- Sedentary activities have been increasing in children and adolescents since the start of confinement.
- More screen time, and less physical activity.
- However, a sedentary lifestyle is not without harmful effects on the health of the youngest.
Home school, increased screen time. More video games and less sport. If children were already too sedentary in France, this trend has worsened considerably with the confinement linked to the Covid-19 epidemic, and is likely to persist for a long time, warns a sports expert doctor on the basis of a new study * published this Thursday.
The study, carried out before and just after confinement, shows that the predominantly sedentary activities among young people aged 6 to 18 (TV, Internet, video games, etc.) greatly increased during confinement. They represented 33.3 hours on average per week, compared to 22.6 hours before confinement, an increase of almost 50%. A sedentary lifestyle harmful to the health of the youngest.
14% of youth did not participate in sports at all during confinement
In detail, young people report spending an average of 10 hours per week watching television (compared to 6.7 hours before confinement), 7.7 hours using the Internet (compared to 5.2 hours), 7.2 hours to play video games (against 4.7), 5.1 hours to chat with their friends via social networks and by SMS (against 3.7 hours). There is little cheering news: their time spent reading has increased by an hour. An increase in sedentary activities that occurred at the expense of sport, which decreased in children and adolescents during confinement, from 3.5 hours in early March to 2.7 hours per week, according to reports. By adding activities such as walking or cycling, children spent an average of 5.5 hours per week in physical activity during confinement (compared to 6.1 hrs before).
Maintaining a certain level of physical activity during confinement remains irregular and insufficient: 6 out of 10 children did not have physical activity every day, whereas the WHO recommendation is one hour per day. day. Even more worrying, 14% of young people did not participate in sports at all during this period, a rate that climbs to 20% among high school students. A confinement with serious consequences: some children "who have not been out at all for three months find themselves with a deficit in their capacities: they cannot climb a floor", worries Professor Jean-François Toussaint, director from the Institute of Biomedical Research and Epidemiology of Sport (IRMES).
Less sport, more screen and snacking
"My sons were already spending time on their video games, but during confinement, their time on the screens increased even more," admits Pauline, mother in her forties of three teenagers. I was very vigilant about school attendance, but it's true that between the end of school, the impossibility of going out, no longer seeing my friends, I let go of the rest a bit , and we had more fun for snacks, with more homemade cakes and treats, says the mother. I did encourage them to cycle in the garden, but it was not always successful. And for my youngest son, whose soccer training stopped overnight, it was difficult, and I see that he has gained some weight in the past three months. ”
"It's been known for a long time, a sedentary lifestyle has deleterious effects on children's health: it promotes weight gain, with the temptation of screens and snacking on foods high in sugar to stave off boredom, explains Dr. Jean Lalau-Kéraly, pediatric nutritionist specializing in childhood obesity. I received in consultation a teenage girl who spent four hours a day just on her smartphone! The lack of physical activity, the explosion of time spent on screens - whose blue light disrupts the secretion of melatonin and causes sleep disturbances - all this has consequences for the intellectual faculties and causes disorders of concentration ”, warns the nutritionist pediatrician.
"Resuming school is a very good thing"
The same goes for Public Health France, which is also publishing a study this week on the sedentary lifestyle of the French, which increased during confinement, especially among young adults, but also children and adolescents. "These results confirm the need to strengthen the actions to combat the sedentary lifestyle of young adults, but also of children and adolescents, who are not very sensitive to long periods of time spent sitting or lying down, unlike older people" indicates Anne- Juliette Serry, head of the nutrition and physical activity unit at Santé publique France.
So, to prevent this additional sedentary lifestyle from settling at the expense of children's health, "we must give them as much access as possible to all physical and sports activities during the two weeks of school that remain and the great vacation, "insists Professor Toussaint. This is why "the return to school for all children is a very good thing," says Dr. Lalau-Kéraly. Especially since we know that children are not vectors of Covid-19 transmission, that their exposure to other coronaviruses, such as colds and other winter diseases, probably created in them a form of cross immunity " Fortunately, "it is never too late in pediatrics to correct the situation," says the pediatrician, optimistic. It will be enough to take advantage of the summer to do outdoor activities, cycling or swimming, and the harmful effects of confinement will only be a bad memory ”.
* Study carried out online by Harris Interactive for the Assurance Prévention / IRMES association, which took place in two stages (February 26-March 2 and May 28-June 4) each time with a representative sample of a thousand children.
Health
Coronavirus: Finally, children would not be major vectors of Covid-19 transmission
Health
Too many screens, too sedentary ... Too few French people practicing physical activity
- Nutrition
- Physical activity
- Child
- Teenager
- Coronavirus
- Confinement
- Health