Western Australian children still not active enough, Waldron

Author: Terry Waldron
Published on: 09-December-2009

More than half of Western Australian children are at risk of health problems as adults because they are still not participating in enough healthy activities.

The key findings of the 2008 Western Australian Child and Adolescent Physical Activity and Nutrition Survey (CAPANS) show the majority of children are not active enough and many are not eating enough fruit and vegetables.

Sport and Recreation Minister and chair of the Physical Activity Taskforce, Terry Waldron, said one positive outcome from the report was children’s physical activity levels had not appeared to have decreased since 2003.

“Against the social trend of more sedentary behaviour, including participating in screen-based entertainment, children seem to have maintained their 2003 levels of physical activity,” Mr Waldron said. “About 60 per cent of boys in primary and secondary schools and more than 70 per cent of primary school girls are also not getting the recommended amounts of activity."

“Secondary school girls are most at risk, with 90 per cent not meeting the recommended 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity every day.” However, fruit and vegetable consumption had improved since 2003. “While this is positive, we are still concerned this is a small proportion and the majority of children need to eat more of these foods and eat them more often.”

The CAPANS 2008 key findings:

• the majority of children reported participating in more than two hours of screen-based recreation on one or more days of the previous week
• boys reported playing movement-based video games as their most common active play activity. Girls reported playing with pets as their most common active play activity
• the proportion of secondary school students using active transport home from school has increased since 2003
• two in five primary school students usually eat the recommended amount of vegetables and three in five usually consume the recommended amount of fruit for their age
• one in four secondary school students usually consume the recommended amount of fruit for their age. A similar proportion usually eat the recommended amount of vegetables
• overall consumption of fruit has increased since 2003, both in the proportion and amount eaten.

Mr Waldron said children who learned healthy lifestyle habits at an early age usually continued them for life. “Regular physical activity and a nutritious diet provide benefits to the development of physical, mental and social health in children and adolescents,” he said.