Lack of regular physical activity is a contributing factor in the epidemic of childhood obesity. Many health organizations recommend daily, supervised activity for children. For many children, gym class in school is an imortant source of activity.
To see how active third graders are, researchers observed children during a physical education class. The survey included 814 children (414 boys and 400 girls with an average age of nine years old) attending one of 684 schools spread out over 10 different communities.
The average number of PE classes was 2.1 per week. The average length of the classes was 33 minutes. Of the 33 minutes, only an average of 4.8 minutes were considered to be "very active" and 11.9 minutes as "moderate to vigorous activity." Boys and girls spend the same amount of time in PE, but the boys spend more time in very active and moderate to vigorous activity.
These numbers show that most third graders don't meet the national recommendations for physical activity in schools.
Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, 2/03
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