Poor Exercise in Teen Years Forms Later Habits for Adults

A US study suggests that poor exercise in teen years forms later habits for adults.

American teens who are sedentary often continue those patterns as they enter their adult years, leading to further obesity. Over 90 percent of adolescents do not get the minimum 60 minutes a day of moderate to vigorous daily physical activity as recommended by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), according to the report published in the journal Pediatrics.

“Physical inactivity is one of the major predictors of childhood and adolescent obesity, the consequences of which increases incidence of obesity as well as metabolic syndrome in adulthood,” said lead study author Kaigang Li, a researcher at Colorado State University in Fort Collins.

Over one third of children and teens are overweight or obese. According to the CDC, childhood obesity has more than doubled in children and quadrupled in adolescents in the past 30 years.

Li and colleagues assessed activity levels in teens by reviewing the exercise habits of a sample of 561 tenth grade students at 44 schools spread across rural, suburban, and urban communities.