WHO: one in four teens worldwide report no active days in a week
A WHO study covering more than 3.2 million adolescents in 140 countries suggests some 240 million teens had no active day in a week. Girls lag behind boys, and there has been almost no progress in 15 years.
One in four adolescents aged 11 to 17 say they had no active days in the previous week, according to new global estimates from the World Health Organization (WHO). The WHO counts an active day as at least 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity. Extrapolated, the findings amount to some 240 million young people, the UN health agency said. The study was published in The Lancet Global Health. It draws on hundreds of population-based surveys from 140 countries and territories, covering more than 3.2 million teens. On average, the adolescents said they were active 2.7 days a week. Only 14 percent said they were active on all seven days. Girls are far less active than boys in almost every country and region, the WHO found. Some 28 percent of girls reported no active days, compared with 22 percent of boys. Only 11 percent of girls said they were active every day, against 17 percent of boys. Results vary widely between countries. In Namibia, Nepal and the Philippines, 40 percent of adolescents reported no active days. In Bangladesh and Serbia, more than 30 percent of…
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