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School
Sports Participants Grow Into Active Adults
Raise kids to play sports, and you may also raise future
generations of healthier adults, according to new research.
Investigators found that adults who use some of their free
time to exercise were more than three times as likely as
inactive adults to have participated in organized sports
as children.
Consequently, taking the time to teach kids how to play
sports and to encourage enjoyable activities could give
them a lifelong appreciation of exercise and, as a result,
better health, study author Dr. Allen Kraut told Reuters
Health.
During the study, Kraut and his colleagues asked 3687 male
Israeli industrial workers if they spent at least 30 minutes
of their leisure time each week exercising.
Participants were considered to have played sports as children
if they participated in organized activities for at least
one year, apart from required physical education classes
in school.
Only 21 percent of the men interviewed said they engaged
in at least 30 minutes of physical activity each week, and
less than 3 percent of participants got at least half an
hour of exercise on at least 5 days per week, Kraut and
his colleagues report in the journal Medicine & Science
in Sports & Exercise.
Currently, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
recommend that people receive at least 30 minutes of exercise
on most days of the week.
In an interview, Kraut, who is based at the University of
Manitoba in Winnipeg, noted that whether or not kids enjoy
physical activity may have a large impact on whether or
not they keep it up as adults.
Indeed, a previous study found that people who were forced
to exercise as children tended to exercise less as adults.
"It seems to make sense that if you liked (activity),
you'll continue to do it. And if you didn't like it, you'll
stop," he said.
Consequently, fostering a lifelong appreciation for exercise
may involve "trying to package it in a way (kids) will
enjoy it," Kraut said.
SOURCE: Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, December
2003.
Article Source: Reuters Health
Article Author: N/A
Net Reference 89
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