The children were already too sedentary in Francebut this “heavy trend “ worsened with the containment linked to the epidemic of Covid-19, and may persist for a long time, if alarm a medical expert of sport on the basis of a new study. The study, done prior to and immediately after the confinement, shows that sedentary activities are predominant among young people 6 to 18 years of age (tv, Internet, video games, etc.) have grown strongly during the confinement. They accounted for 33.3 hours per week on average compared with 22.6 hours before the confinement, an increase of nearly 50 %.
To avoid this inactivity further persists to the detriment of their health, “it is necessary to give them the greatest possible access during the 2 weeks of school that remain, and during summer vacation to all of the physical activities and sports “says professor Jean-François Toussaint, director, IRMES (Biomedical research Institute and the epidemiology of Sport).
The young people reported having spent 10 hours per week on average watching television (versus 6.7 hours before the containment), 7.7 hours to browse the Internet (versus 5.2 hours), 7.2 hours to play video games (compared to 4.7), and 5.1 hours to chat with their friends via social networks and SMS (compared to 3.7 hours)… On the other hand, the time spent reading has increased by an hour.
14 % of youth did not have physical activity during the containment
The increase in sedentary activities is made mainly at the expense of the sports activity, the youth reporting spend 2.7 hours per week (compared to 3.5 h at the beginning of march). By adding activities such as walking or cycling, the children have spent on average 5.5 hours per week to physical activity in the containment (versus a 6.1 h before).
The maintenance of a certain level of physical activity during the containment remains irregular and inadequate : 6 out of 10 children had no physical activity all day, while the WHO recommendation is one hour per day.
More worrying still, 14 % of youth did not have any sport during this period, a rate which climbs to 20 % among high school students. And this while they are applicants.
Nine out of ten young people would like to do sports after the summer vacation, the children in primary schools more than others (94 % compared with 90 % of middle school students and 82 % of high school students).
The containment has also damaged the youth. So some children “who are not out at all for three months find themselves with a deficit in their abilities : they don’t get to go up a floor “, is worried about the Pr all saints. And “the impact of the cessation of all movements will be considerable in certain families “ who were still afraid to come out.
The study was conducted online by Harris Interactive for the association Insurance Prevention/IRMES took place in 2 times (26 February-2 march and 28 may-4 June) at each time a representative sample of a thousand children.
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