[Significance of physical activity in childhood--a cardiometabolic view]

Unfavorable diet and lack of physical activity are frequently underlying childhood and juvenile obesity. Recommendations for physical activity advise children under school age to move at least two hours per day and children of school age at least 1 to 2 hours per day. The fact that these recommendations are, however, not met among Finnish children, is reflected in physical activity also in adulthood. Immobility and obesity often develop into a mutually reinforcing vicious circle that predisposes to an increasingly early appearance of cardiometabolic risk factors.