U.S. Report Card on Physical Activity for Children and Youth [Podcast Series]

Dr. Peter Katzmarzyk is Professor at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center at Louisiana State University.
He was Committee Chair of the 2022 U.S. Report Card Research Advisory Committee.

“And, as you mentioned, in 2014, that was the first kind of international global matrix, we called it, of report cards. And that's where the U.S. jumped in with our first 2014 report card of physical activity for children and youth.”

“In terms of the actual infrastructure for physical activity, we do fairly well when we're stacked up against other countries. However, where we kind of fall down is on the actual behaviors themselves. So when we actually measure physical activity in the children or sedentary behavior, active transportation, it becomes apparent that we're not taking advantage of that physical activity infrastructure. And we're not really maximizing those opportunities.”

“So those sorts of things where people are no longer living adjacent to their schools. And many kids don't have kind of community schools in their neighborhoods. We don't. And so there's all this going on in society, which has really, I think, changed that way of life.”

“This is just a volunteer committee, where we have a series of meetings over a year—it takes about a year to put this thing together—where we first identify the indicators that we want to provide grades for—physical activity, sedentary behavior, active transportation, organized sport participation.”

“Well, there is still cause for concern with the low numbers of children who are physically active and participating in physical activity. But there are a few bright spots, really, and I think we have these opportunities that will allow us to help move the needle here. So, of course, we get a D- for overall physical activity, which has remained constant over time. Really, it's about one in five kids are meeting the physical activity guidelines.”

“I think, because we have this report card that highlights the issues, then it comes around to the partnerships, with the Physical Activity Alliance, and all those organizations that are part of that, because they've really stepped up. And when we released the report card, we released the data and the report card, but then it's the partners that can really take action.”

“And sedentary behavior has been one of our key indicators over time. And what we really noticed this time, which you just alluded to, was screens are changing, the way that the kids interact with screens is changing the way they get their sedentary behavior. So we have a lot of recommendations in the report card this time about changing our surveillance efforts around that…”

“The physical activity research community didn't just kind of go home and sit in their quarantine. They were working and they were working hard during COVID. So I was really impressed with what they came up with.”

“But now we really understand the importance of physical activity in the prevention of infectious disease. And not only its prevention, but prevention of complications.”

“As I mentioned, we have these core indicators and we kind of add and subtract to that. We have had a couple of them that have been there for a while that we've never been able to address. We've had to give an incomplete grade to a couple of these. One is active play, which is extremely important in our minds. And the other one is family and peers, and family and peers has been there forever. But we've never been able to give a grade.”

“By the opportunity, it's much bigger than that, it's by having that programming there and attracting the kids there, and the parents with them to be physically active. And so we need to continue to create those opportunities and to make it easier to be active. And I think the more we do that, the better off we'll be.”

Training Youth Sports Coaches, Officials and Directors [Podcast Series]