14 DAY TRIAL // It's a fact that kids have enough energy to burn and play for hours without feeling any sign of weariness. Previous studies have investigated how much time do children spend on exercising and reached the conclusion that an infant should exercise for an hour daily in order to prevent heart disorders later in life.
However, scientists from the Norwegian School of Sports Science in Oslo developed a similar study on the way in which kids spend their time and how much time they dedicate to physical activities. The difference between the previous investigations and this most recent one lies in the fact that the latter does not rely on facts that show the exercising period spent by a child daily, but on how much he really plays outside.
The conclusion is that infants should spend an average of an hour and a half playing with their friends outside: "Current guidelines for physical activity in children may underestimate the necessary level for maintaining good health. We would suggest 90 minutes per day to prevent clustering of heart disease risk factors," lead researcher of the study, Lars Bo Andersen, said.
The research was carried out on children aged between 9 and 15 years from Denmark, Estonia and Portugal. Instead of simply asking their parents how much time did their offsprings spend on exercising, the Norwegian scientists provided around 1700 infants with accelerometers that have measured daily activities such as moderate playing, walking to school etc. The medical team also measured their possible risks of cardiovascular disorders.
This is the scientists' way of showing that daily physical activities are as important or even more important than strictly exercising: "If you think about the changes in physical activity that have happened over the years and which may have contributed substantially to the obesity epidemic, it is very likely that the decrease in activity is in mainly free activities," Dr. Lars Bo Andersen stated.
After four days of monitoring the kids' activities, the medical team reached the conclusion that the cardiovascular impairment risks is inversely proportional to the physical activity, meaning that the more time kids spend on physical activities, the lower the incidence of cardiovascular disorders will be.
The final conclusions of the study were that "a clustering of heart disease risk factors occurs even in healthy children, and the risk is more than three times higher among sedentary children compared to the physically active. We should do more to create a society where physical activity is a natural part of everyday living, and we should find effective strategies to increase the physical activity level among children."