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Home » Exercise Programs » Exercise Programs for Kids Seem to Have Little Impact: Study

By Steven Reinberg HealthDay Reporter

THURSDAY, Sept. 27 (HealthDay News) -- Formal physical exercise programs for children have only a small impact on overall activity and thus on weight loss, British researchers report.

Their study raises questions about the best ways to help children attain or maintain a healthy weight.

"Physical activity interventions are not increasing physical activity sufficiently to impact on the body mass or body fat of children," said lead researcher Brad Metcalf, of the department of endocrinology and metabolism at Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry in Plymouth, England. "It is in everyone's interest to find something that works effectively," he added.

But other experts said instead of dismissing organized interventions as ineffective, policymakers should conclude that still more is needed to stem childhood obesity. In the United States, about 17 percent of children aged 2 years and older are obese.

"I disagree that the importance of physical activity to childhood obesity control, or health promotion, has been called into question by this study," said Dr. David Katz, director of the Yale University Prevention Research Center in New Haven, Conn.

On the contrary, "we have cause to question if we are doing enough to make routine activity the cultural norm, so that such programming can achieve greater effects," Katz said. "An intervention, no matter how good, can only achieve so much if not surrounded by cultural supports."

Katz also faulted the study for not including data from the many studies that show a significant benefit from exercise.

For the study, published in the Sept. 27 online edition of the BMJ, the researchers analyzed 30 studies conducted between 1990 and 2012 involving children aged 16 and under.

This type of study, known as a meta-analysis, is used to find common threads running through multiple studies. Problems with this type of analysis can arise from the weakness of any of the studies included and the difficulty of combining disparate data.

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Exercise Programs for Kids Seem to Have Little Impact: Study

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Home » Exercise Programs » Exercise Programs for Kids Seem to Have Little Impact: Study