CDC Report Says Only 1 in 5 Children Get Enough Exercise; Why Not Add Golf to Your Child's Activity?

ByLindsay Hock

New Report: Only One in Four Children Gets Enough Exercise

There is some good news from the new CDC study, Sallis shared. "All of the girls' top five activities provide continuous movement." 
According to the report, girls favored running, then walking, basketball, dancing and bike riding.

Although U.S. health experts recommend that children engage in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity for at least 60 minutes daily, only one in four actually does so, according to a new report by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), part of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

However, about 60 percent of boys surveyed and 49 percent of girls did get an hour of physical activity five days or more each week, according to study researcher Tala Fakhouri.

Overall, Fakhouri said, the researchers aren't happy with the findings. "This is not enough. I think we can do better," said Fakhouri, an epidemiologist with the NCHS.

The new findings come at a time when child obesity is a growing concern and there's a nationwide push to get kids more active. Our award-winning GoGirlGo! program has been addressing the needs of inactive and underserved girls for more than a decade. Learn more about GoGirlGo! here. 

The CDC researchers used 2012 data from the combined National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) and the NHANES National Youth Fitness Survey. The findings are published in the January issue of the NCHS Data Brief.

Kids covered in the report were ages 12 to 15. 

Boys were more likely than girls to meet the 60 minutes a day recommendation, with 27 percent of them doing so. Among girls, 22.5 percent met the requirement.

The researchers also found that nearly eight percent of kids did not get in any moderate-to-vigorous physical activity for an hour on any day of the week.