Another bad health report card

Active Healthy Kids, a child health advocacy group, has issued yet another bad report card on the health of Canadian children. This year’s overall score of “D” is the third inadequate grade in a row.

The group scores the general physical and mental health of Canadian children as well as other measures such as how active or inactive kids are. The report suggests that inactivity and unhealthy lifestyles in general will have long-term consequences such as increased rates of diabetes and other diseases.

Some of the report’s more alarming findings:

• The average child gets between 4 and 6 hours of screen-time in front of the   television and computer per day.
• Canadian kids are among the most overweight in the world.
• Teen sports participation is on the decline.
• Only 10% of kids use active transportation such as walking or cycling to get to school.
• Children and teens get between 30 and 60 minutes less sleep than they did ten years ago.

Statistics like these should be a wake-up call for institutions and parents.

Who’s to blame?

Probably the most important finding of the report is the correlation between a parent’s health and activity level and their child’s.

The report says parents who themselves are in poor health, do not participate in physical activity, and sit in front of television or computer screens many hours per week are much more likely to have children who behave in exactly the same way.

The good news is that this type of modelling works both ways: if parents are physically active and have a healthy lifestyle that includes a sound diet and not smoking, their children are more likely to adopt these behaviours.

Some of the research cited in the report suggested that the same-sex parent –- the mother to the daughter and the father to the son -- had the most influence in this regard and that modelling was critically important during the young adolescent phase of a child’s life.

But parents are not the only culprits. Inadequate school and community programs, neighbourhoods designed for cars, and activity-restricting by-laws also contribute to the problem. Socioeconomic status plays a role as well.   Active Healthy Kids notes that children from lower-income families are even more at risk for poor health and inactivity.

Avoiding a horrible cycle of problems

The most disturbing aspect of this year’s report is the interconnectedness of inactivity, disease, and poor mental health. Citing various research papers, the advocacy group highlights what amounts to a downward spiral of child health. Inactivity leads to poor physical health and chronic disease such as diabetes, which in turn leads to depression and low self-esteem. Depression and low self-esteem make kids less motivated in general.

The research also showed that this cycle can operate in reverse: activity can lead to health and health can encourage happiness and higher self-esteem. 

In addition to the bad news, the report also makes recommendations that could improve children’s health. For parents, these include:

• modelling physical activity
• taking the TV and computer out of the child’s bedroom
• planning family time as active time
• limiting screen time for both parents and children