Frequent breaks from sedentary behavior makes kids healthier
For parents, here are just a few ideas to get you and your kids moving:
- Instead of driving your kids to school, have them walk or bike with friends.
- Encourage your kids to be involved in after-school activities, such as a pick-up football game, cycling with friends, team sports, dance class, scouts, guides, or a hiking or walking group.
- In the evening, play active family games that limit sitting time.
- Limit after school television, sedentary video gaming, texting and other screen time.
- Engage your kids in helping you prepare meals (giving them age appropriate tasks).
- Offer your kids some active choices for indoor and outdoor chores; change it up often, so they don’t get bored with the same chore
- After school and in the evening, encourage teens to visit with friends instead of only communicating with them online.
- Invite your kids on a walk or bike ride after dinner; aim to do it regularly so the “active habit” gets established and becomes the norm.
- When being physically active together, engage your kids in a conversation about their interests and keep the activity fun.
The QUALITY cohort was funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada and the Fonds de la Recherche en Santé du Québec. Saunders is supported by doctoral research awards from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Canadian Diabetes Association as well as an Excellence Scholarship from the University of Ottawa.
Sedentary Guidelines Complement Physical Activity Guidelines
John C. Spence, Associate Dean, Research, at the University of Alberta’s Faculty of Physical Education and Recreation, explains that some researchers are now finding that simply being less sedentary provides health benefits, regardless of the amount of moderate or vigorous physical activity or exercise a person may do each day. “What this research shows is that just by standing for longer periods and moving around more often during the day, a person will burn several hundred more calories per day. “
But Spence and other experts are quick to add a word of caution: simply being less sedentary is only part of the solution on the road to good health.
In fact, the Canadian Sedentary Behaviour Guidelines for Children and Youth are complementary to the Canadian Physical Activity Guidelines for the same age range.
As suggested by CSEP’s president, Dr. Audrey Hicks, the two guidelines together “can be thought of as a recipe for families to give children the best possible chance to gain health and social benefits.”
The Canadian Physical Activity Guidelines recommend at least 60 minutes of moderate- to vigorous-intensity physical activity per day for children and youth, while the Canadian Sedentary Behaviour Guidelines highlight what children should be doing the “other 23 hours” of the day.
About the CHEO Research Institute:
The CHEO Research Institute coordinates the research activities of the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO) and is affiliated with the University of Ottawa. Its three programs of research include molecular biomedicine, health information technology and evidence-to-practice research. Key themes include cancer, diabetes, obesity, mental health, emergency medicine, musculoskeletal health, electronic health information and privacy as well as genetics of rare diseases. The CHEO Research Institute makes discoveries today for healthier kids tomorrow.
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Adrienne Vienneau
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Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute