Increasing Adolescent Activity Levels Requires School, Family And Community Involvement
Main Category: Sports Medicine / Fitness
Also Included In: Pediatrics / Children's Health; Obesity / Weight Loss / Fitness
Article Date: 21 Sep 2007 - 0:00 PDT
| Patient / Public: | ![]() |
5 (1 votes) |
| Health Professional: | ![]() |
|
| Article Opinions: | 0 posts |
For physical activity programs aimed at adolescents to work they have to involve school, family and community life, says an article published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ).
The research team from the Medical Research Council Epidemiology Unit said multi-component interventions targeted at adolescents offer major positive results. These programs include policy or environmental changes, such as extra PE classes, as well as traditional health education.
The writers explain that successful programs have an important impact and make a major difference, and should be actively promoted.
The researchers examined all published studies about the effectiveness of promoting physical activity to adolescents/children. They report that evidence exists that programs that alter children's environments, such as improvements to a playground, may have a significant impact. Although programs targeted at poorer children may have some impact on their levels of activity, the authors stress that further research is needed.
The writers explain that one of the key ways to combat obesity is to get young people to take part in more physical activity. Children who are inactive generally become inactive adults, thus increasing their risks later on in life of developing such diseases as cancer, diabetes, osteoporosis and cardiovascular diseases. It is a priority to evaluate and develop these sorts of programs. However, it has been unclear how successful these programs/efforts are at increasing activity levels of children/adolescents.
They found no evidence that the use of education alone might have an impact on raising children's activity levels. For young children, say the authors, programmes that use a variety of components, such as extra PE classes, PE teacher training, or extra equipment, success rates are unclear. However, this strategy is definitely successful for adolescents.
There is compelling evidence, say the researchers, that when programs involve the adolescent, the school, family and community, their chances of success are much greater. This may include homework assignments, or incorporating physical activity into ongoing community events. Benefits observed by the authors range from 3 minutes extra effort during PE to a 50% increase in the number of people taking part in regular physical activity.
The evidence is more compelling for adolescents, say the researchers, perhaps because the studies for this age group were of a higher quality and involved larger numbers. Another factor might be that adolescents tend to be less physically active than younger children, so a program would have a bigger impact on them.
"Effectiveness of interventions to promote physical activity in children and adolescents: systematic review of controlled trials"
BMJ Online First
http://www.bmj.com
Written by: Christian Nordqvist
Copyright: Medical News Today
Not to be reproduced without permission of Medical News Today
|
Please rate this article: (Hover over the stars then click to rate) |
Patient / Public: |
or |
Health Professional: |
Any medical information published on this website is not intended as a substitute for informed medical advice and you should not take any action before consulting with a health care professional. For more information, please read our terms and conditions.
Contact Our News Editors
For any corrections of factual information, or to contact the editors please use our feedback form.
![]()
Please send any medical news or health news press releases to:
| Back to top | Back to front page | List of All Medical Articles |
| Privacy Policy | Terms and Conditions | © 2009 MediLexicon International Ltd |




