Commentary on Promotion of Physical Activity in Children and Youth

Abstract

Topicality. Multiple studies have confirmed the significance of physical activity for the health of children and adolescents. However, in the majority of young individuals, their level of physical activity is insufficient. The aim of this article is to draw on the extensive experience of the Children’s Physical Activity Research Group (CPARG) team to develop a set of recommendations on promoting physical activity in children and youth. Methods of the research. The CPARG has applied public health research methods to the study of physical activity, that could be used to promote children’s physical activity at the population level. Results of the work and the key conclusions. A conceptual model for a set of recommendations regarding physical activity for children and youth has been developed, based on research and experience from CPARG, and divided into five categories. Two recommendations focus on persuading, prompting, and praising children and youth for engaging in physical activity at the individual and societal levels. Two recommendations emphasize the importance of providing places where children can engage in safe structured (programs), unstructured (play), and transportation physical activity, and one additional recommendation in the play, programs, participation & pleasure category stresses the importance of structuring these opportunities to facilitate fun, engagement, and enjoyment for children of all ages and abilities. Two recommendations address the need    for enacting and enforcing practices and policies to promote physical activity at the local to national levels. Finally, three recommendations build toward the goal of engaging in behaviors at the individual to societal levels to convey physical activity as the normative pattern, communicating that physical activity is what we do.