Is Covid just an excuse? Children were not physically active even before – claim in research

After the arrival of Covid, physical activity has decreased in children. Instead of physical activities like playing, jumping, and cycling, children now prefer to spend more time on smartphones. Do you know that physical inactivity is considered to be the fourth leading cause of death worldwide? New research has come out which tells that children were inactive not only after Covid but also before and its figure is increasing day by day. In 2016, 81 per cent of adolescents aged 11–17 worldwide were considered physically inactive. In this, girls were less active than boys.

If the figures of the year 2016 are considered, then many health organizations including the World Health Organization have expressed concern over the lack of physical activity among children and adolescents. This has now become a big issue for many organizations including WHO. A report also came out in the year 2022 regarding the inactivity of children and adolescents. In this, about 682 experts also mentioned about 10 common physical activities for children and adolescents.

Effect of covid
After the arrival of Corona, the situation of children and teenagers being inactive increased further. In the survey, 90 per cent of experts said that Corona has made the behaviour of children more negative. Due to the lockdown, the children had to stay at home and they became used to not going out. Researchers took out the average timing of children being active and found that children stopped playing outside the house. According to another study, the step count of people decreased by about 27 per cent.

African children were found to be more active
Four African countries were also included in this study and it was found that African children were more active than children from other countries. The main reason for this was the lack of transport and other sources here. Children and teenagers have to go on foot for other work including going to school and this is the reason why the children here were seen as more active during Covid.

Adopt methods like cycling, playing sports and walking to make children active. By doing this, you can take special care of everything from their height to fitness.