School Sports Participants
Grow Into Active Adults

Raise kids to play sports, and you may also raise future generations of healthier adults, according to new research.

Investigators found that adults who use some of their free time to exercise were more than three times as likely as inactive adults to have participated in organized sports as children.

Consequently, taking the time to teach kids how to play sports and to encourage enjoyable activities could give them a lifelong appreciation of exercise and, as a result, better health, study author Dr. Allen Kraut told Reuters Health.

During the study, Kraut and his colleagues asked 3687 male Israeli industrial workers if they spent at least 30 minutes of their leisure time each week exercising.

Participants were considered to have played sports as children if they participated in organized activities for at least one year, apart from required physical education classes in school.

Only 21 percent of the men interviewed said they engaged in at least 30 minutes of physical activity each week, and less than 3 percent of participants got at least half an hour of exercise on at least 5 days per week, Kraut and his colleagues report in the journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise.

Currently, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend that people receive at least 30 minutes of exercise on most days of the week.

In an interview, Kraut, who is based at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, noted that whether or not kids enjoy physical activity may have a large impact on whether or not they keep it up as adults.

Indeed, a previous study found that people who were forced to exercise as children tended to exercise less as adults.

"It seems to make sense that if you liked (activity), you'll continue to do it. And if you didn't like it, you'll stop," he said.

Consequently, fostering a lifelong appreciation for exercise may involve "trying to package it in a way (kids) will enjoy it," Kraut said.

SOURCE: Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, December 2003.

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