Children in Belgium are exercising less than ten years ago. Of the children between three and nine years old, just 31% reach the recommended level of exercise.
Nearly half (46%) of children aged three to nine years old walk, cycle or use a scooter to get to school and spend an hour less sitting than ten years ago, but they are still moving less, a study by the Sciensano national health institute found.
"Our most recent survey shows that few children meet these physical activity guidelines. This number has generally decreased compared to our previous survey in 2014-2015," said Vicka Versele, a researcher at Sciensano.
Generally, 69% of children aged between three and nine years old do not meet those guidelines.
Screen time
When broken down by gender, less than 20% of girls exercise sufficiently. Boys score slightly better: 42.5% move sufficiently. There are also regional differences, children in Flanders (36%) move more than in Wallonia (25%).
The number of adolescents exceeding the guideline of two hours of screen time per day has also increased since the previous survey from 2014-2015. The percentage of children and adolescents exceeding the recommended guideline of screen time is higher among families with a low level of education.
"We see that children and adolescents from families with parents with a high level of education on average do more moderate to high-intensity exercise and have less screen time than children and adolescents growing up in a family with parents with a low level of education," said Versele.
"This is probably because parents with a high level of education have more resources to enroll their child in a sports club, and are also more aware of the benefits of physical activity," she added.
Credit: Belga
Sciensano conducted a study that surveyed the physical activity of the Belgian population during the period 2022-2023.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines, children should exercise for at least one hour a day. Children aged three to four years old should exercise at least 180 minutes a day, 60 minutes of which should be moderate to high-intensity exercise.
Those aged five to 17 years old should get an average of one hour of moderate or high-intensity exercise a day, including at least three days a week at high intensity.
