Immigrant children less active

ROCKVILLE, Md., Aug. 6 (UPI) -- Immigrant children in the United States may be less physically active, but watch less TV than U.S.-born children, researchers say.

The researchers report more than 11 percent of U.S. children were found to be physically inactive, while 73.5 percent engaged in physical activity three or more days per week. More than 42 percent of children did not participate in sports and 17 percent watched three or more hours of television per day.

Immigrant children were more likely to be physically inactive and less likely to participate in sports than native children; "they were, however, less likely to watch television three or more hours per day than native children, although the nativity gap narrowed with increasing acculturation levels."

"Physical inactivity and sedentary behaviors varied widely among children in various ethnic-immigrant groups," the study authors said in a statement. "For example, 22.5 percent of immigrant Hispanic children were physically inactive compared with 9.5 percent of U.S.-born white children with U.S.-born parents."

The study, published in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, was led by Gopal K. Singh, of the Health Resources and Services Administration, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, in Rockville, Md.

Singh and colleagues analyzed telephone survey data from the 2003 National Survey of Children's Health.