A new study in the medical journal Pediatrics (h/t Planetizen) finds that community and the built environment – everything from walkable streets to the location of schools – have big effects on the health of our kids.
An estimated 32% of American children are overweight, and physical inactivity contributes to this high prevalence of overweight.This policy statement highlights how the built environment of a community affects children’s opportunities for physical activity. Neighborhoods and communities can provide opportunities for recreational physical activity with parks and open spaces, and policies must support this capacity. Children can engage in physical activity as a part of their daily lives, such as on their travel to school.
Factors such as school location have played a significant role in the decreased rates of walking to school, and changes in policy may help to increase the number of children who are able to walk to school. Environment modification that addresses risks associated with automobile traffic is likely to be conducive to more walking and biking among children. Actions that reduce parental perception and fear of crime may promote outdoor physical activity. Policies that promote more active lifestyles among children and adolescents will enable them to achieve the recommended 60 minutes of daily physical activity. By working with community partners, pediatricians can participate in establishing communities designed for activity and health.
June 9th, 2009 at 3:37 pm
Is an effect of our sports-celebrity “winning is everything” culture, that kids who are poor at sport soon stop participating?
I was disappointed to watch a local kid’s basketball game where the less talented kids spent the whole time sitting on the bench. The coach (and the parents of the talented) obviously thought that winning was the most important thing.
June 9th, 2009 at 7:17 pm
Mike L. – I think what you point out is definitely at least a portion of the problem. I recall an article from the NY Times that pointed out this problem, although as often is the case with the Times, it skews towards a more upper-middle-class perspective. Even though the article is over 10 years old, I think it’s still quite relevant.
http://www.nytimes.com/specials/teens/stein.html
I think as long as parents are generally encouraging physical activities and a moderately active lifestyle, then things will be ok.
June 10th, 2009 at 12:21 am
As this article suggests, I think the key to fit kids is unstructured opportunities for physical activity rather than structured ones like basketball or soccer. While the latter are great as an extra if the child is into it, what will keep our kids fit is encouraging cycling and walking as part of daily transportation to school, work, shop, etc. And encouraging a certain amount of “outside play time” that might involve kicking a ball back and forth, or might involve letting the child figure out their own games.
June 10th, 2009 at 5:22 am
I agree with the sentiments of proividing children with activities that result in physical exercise.
The problem with sport is that everybody has forgotten that it is meant to be recreation. It is all about winning, the other day, I was told it was about discipline. No wonder many kids have no interets.
In the interests of disclosure, I was one of those kids who did not enjoy the competitive nature of sport,
June 10th, 2009 at 4:59 pm
I agree with Wendy. As a suburbanite, we shuffled our kids off to sports because we perceived our neighborhood as too risky for them to be outside for unsupervised, unstructured play.