Study: Children Need to Exercise More

Fewer than one quarter of children in the US get enough exercise, according to a report by LSU’s Pennington Biomedical Research Center. The 2016 US Report Card on Physical Activity for Children finds that less than 22-percent of children ages 6 to 19 meet the physical activity guidelines. Researcher Peter Katzmarzyk thinks that’s because of a drive to be more efficient.

The report finds that fewer than 13-percent of children walk or ride their bikes to school, and nearly 63-percent of children are getting too much screen time per day. Katzmarzyk says parents don’t seem to want their kids outside as much as they used to. He says if we want kids to be active, we have to make sure that it is a safe environment.

Katzmarzyk says physical activity is integral to our health, not only as children but as adults as well. He says a lack of exercise at an early age will lead to health problems in the future.