Half of all UK seven-year-old do not do enough exercise, with girls far less active than boys, a study suggests.

University College London researchers found just 51% of the 6,500 children they monitored achieved the recommended hour of physical activity each day.

For girls, the figure was just 38%, compared with 63% for boys.

Half of the group also spent more than six hours being sedentary each day, although some of this would be spent in class, the researchers acknowledged.

The study, published in the online journal BMJ Open, found levels of activity varied among groups.

For example, children of Indian origin and those living in Northern Ireland were among the least physically active with 43% achieving the recommended levels, compared to 53% in Scotland.

But the most marked difference was between girls and boys.

Researchers said this suggested there needed to be a focus on making sport and other activities more attractive to girls.

Prof Carol Dezateux, one of the lead authors, said: “There is a big yawning gap between girls and boys. We need to really think about how we are reaching out to girls.

“The school playground is an important starting point. Often you will find it dominated by boys playing football.”

But she said there should still be concern about the activity levels across the board.

“The findings are particularly worrying because seven-year-olds are likely to become less active as they get older, not more.”

To achieve the one hour recommendation children have to take part in moderate or vigorous activity, which includes everything from brisk walking and cycling to playing football and running.

The UCL research is not the first to suggest children are not active enough, but most previous studies have relied on self-reporting by children or parents estimating levels of exercise, whereas the latest one involved real-time monitoring.

During the study, which took place during 2008 and 2009, youngsters wore an accelerometer to measure exercise levels which was attached to an elastic belt around their waist. It was removed only when bathing or when the children went to bed.

In total, the experts were able to record more than 36,000 days of data based on the children wearing the accelerometer for at least 10 hours a day over the course of a week.

Dr John Middleton, of the Faculty of Public Health, said more research was needed into why certain groups were less active.

“We need our children to grow up to be fit and healthy adults, not just because it’s what any civilised society would want for its children, but it’s also best for our economy too,” he added.

Dr Ann Hoskins, of Public Health England, agreed.

She said: “This study highlights that there is still much to do to keep children and young people active as they grow older, especially girls.

“The new school year is the perfect time to make healthy changes, swapping short car or bus journeys with walking or scooting to school.”

 

 

Prescribing antipsychotic drugs to kids and young adults having behavioral problems or mood disorders could put them at a risk for acquiring type 2 diabetes, a study has showed.

The Vanderbilt University Medical Center study shows that young people using medications like risperidone, quetiapine, aripiprazol and olanzapine led to increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes within the first year of taking the drug.

Senior author Wayne A. Ray, Ph.D., professor of Preventive Medicine, said that while other studies have shown an increased risk for type 2 diabetes associated with the use atypical antipsychotic medications; this is the first large, well-designed study to look at the risk in children.

Ray said that as they wanted to address this question of risk for indications for which there were therapeutic alternatives, they deliberately excluded those taking antipsychotics for schizophrenia and other psychoses; thus, our entire sample consisted of patients for whom there were alternatives to antipsychotics.

State-provided, de-identified medical records were examined for TennCare youths ages 6-24 from 1996 through 2007.

During that time children and youth who were prescribed treatment with atypical antipsychotics for attention, behavioral or mood disorders, were compared with similar youth prescribed approved medications for those disorders.

Even with the further elimination of certain disorders that are commonly associated with diabetes, like polycystic ovarian syndrome, those taking antipsychotics had triple the risk of developing type 2 diabetes in the following year, with the risk increasing further as cumulative dosages increased. The increased risk persisted for at least a year after the medications were stopped.

Ray and his colleagues point out developing type 2 diabetes are still rare in this age group. Of the nearly 29,000 children and youth in the antipsychotic medication group and 14,400 children in the control group, 106 were ultimately diagnosed and treated for type 2 diabetes.

The study has been published in the journal JAMA Psychiatry.

 

Researchers found that eating healthy food and adequate sleep will help children to perform better in school.

