Active play: an important physical activity strategy in the fight against childhood obesity

To quantify and compare the number of calories that school-aged Canadian children expend to meet established benchmarks for active play and organized physical activities (i.e., organized sport, physical education, active transportation).

This study was informed by the benchmarks (i.e., amount of activity a child needs to be sufficiently active) and grades (i.e., how Canada as a country is doing) for the physical activity domains included in the Active Healthy Kids Canada Report Card on Physical Activity for Children and Youth. Established physical activity energy expenditure data were used to calculate the number of calories that the average 6-11 year old child would expend to meet the Report Card physical activity benchmarks. The increase in energy expenditure at the population-level that would occur if each Report Card grade was to improve by one letter grade was estimated based on the aforementioned estimates and the proportion of the population impacted should the grade improve.

When averaged across all 365 days of the year, the average 6-11 year old Canadian would expend an added 186 kcal/day to meet the active play benchmark, 23 kcal/day to meet the organized sport benchmark, 6 kcal/day to meet the physical education benchmark, and 16 kcal/day to meet the active transportation to school benchmark. Increasing the Report Card grades for these four domains would address 37%, 1%, 1%, and 3% of the energy gap, respectively.

Initiatives aimed at increasing physical activity in an attempt to address childhood obesity should include an active play component.