A report recently published by New Zealand’s Ministry of Health confirmed what we already suspected: Kiwi kids are nowhere near as active as they should be. Activity levels in New Zealand are on the decline, and it’s no surprise that this is connected to the growing attachment to digital devices. When it comes to screen time, the Ministry of Health’s latest report (2019/2020) revealed that four out of five children aged 5 to 14 years usually watched screens of some sort (including TV) for two or more hours per day. Where kids bikes used to be all the rage, it seems that digital devices are where kids go for their thrills these days. That isn’t good for them now and will be even worse for them in the future.
A Sport New Zealand survey published in 2019 found that just 7 % of children and young people aged 5 to 17 years met Ministry of Health activity guidelines of at least one hour of moderate to vigorous activity each day. While 94% of youngsters do participate in some form of physical activity, it is more likely to be on a weekly basis rather than daily and is more at the “mild “ end of the exertion scale rather than the moderate one.
Boys are more active than girls. They spend about 90 minutes more each week being physically active, which is a significant margin. However, both boys and girls seem to have developed an aversion to getting to school under their own steam. The survey found that only two in five children aged 5–14 years usually use active transport to get to and from school. Active transport includes biking, walking and skating, and while it is common for very young kids to be taken to school by Mum and Dad, the downward trend of early teenagers making their own way to school is concerning. After all, sedentary kids become sedentary adults, and this is reflected in the Ministry of Health’s reporting as well.
About half of all New Zealand adults are what is described as “inactive”. They do less than 2.5 hours of activity over the course of a week. Meanwhile, just under a sixth of adults can be described as “sedentary” – in other words, they have taken part in no leisure-time physical activity in the last four weeks. Is it any surprise that levels of cardiovascular disease, obesity, diabetes, cancer, arthritis, osteoporosis, and mental health issues continue to rise in this country?
Researchers suggest that the seeds of a sedentary lifestyle as an adult are planted at a younger age. Kids who are physically inactive get into the habit of doing little – and this can easily become the habit of a lifetime. Sadly, that lifetime can be a very unhealthy one as adults miss out on the proven physical and mental health benefits of regular exercise. So while Kiwi kids need to get on their bikes and become more active, it would also be a good thing if older New Zealanders visited a bike shop as well and started riding their way to a healthier and longer life.