Krista Casazza assistant professor in the Department of Nutrition Sciences explained that when kids go to school without eating their breakfast, their cognitive function can be affected. Casazza suggested that kids should start the day with fruits, proteins and whole grains and should avoid sugary cereals. If the kids do need to eat healthy at dinner then parents should offer healthy choices like yogurt, fruits and veggies or baked chips. Also children should drink water instead of soda as it lacks nutritional value.
Kristin Avis, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Pediatrics Division of Pulmonary and Sleep Medicine said that children need a good night`s sleep for their overall school performance.

“Lack of sleep can lead to problems with attention and memory in the classroom, affect impulse control and mood regulation lead to anxiety and even depression,” Avis said.

Avis said kids ages 6-12 should get nine hours sleep nightly as should adolescents ages 13-18, but typically they average little more than seven hours per night.

Avis said that catching up on lost sleep on the weekend can make matters worse and recommended a consistent bedtime seven days a week

 

A new study suggests that regular bedtimes in children’s are associated with performance on a variety of intellectual tests and this was published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

“If the child prefers to go to sleep a little bit later, but it’s done regularly, then it’s OK for them”, said Amanda Sacker, professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health at University College London.

The study

Researchers looked at information about bedtimes for more than 11,000 children in the United Kingdom. The Millennium Cohort Study followed children when they were aged 3, 5 and 7, and included regular surveys

The study found that, regular bedtimes were linked to better performance this was especially true for 7-year-old girls if they had irregular bedtimes. Boys in this age group did not show the effect. In both girls and boys, non-regular bedtimes at age 3 were linked with lower test scores, but not at age 5.

These results “showed that it wasn’t going to bed late that was affecting child’s development, it was the irregular bedtimes that were linked to poorer developmental scores,” Sacker said.

Researchers found that, in general, children who had irregular bedtimes or went to bed after 9 p.m. tended to come from lower socioeconomic backgrounds than other study participants. These were the children more likely to be from poor homes and have mothers with poorer mental health. They were also less likely to have breakfast and be read to daily.

Implications

There are a few possible explanations for the observations in the study. One is that children with an irregular bedtime may not be getting good quality sleep. Also, the body’s circadian rhythms can be disrupted when a person doesn’t have consistent sleep schedules.

Each day, as environmental stimuli influence changes in the brain, we need sleep to allow fresh learning for the day to come, according to the study. Cognitive impairment and lack of concentration are two possible consequences of limited or disrupted sleep. Given the importance of childhood development, study authors say, low-quality sleep in this critical period could have long-term health effects.

The study supports other research showing that adults also benefit from having consistent bedtimes.

“It not only helps with what’s gone on the day before, but it also sets you in good stead for the day to come,” Sacker said.

That makes it worth finding a consistent time to tuck in the little ones – and yourself

 

The American Medical Association said it would support a ban on the marketing of energy drinks to children under 18, because the high-caffeine beverages could cause heart problems and other health issues.

This was adopted in a group’s annual meeting in Chicago. “Energy drinks contain excessive amounts of caffeine that may lead to health problems in young people, including heart problems, and banning companies from marketing these products to adolescents is a common action that we can take to protect the health of American kids,” Dr. Alexander Ding, an AMA board member, said in a statement.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration in October said it was investigating reports of five deaths that may be associated with top-selling energy drink.

The American Beverage Association said it was disappointed in the AMA resolution. It said most energy drinks contain about half the caffeine

“Leading energy drink companies also voluntarily display total caffeine amounts – from all sources – on their packages, as well as an advisory statement indicating that the product is not intended (or recommended) for children, pregnant or nursing women, or persons sensitive to caffeine, said in an emailed statement.

The drinks, with aggressive-sounding names like Monster, Red Bull, AMP and Full Throttle, are the fastest-growing type of soft drink in the United States, with sales up 17 percent last year to about $9 billion, according to Beverage Digest. They are often associated with extreme sports, which make them popular among young men.