WASHINGTON, April 29 (UPI) -- The National Physical Activity Plan Alliance and the American College of Sports Medicine released its first-ever U.S. Report Card on Physical Activity for Children and Youth and the grade is poor.
Russ Pate, chairman of the NPAP Alliance, and Peter Katzmarzyk, chairman of the 2014 Report Card Research Advisory Committee, said the primary goal of the report card was to assess physical activity levels and sedentary behaviors of U.S. children and youth.
"Physical activity levels in American youth fall far below the recommended level, with only about one-fourth of children ages 6 to 15 meeting the current guideline of 60 minutes of moderate physical activity per day,” Pate, a professor at the University of South Carolina, said at a Congressional Fitness Caucus briefing on Capitol Hill in Washington Tuesday.
“Fifty percent of waking hours are spent in sedentary activity for children and youth, and this percentage rises with age.”
The key indicators evaluated and graded in the report card include: -- Overall Physical Activity D- -- Sedentary Behaviors D -- Active Transportation F -- Organized Sport Participation C- -- Active Play Incomplete -- Health-Related Fitness Incomplete -- Family and Peers Incomplete -- School C- -- Community and the Built Environment B- -- Government Strategies and Investments Incomplete
Multiple nationally representative surveys were used for the data in the evaluation of physical activity for U.S. children and youth.
