Adolescents in India comparatively more active than their peers globally: WHO

Adolescents in India are comparatively more active than their peers globally, according to a WHO study which says factors such as increased domestic chores among girls and the focus on sports like cricket among boys contribute to their physical activity.

In a first of its kind study on global and regional trends among 11 to 17-year-olds, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said that around 80 per cent of the adolescents globally do less than 60 minutes of activity per day the minimum daily recommendation.

The study, based on data reported by 1.6 million 11 to 17-year-old students, finds that across all 146 countries studied between 2001-2016 girls were less active than boys in all but four nations - Tonga, Samoa, Afghanistan and Zambia).

The study, published in The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health journal and produced by researchers from the WHO, said that 85 per cent of girls failed to do enough globally, while 78 per cent of boys did not meet current recommendations of at least one hour of physical activity per day.

"From 2001 to 2016 we found that there's been no improvement in patterns of activity in this age groupone hour out of their lives each day to be physically active and to get a health benefit from being physically active," said the WHO study co-author Leanne Riley.

"That can be made up of different small chunks of their time, anything that adds up to 60 minutes."
The quite low prevalence of insufficient activity in boys in Bangladesh and India "might be explained by the strong focus on national sports, such as cricket, which is frequently played unstructured in local communities."
"These two countries reported the lowest prevalence in female insufficient activity in our study, potentially explained by societal factors, such as girls being required to support activity and domestic chores around the home."