{"id":872,"date":"2017-10-23T10:53:29","date_gmt":"2017-10-23T10:53:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.shu.ac.uk\/hwbstaffnews\/?p=872"},"modified":"2017-10-23T10:53:29","modified_gmt":"2017-10-23T10:53:29","slug":"childhood-obesity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.ac.uk\/hwbstaffnews\/2017\/10\/23\/childhood-obesity\/","title":{"rendered":"Childhood Obesity"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
Hallam academic writes a piece for the Conversation looking at childhood obesity and how tackling it is about more than just diet and exercise. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Professor David Morley, Professor of Youth Sport and physical activity has written an article for the Conversation<\/a> about the worrying growing trend of obesity in children. The article looks at how a change in lifestyles has meant limited opportunities for children to access physical activity, such as playing on a screen rather than going outside. He references a new movement assessment app called Start to Move, which is based on an assessment tool that enables primary school teachers to measure, record and track the fundamental movement skills of children aged four to seven years old, exploring viable solutions to try and reverse this trend of obesity amongst children.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

A recent\u00a0World Health Organisation report<\/a>\u00a0revealed that the number of obese children and adolescents \u2013 aged five to 19 years \u2013 worldwide has risen tenfold in the past four decades.<\/p>\n

Worryingly, it also predicts that \u201cobese\u201d is likely to become the new norm. The report stated that:<\/p>\n

If current trends continue, more children and adolescents will be obese than moderately or severely underweight by 2022.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The number of overweight or obese infants and young children increased from 32m globally in 1990 to\u00a041m in 2016<\/a>. The vast majority of overweight or obese children live in developing countries, where the rate of increase has been more than 30% higher than that of developed countries.<\/p>\n

And in the UK,\u00a0recent research<\/a>\u00a0shows that 9% of four and five year-olds are now classed as obese \u2013 with the proportion rising to 20% for 10 to 11-year-olds.<\/p>\n

Efforts to reverse this growing trend have mainly focused on two aspects of a child\u2019s life: diet and physical activity. The aim has been to try and regulate a child\u2019s dietary habits by decreasing calorific intake. This is most commonly through the reduction in sugar, while at the same time boosting the amount of exercise children get.<\/p>\n

But what is often ignored is a child\u2019s ability to move effectively. It is one thing to say that a child should be more physically active, but quite another for a child to develop the competence and confidence required to engage in physical activity.<\/p>\n

Changing lifestyles<\/h2>\n

Most adults tend to think this is something that will happen naturally as part of child\u2019s development \u2013 through play and sports participation. But because of the way the world has changed over recent decades \u2013 think less time for running around outside and more time inside looking at screens \u2013 opportunities for children to move are in decline.<\/p>\n

In this way, a child\u2019s \u201cplay radius\u201d \u2013 the distance a child travels from their home to play \u2013\u00a0has shrunk by 90% in a single generation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A decrease in walking and an increase in transport by car, train or bus also limits children\u2019s opportunities to play. Combine this with the\u00a0lack of specialist physical education teachers in primary schools<\/a>\u00a0and the result is children\u2019s movement development can no longer be left to chance.<\/p>\n

\"\"
The way children play has changed.<\/span>\u00a0Pexels<\/span><\/span><\/figcaption>
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Effective movement for children in the early stages of development, (roughly four to seven years of age) can be assessed by their ability to perform fundamental movement skills. This includes how they run, catch, throw and balance. These skills are often viewed as the building blocks for participation in sport and physical activity. And there is growing evidence that supports the positive relationship between \u201cmovement competence\u201d and physical activity in\u00a0early childhood<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 showing the importance of appropriate movement skills for children.<\/p>\n

Evidence suggests that the \u201cmovement competence\u201d of four to seven year-olds, in the UK, is average or below average in relation to their peers\u00a0in most other countries<\/a>, which, alongside childhood obesity levels, clearly indicates the UK\u2019s poor standing in children\u2019s health.<\/p>\n

Getting children moving<\/h2>\n

But one glimmer of hope comes from a new movement assessment app called\u00a0Start to Move<\/a>. The app is based on an assessment tool that enables primary school teachers \u2013 who are well placed to spot these skills \u2013 to measure, record and track the fundamental movement skills of children aged four to seven years old. And this data can then be used to help policymakers and practitioners alike recognise what support is needed to ensure all children have appropriate movement skills.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Let\u2019s get kids moving again.<\/span>\u00a0Pexels<\/span><\/span><\/figcaption>
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This is important because although findings from previous research studies are useful in providing a snapshot of children\u2019s \u201cmovement competence\u201d only a\u00a0very small number of children<\/a>\u00a0have been\u00a0measured<\/a>. So a more widespread understanding of children\u2019s movement is a positive next step \u2013 particularly as we stand, globally, on the brink of a situation where \u201cobese\u201d will be more common than \u201cunderweight\u201d.<\/p>\n

It is crucial then that every solution available is looked into to reverse this worrying trend, because it is clear that current methods are falling short in many places. But ultimately this is about more than just the figures and obesity rates, this is about making sure the next generation of adults are suitably prepared for a sustainable active lifestyle.<\/p>\n

Overweight kids: tackling childhood obesity is about more than just diet and\u00a0exercise first appeared on The Conversation 23 October 2017.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hallam academic writes a piece for the Conversation looking at childhood obesity and how tackling it is about more than just diet and exercise. Professor David Morley, Professor of Youth…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9105,"featured_media":873,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[29],"tags":[23,242,243,244,247,163,245,248,249,250,246],"class_list":["post-872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion","tag-academy-of-sport-and-physical-activity","tag-childhood-obesity","tag-diet","tag-exercise","tag-lifestyle","tag-physical-activity","tag-professor-david-morley","tag-scree-time","tag-who","tag-world-health-organisatin","tag-youth-sport"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.shu.ac.uk\/hwbstaffnews\/files\/2017\/10\/obesity.jpg?fit=1028%2C768&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8KEAX-e4","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2969,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.ac.uk\/hwbstaffnews\/2019\/01\/21\/how-can-movement-competence-combat-obesity\/","url_meta":{"origin":872,"position":0},"title":"How can ‘movement competence’ combat obesity?","author":"Mark Greene","date":"January 21, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"By Professor David Morley, Head of the Academy of Sport and Physical Activity, Professor of Youth Sport and Physical Activity. A recent World Health Organisation report revealed that the number of obese children and adolescents \u2013 aged five to 19 years \u2013 worldwide has risen tenfold in the past four\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.ac.uk\/hwbstaffnews\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.shu.ac.uk\/hwbstaffnews\/files\/2019\/01\/Movement-Competence.jpg?fit=1028%2C624&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.shu.ac.uk\/hwbstaffnews\/files\/2019\/01\/Movement-Competence.jpg?fit=1028%2C624&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.shu.ac.uk\/hwbstaffnews\/files\/2019\/01\/Movement-Competence.jpg?fit=1028%2C624&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.shu.ac.uk\/hwbstaffnews\/files\/2019\/01\/Movement-Competence.jpg?fit=1028%2C624&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2116,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.ac.uk\/hwbstaffnews\/2018\/06\/26\/professor-dave-morley-speaks-to-bbc-5live-about-pe-curriculum\/","url_meta":{"origin":872,"position":1},"title":"Professor Dave Morley speaks to BBC 5Live about PE Curriculum","author":"Sarah Briscoe","date":"June 26, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Professor David Morley, head of the University\u2019s Academy of Sport\u00a0and Physical Activity, was a guest on BBC Radio 5Live talking about how to get young children more physically active. 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