Health Gem

If you do one thing this week...boost your own activity and the kids might follow

ARE YOU concerned that your kids might be doing too little physical activity? One way to encourage them could be to get going yourself. A study in the US encouraged both parents and children in 83 families to become more active as part of a family-based intervention designed to prevent excess weight gain in overweight and obese children aged seven to 14. In all families the mothers took part and 34 fathers did too. And when the parents increased their steps in a day, as measured by a pedometer, the researchers found that the children generally took more steps too. The findings are in the Journal of Physical Activity and Health.

“It has long been known that parent and child activity levels are correlated,” says researcher Dr Kristen Holm from National Jewish Health, Denver. “This is the first intervention-based study to prospectively demonstrate that when parents increase their activity, children increase theirs as well. The effect was more pronounced on weekends.”