<\/p>\n
DALLAS \u2013 Today\u2019s kids can\u2019t keep up with their parents. An analysis of studies on millions of children around the world finds they don\u2019t run as fast or as far as their parents did when they were young.<\/p>\n
On average, it takes children 90 seconds longer to run a mile than their counterparts did 30 years ago. Heart-related fitness has declined 5 percent per decade since 1975 for children ages 9 to 17.<\/p>\n
The American Heart Association, whose conference featured the research last week, says it\u2019s the first to show that children\u2019s fitness has declined worldwide during the last three decades.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt makes sense. We have kids that are less active than before,\u201d said Dr. Stephen Daniels, a University of Colorado pediatrician and spokesman for the heart association.<\/p>\n
Health experts recommend that children 6 and older get 60 minutes of moderately vigorous activity accumulated over a day. Only one-third of American kids do now.<\/p>\n
\u201cKids aren\u2019t getting enough opportunities to build up that activity over the course of the day,\u201d Daniels said. \u201cMany schools, for economic reasons, don\u2019t have any physical education at all. Some rely on recess\u201d to provide exercise.<\/p>\n
Sam Kass, a White House chef and head of first lady Michelle Obama\u2019s Let\u2019s Move program, stressed the role of schools in a speech to the conference.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are currently facing the most sedentary generation of children in our history,\u201d Kass said.<\/p>\n
The new study was led by Grant Tomkinson, an exercise physiologist at the University of South Australia. Researchers analyzed 50 studies on running fitness \u2013 a key measure of cardiovascular health and endurance \u2013 involving 25 million children ages 9 to 17 in 28 countries from 1964 to 2010.<\/p>\n
The studies measured how far children could run in 5 to 15 minutes and how quickly they ran a certain distance, ranging from half a mile to two miles. Today\u2019s kids are about 15 percent less fit than their parents were, researchers concluded.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe changes are very similar for boys and girls and also for various ages,\u201d but differed by geographic region, Tomkinson said.<\/p>\n
The decline in fitness seems to be leveling off in Europe, Australia and New Zealand, and perhaps in the last few years in North America. However, it continues to fall in China, and Japan never had much falloff \u2013 fitness has remained fairly consistent there. About 20 million of the 25 million children in the studies were from Asia.<\/p>\n
Other research discussed global declines in activity.<\/p>\n
Fitness is \u201cpretty poor in adults and even worse in young people,\u201d especially in the United States and eastern Europe, said Dr. Ulf Ekelund of the Norwegian School of Sport Sciences in Oslo, Norway.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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