Only 10 per cent of Maltese girls and 39 per cent of boys aged 10 and 11 do an hour of moderate or vigorous exercise a day, a local researcher has found.
Girls are less active than boys at all times but spend less time in front of a screen such as a mobile phone, tablet, television or computer, according to a published paper by Andrew Decelis.
The study reveals that 20 per cent of the sample of 811 boys and girls are overweight while 14 per cent are obese. However, boys are fatter than girls: 24 per cent are overweight compared with 16 per cent. Almost 15 per cent are obese compared with 13 per cent of girls.
Activities should be made more appealing to girls
Only a quarter meet the daily recommended 60 minutes of exercise. Boys are significantly more active than girls during all measured times with the highest amount of exercise done after school for an average of 24 minutes – seven minutes more than girls. During school, boys do around 20 minutes of exercise – 5.6 minutes more than girls.
Throughout the week, 44 per cent of the boys spend more than one hour playing on a games console or computer and this shoots up to 51 per cent at the weekend. These figures are considerably higher than those for girls as 28 per cent said they spend time in front of a screen in the week – increasing to 35 per cent at the weekend.
Almost a third of boys watch more than two hours of television on weekends compared with 20 per cent of girls.
Weight also seems to have a link with the time spent in front of television as 45 per cent of obese boys watch more than two hours compared with 30 per cent of overweight and 24 per cent of normal weight boys. During the week, 45 per cent of obese boys spend more time at a computer for chatting, e-mails or homework than overweight, 28 per cent, or normal weight, 25 per cent, boys.
No significant differences were observed in the screen time of girls in different weight categories.
When compared with international data, Maltese children are more active than American or Australian counterparts but are less active than English children. They also spend fewer hours in front of a screen than children in other countries.
The study indicates that, although Maltese children are quite active compared with children in other countries, they are still more likely to be obese. Additionally, Maltese boys are more active than girls throughout the week and also less sedentary on weekdays; however, boys are more overweight or obese
Called ‘Physical activity, Screen Time and Obesity Status in a Nationally Representative Sample of Maltese Youth with International Comparisons’, Mr Decelis published the study in the BioMed Central journal together with Russell Jago and Kenneth Fox. Last year the authors published a pilot study showing this particular group of Maltese children was second fattest in the world, surpassed only by the Greeks.
Mr Decelis, director of the University’s Physical Education and Sport Institute, wanted to look into the levels of physical activity and screen time patterns of Maltese boys and girls and how they compared with their foreign peers.
He recommended that a “whole school approach” to increase physical activity and said the development and implementation of physical activity policies “is a priority”.
Girls should also be encouraged to be as active and activities should be made more appealing to them. Mr Decelis said half an hour of daily exercise at school “is an achievable target for all children” and this could partly be achieved through daily PE lessons.
The study also recommends setting up after school sport programmes specifically targeting girls, together with more opportunities for unstructured play and access to open areas in the community.