Health and Fitness:

Rx for Slim Kids: Inline Skating
Report cites skating as top way to avoid childhood obesity

By Planet staff
Wednesday, Jan. 9, 2008

Inline skating and other wheeled sports are at the top of the list of activities that help kids stay slim and fit.

The list is part of a new report in the January issue of the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.

The report confirmed the obvious: that kids who are physically active are less likely to become overweight adults.

But it also dug deeper and determined which activities appeared to provide the most protection against obesity.

The answer: "wheel-related activities," such as inline skating and bicycling.

"The likelihood of being an overweight adult was reduced most (i.e. 48 percent) by performing certain wheel-related activities (i.e. rollerblading, roller skating, skateboarding or bicycling) more than four times per week," the authors say.

Physical education in schools also helps. For every weekday that teens participated in physical education at school, their risk of being overweight as young adults was reduced by 5 percent, the report says. Those who had physical education five days per week had 28 percent lower odds of being overweight as young adults.

The report was written by David Menschik, M.D., and several colleagues. The group reviewed data from 3,345 teens in grades 8 through 12 who participated in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health.

In 1996, participants took an in-home survey on how often they did physical activities both at school and outside of school. They then reported their height and weight five years late.

The report found that about 16 percent of U.S. teens are overweight or obese. Eighty-five percent of obese adolescents become obese adults.

(One way that educators can encourage their students to skate is through Rollerblade's Skate in School program.)

...

• More Health and Fitness