Research by a team at the Peninsula Medical School at PlymouthUniversity found that less than half of boys and only one in eight girlswere getting the recommended one hour of physical activity per day.
They also found that the change in body mass index (BMI), the officialmeasure used to monitor the impact of exercise, was no different betweenthose who did and those who did not meet the hour target.
The research, published in the Archives of Disease in Childhood, waspart of the Early Bird Study tracking the long-term health of childrenborn between 1995 and 1996.
Researchers measured the activity levels of 113 boys and 99 girlsbetween the ages of five and eight, along with their predictive healthindicators, which include insulin resistance, blood fat and cholesterollevels, and blood pressure.
The results showed a wide range of physical activity among the children.Some were active for only ten minutes a day, while others exercised forover 90 minutes.
Those who did meet the exercise targets showed improvements in theirpredictive indicators, which are linked to the risk of developingcardiovascular disease and diabetes. But these improvements could not bepicked up by measuring BMI alone, leading the researchers to label themeasure 'too crude.'
They also asked whether girls should be encouraged to exercise more, orif the exercise guidelines should be lowered for girls.
Professor Terry Wilkin, from the Peninsula Medical School, said, 'BMIcannot be used to show which children do more or less physical activityand it cannot pick up improvements in predictive health indicators.Also, girls systematically do less activity than boys, so is it a hidingto nothing asking them to do more? Do they do less exercise because ofbiological differences? Interestingly, girls achieved the sameimprovements in their predictive health indicators.'
- Further information: 'Physical activity at the government- recommendedlevel and obesity-related health outcomes: longitudinal study' is athttp://press.psprings.co.uk/adc/june/ac135012.pdf.