Recent research estimates that the world could see close to half a billion new cases of major chronic diseases by 2030 if people don’t get more active. In 2016, The World Health Organisation (WHO) revealed that 81 per cent of adolescents around the world aged 11-17 were considered physically inactive. Girls were less active than boys. The pandemic has made matters worse with physical inactivity becoming the fourth leading cause of death worldwide. It’s also associated with chronic illness and disability. The World Health Organisation (WHO) through its Global Action Plan on Physical Activity targeted a 15 percentage point reduction in the prevalence of physical inactivity among adolescents by 2030 and recommends that children and adolescents (5-17 years old) get an average of at least 60 minutes per day of moderate to vigorous intensity physical activity.
In response to this global physical inactivity crisis, the international call to action, and the need to systematically collect comparable data, the Active Healthy Kids Global Alliance recently published a major study, the first to provide a comprehensive assessment of physical activity among children and adolescents.
Published in October 2022, the study included data that was collected before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, where 682 experts assessed 10 common physical activity indicators for children and adolescents around the world.
The study shows that one-third of children and adolescents globally were sufficiently physically active while a little over one-third met the recreational screen time recommendation for better health and well-being. These findings indicate that a significant proportion of children and adolescent who do not meet recommended physical activity guidelines are at an increased risk of negative outcomes as well as developing related chronic diseases at a much earlier age.
When surveyed, more than 90 per cent of the experts reported that COVID-19 had a negative impact on children’s sedentary behaviours, organised sports and physical activities. Our findings are supported by numerous studies. Research suggests that children’s moderate-to-vigorous physical activity decreased by 17 minutes per day during the pandemic. That represents a reduction of almost one-third of the recommended daily activity. Another global study representing 187 countries showed a collective 27.3 per cent decrease in the daily step counts of individuals after 30 days of COVID-19 related restrictions.