Our Youth Are Largely Out Of Shape

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Our Youth Are Largely Out Of Shape

America’s young people, as a group, are becoming more out of shape with every passing year, regardless of their family’s economic situation, a new study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports. 

The finding raises troubling questions about the future health and longevity of our children and suggests that parents and other authority figures need to find better ways to get our youth moving.

For the past few decades, accumulating data and anecdotal evidence have shown that children in the United States are becoming more sedentary. Less than a third of young people ages 12 to 18 are said to achieve the recommended levels of physical activity for their age group, which would be about an hour a day of exercise.

Instead, epidemiological studies suggest, physical activity among American youngsters peaks before age 10, and perhaps as early as 2, and begins a steady and accelerating decline after that. By some reports, children typically spend eight to 10 hours a day in front of a television or computer screen, with their screen time rising in summer, when school doesn’t interfere.

The new study, which was published in May as a National Center for Health Statistics Data Brief, researchers with the C.D.C. turned to the huge database about American health habits known as the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, or NHANES

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