Ten thousand steps and more. How can an increase in physical activity at school reverse obesity curves? Nearly one in three European children aged 7 to 9 (31% of boys and 28% of girls) is overweight and, among them, 11.6% suffer from obesity, according to a report by the World Health Organization health (WHO), published in 2021. It was one in four in 2010. This increase is not just in Europe: obesity rates in children and adolescents around the world have increased from less than 1% in 1975 to almost 6% among girls and 8% among boys in 2016.
A study, published on February 22 in the journal Obesityconducted by research teams from the universities of Zagreb (Croatia) and Ljubljana (Slovenia), has shown, in children aged 6 to 14 attending schools in Slovenia, that two to three lessons of physical education and sports (EPS) supplements per week helped to prevent childhood obesity.
From 2011 to 2018, 34,000 students from 216 Slovenian schools took part in this program called Healthy Lifestyle. They attended two additional weekly PE sessions, which corresponds to approximately one hour more per day. Sessions which are added to the usual PE classes, and take place at the end of class hours. Different sports were offered, freedom being given to each teacher to choose the content of the interventions.
The children were divided according to their weight (normal, overweight, obese) and were compared to a control group which had “only” standard PE classes. Conclusion: those who had followed the program saw their body mass index (the weight divided by the square of the height in meters) drop from the third year, to reach a peak improvement of 1.4 kilos per meter square meter for girls and 0.9 kilograms per square meter for boys, with the greatest improvement in children affected by obesity. “A healthy lifestyle is effective in reversing obesity, reaching its maximum effectiveness after five years of participation”observe the authors.
A pivotal period
“This is a very interesting study, which shows the importance of the duration of a program promoting physical activity in the fight against overweight and obesity in children, but also the importance of school environment. It is an essential playground”, observes Jérémy Vanhelst, from the nutritional epidemiology research team (Inserm, Inrae, CNAM, Sorbonne Paris Nord University). Gold “It’s a pivotal period during which lifestyle habits are built and established to last until adulthood”, continues the researcher. He had already coordinated a study, published in The Journal of Pediatrics in 2015, showing that moderate physical activity has a beneficial effect on attention in adolescents aged 12 to 17. The family environment is also very important in the practice of physical activity in children, he underlines today. Reversing the trends is essential, and this is the whole point of the program of thirty minutes of physical activity at school which was generalized in France in September 2022.
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