active transportation to get to and from school.²⁴³

• Parents and schools should be encouraged to promote active transportation as a safe and inexpensive way to increase physical activity levels. Creative solutions such as “walking school buses,” requiring that students be dropped off at least 400 metres from school, or discouraging parents who live in the immediate community from driving children to school altogether, are worthy of further exploration. It is also important that future national surveys assess active transportation rates among Canadian youth, in order to determine whether trends are improving.

Screen Time

F

• Canadian youth are accumulating 6 hours of screen time on weekdays and more than 7 hours on weekend days (HBSC 2005-2006).

• In Canada, 27% of 2- to 3-year-old toddlers and 23% of 4- to 5-year-old preschoolers are exposed to more than 2 hours of screen time per day (NLSCY 2004-2005).

• Parents should implement household rules on screen time.

• Active video gaming can replace sedentary time but not outdoor active play or physical education.

• Parents should be provided with recommended guidelines on screen time from their family physician or pediatrician, and encouraged to offer alternatives to screen time in the early years.

• TVs and computers should be removed from children’s bedrooms.

• Parents should be good role models and limit leisure-time screen time to a total of 2 hours per day.