Kids get less physical activity than parents believe

Children aren't getting enough physical activityand move even less than their parents believe, a new report released todaysuggests.

Statistics Canada researchers measured the physical activity levels of childrenand recordedthe times anddays ofthe week the youngsterswere sedentary.

The agency, whichsurveyed 878children aged six to 11and their familiesbetween 2007 and 2009, found that children spent more than 7hours a day being inactive.

As well,there was a big gap between how much and how intensely the children moved compared to what their parents believed.

On average, parents reported that their childrenengaged innearly 105 minutes of moderate to vigorous activitysuch as runningeach day,but in fact, they were only participating in 63 minutes daily.

"If parents don't have a good handle on how much activity their kids are getting throughout the day, then theywon't know if their child is someone who needs to be engaged in more activity," said author Rachel Colley of the agency's health analysis division in Ottawa.

The disconnect between what parents think and what actually happens isn't unexpected, the researchers said.A parent might report an hour-long soccer game as moderate to vigorous activitytime, but players don't run the whole game.

Sleeping time measured

Parents thought children sat in front of TV and video-game screens for an average of 2.5 hours. In fact,kids weresedentary for 7.6 hours, thoughscreen time is just one aspect of sedentary behaviour, the authors noted.

In Dartmouth, N.S.,father John Dalton makes an effort to see thathis five-year-old son gets lots of activity after coming home from primary school,but heacknowledges it's a struggle for busy families.

"We just make an effort where possible road hockey wins out over television," Dalton said.

The difference between parent reports and measurements "has implications for surveillance of adherence to guidelines and for furthering the understanding of how these variables relate to health,"Colley and herco-authors concluded.

Measurements showed children slept an average of 10.1 hours a day, about the same as the 9.7 hours parent thought.

For the research, children wore small accelerometer devices over the right hip on an elasticized belt during their waking hours for seven days to measure their activity levels. The devices don't accurately reflect activities such as swimming, cycling and carrying loads.

The intensity of activity was divided into four categories:

• Sedentary, such as sitting in a car or reclining.
• Light, or walking less than 3.2 km/hto dolight household cleaning orcooking.
• Moderate, walking at more than 3.2 km/h such as whilevacuuming, washing a car orbicycling for pleasure.
• Vigorous, such as jogging or playing a competitive team sport.

National targets for Canadians to reap health benefits from physical activity are60 minutes daily for youth ages five to 17, and 150 minutes a week for adults.

Fewer than 10 per centof children and youth meet the current guideline of 60 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activitya day, a previousStatistics Canada study found