This
paper reviews the research on physical activity in young people
and explores actions that might be taken to help children and
youth adopt and maintain physically active lifestyles. Physical
inactivity is an independent risk factor for several chronic diseases
in adults (coronary heart disease, diabetes, colon cancer, hypertension).
Low physical activity levels have been identified as contributing
to the rising prevalence of obesity and non-insulin dependent
diabetes mellitus in young people. The widespread occurance of
physical inactivity and its contribution to chronic disease risk
make it a major public health problem in children as well as adults.
National surveys indicate that physical activity declines as children
become older, whites are typically more active than African-Americans
or Hispanics, and boys tend to be more active than girls. Contributing
to this decline is an age-related decrease in enrollment in daily
physical education. Many other factors also affect a young person's
decision to be physically active, such as personal psychological
characteristics, as well as the physical and social environment.
Engaging in physical activity is a multifaceted behavior determined
by numerous interacting variables, which makes interventions difficult
to design and implement. Several school-based efforts have produced
successful results: children became more physically active during
modified physical education. Although the school is an important
place to implement physical activity interventions, future studies
should also focus on interventions to promote physical activity
in young people in home, health care, and community settings.
