[:en]Today’s teens are less fit than their parents were at the same age[:]

[:en]This will get older generations' fists shaking at those no-good lazy teens: An intergenerational analysis has revealed the average teenager is less fit than their parents were at the same age.

Researchers from the University of Otago determined that by crunching numbers from the Dunedin Study, an ongoing study that has collected health and lifestyle information from a cohort of New Zealanders for more than 40 years.

The first round of study participants had their fitness measured on an exercise bike when they were 15. Years later, their own children underwent the same round of tests at the same age.

The results are published in the New Zealand Medical Journal.

It turned out both boys and girls are now less fit than their parents were at the same age, though fitness had declined more steeply among girls — possibly, the researchers speculated, because they're generally less physically active.

““It is well recognised that girls become less physically active earlier in adolescence, and this may be why their fitness levels were so much lower,” said study co-author Dr Helena McAnally, reported New Zealand Doctor.

The study also found 15-year-olds are now “substantially heavier” than their parents were at the same age, which squares with the global upward trend in the number of overweight and obese children.

These findings concerned the researchers because less fit, heavier adolescents are more likely to grow up into less fit, heavier adults, and therefore be at a higher risk of lifestyle diseases such as heart disease and type 2 diabetes.

The analysis couldn't say what drove the decline in fitness and uptick in weight, though the paper noted that time spent on “sedentary behaviours” such as screen use has displaced time spent on physical activity

A linked editorial pointed out that just under half of New Zealand children travel to school by active transport — think walking or biking — and only about half of them meet government guidelines for fruit and vegetable intake.

(Almost no Australian children consume the recommended daily serves of fruit and veg, and less than half travel to school via active transport.)

“Effective policies to create environments that support both healthy eating and sufficient physical activity in all sectors of society are likely to have super-additive effects on health,” the editorial concluded.

By Sam Downing

https://coach.nine.com.au[:]