The report found that less than one-fifth of children and teenagers with disabilities on the island of Ireland participate in the recommended daily exercise.
The 2022 report, Northern and Southern Ireland Report Card on Physical Activity for Children and Adolescents, rated children’s overall physical activity levels as a minus C grade, and activity levels for children with disabilities as an F grade. was assigned.
This means that 40-46% of children and adolescents are engaging in recommended physical activity, an improvement from 2016, when 27-33% of adolescents achieved minimum levels of activity.
The report, which assessed physical activity in children and adolescents with disabilities for the first time this year, found that less than 20% of children and adolescents with disabilities were not reaching minimum activity levels.
Children between the ages of 6 and 17 are recommended to get at least 60 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity per day, or an average of 60 minutes per day over the course of a week.
Dr Kwok Kung of the University of Limerick, one of the investigators involved in the analysis of the new disability grades published in the 2022 report, told PA News Agency: Presence or absence of disability, physical disability, or intellectual disability.
“We recognize, of course, that there are challenges presented by children with different types of disabilities, but the evidence nonetheless shows that there are still health benefits to be gained from the same level of recommendations.”
The report also found that children with disabilities need more support from family and peers to be physically active compared to the general population.
Dr. Ng continues: They may need to rely on transportation to get somewhere, which is not always accessible.
“And this is one of the things we’re going to address is that there’s this huge gap and there has to be a way to address it.
“We want to give them the same opportunity so that they can try to exercise as much as possible … and we have to be able to provide them with the opportunity to do that.”
Despite modest improvements in overall physical activity levels across the island of Ireland since 2016, the report identifies many inequalities in achieving this recommended minimum. did.
More men than women met the guidelines. Younger children were more likely than adolescents to meet the guidelines. People from lower socioeconomic backgrounds also met the guidelines less frequently.
We also found that future reports should consider the impact of Covid-19 restrictions and the pandemic on overall physical activity when more robust data become available.
Dr. Helen McAvoy, director of policy at the Institute of Public Health, said of the findings:
“Although progress has been made, strategic investments are clearly needed to accelerate progress and extend the benefits of physical activity to all children, including disadvantaged and disabled children. is.”
Dr Angela Karlin from the University of Ulster School of Sport, Chair of the Research Working Group, said: Children and their teens in poorer circumstances meet the guidelines less frequently.
“The findings highlight the need to address these inequalities and give all children and teenagers equal opportunities to be physically active and healthy.”
The 2022 report card is the third report of its kind in Ireland and Northern Ireland and will assess physical activity among adolescents on 11 indicators.
The Ireland Report Card was developed as part of the Active Healthy Kids Global Alliance, founded in 2014. The Active Healthy Kids Global Alliance was founded to promote movement and physical activity in children and adolescents.
The Irish Report Card is funded by Public Health Service, Health Ireland, Sport Northern Ireland, Sport Ireland and the Institute of Public Health.
