WHO Emerging issue : Children, mobility and environmental health

Many children, as well as adults, are regularly consuming more calories than they can reasonably expend given current activity patterns . In one recent Scottish study, for example, median time spent in moderate to vigorous physical activity represented only 2 % of monitored hours among children age three years, and 4 % among children age five years. The total level of low energy expenditure in the children in the study was 200 kcals below estimated average energy requirements for children of this age.

Not only does a sedentary lifestyle have implications for physical fitness, per se, it also has profound implications for physical, cognitive, and psychosocial development. Children who are unable to safely explore their neighborhood are denied a vital experience – the chance to test themselves socially, mentally and physically in small real-life situations that prepare them for the wider world.

One key factor in the increasingly sedentary lifestyle of children may be the decline in opportunities for children to move about safely and independently on foot or by bicycle in the communities where they live. Rising motorization, perceived risk of accident or injury from traffic, and the disappearance, or perceived disappearance, of safe urban spaces where children may walk, cycle and play, all appear to be important factors constricting childhood mobility today .

In addition to traffic and air pollution, poor children in the mega-cities of the developing world may play in spaces that contain sewage, hazardous waste, and other serious environmental hazards. For all but very young children, however, the simple construction of static playgrounds, is not the solution. Children over the pre-school age typically need and seek out activities that involve movement – riding bicycles, roller skating, and moving in and out of the homes of friends.

The promotion of simple, routine childhood activities, such as walking and cycling around the neighbourhood, and to and from school, via designated clean and safe routes, is one simple way in which policymakers can promote opportunities for children to move independently and increase their physical activity levels.

The development of planned, mixed use and medium density neighbourhoods, with good sidewalks and cycling networks, can be a critical element permitting children to move about more safely and easily on their own. A key environmental health challenge of the future, then, in terms of childhood mobility, is not to get children off of the streets -- but to make streets safe for children.

Source: WHO