Half of kids aged six or over aren’t exercising enough, experts say
NEARLY half of British six-year-olds are not meeting their daily recommended exercise targets, a study suggests.
Experts say children aged five to 18 should get at least 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous exercise a day.
They recommend sitting, or sedentary behaviour, is kept to a minimum.
But researchers found 47 per cent of kids aged six are not doing enough physical activity.
They got 712 six-year-olds to wear accelerometers — which track heart rate and movement — for six days.
Each day, on average, the kids had 7.5 hours of “low level” physical activity and 65 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous exercise — but spent five hours inactive.
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Just 53 per cent met UK recommended guidelines — with boys more likely than girls to reach the target — academics from the universities of Cambridge and Southampton reported.
Dr Esther van Sluijs, of the Medical Research Council Epidemiology Unit at Cambridge, said regular activity is important for kids’ “wellbeing and performance at school”.