A team of researchers at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio have uncovered some startling information about the amount of exercise the average U.S. child gets in a week.
According to the study, a majority of children are not getting the recommended amount of physical activity they need, and only 5% are meeting the goal of 60 minutes per day.
While this may come as a surprise to some, not everyone will be shocked by these findings.
Research has found that kids are spending more time on smartphones, tablets, or TV every year.
They also discovered that only one hour of screen time can increase a child's chance of becoming anxious or depressed.
The team at Nationwide Children's Hospital looked at more more than 7,800 children between ages five and 18 who attended outpatient pediatric sports medicine clinics over a three-year period.
The results showed that nearly 50% of children were not active enough and 5% had no physical activity whatsoever.
They also found that girls had less physical activity than boys, making males nearly 40% more likely to meet their seven recommended hours of exercise per week.
These results are worrisome because young children are in desperate need of physical activity.
Exercise is important for healthy growth and development, increasing bone density and strengthening muscles.
Also, exercise is important to combat obesity. According to the CDC, the percentage of children with obesity has more than tripled since the '70s, and it's estimated that nearly one in five children and teens are obese.
While recess time varies across the country, with many schools allocating only 20 to 30 minutes of recess each day, many parents complain that their children aren't getting enough time to play outside.
Not only that, some children may not even be using this time to engage in healthy activity.
[H/T: Daily Mail]
