Outdoor Education Advisers' Panel

Sedentary lifestyles are making children less fit - even among those who are not obese, a study suggests.

Essex University staged fitness tests on 600 10-year-olds a decade apart in an area with low levels of obesity.

They found significant falls in fitness levels, concluding the average 10-year-old in 1998 could beat 95% of youngsters in 2008 in running tests.

The researchers said the focus on obesity was obscuring the health risks of wider declines in fitness levels.

Children are routinely weighed and measured in schools in England as part of the government's drive to tackle rising obesity rates, but there is no equivalent for fitness.

BBC article on study

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8425161.stm