Decline in children's fitness due to lack of bike, walk infrastructure called "shocking"

KFVS News covered a story with some important ramifications for our childrens' health and for our community design and infrastructure:

Children across the globe can't run as far or as fast as their parents did at their age, according to new research.

In a one-mile footrace, a kid today would finish a minute and a half behind a typical child from 1975, said study lead author Grant Tomkinson, a senior lecturer in the University of South Australia's School of Health Sciences.

"We all live in an environment that's toxic for exercise, and our children are paying the price," Tomkinson said.

Children today are about 15 percent less aerobically fit than their parents were as youngsters, Tomkinson and his colleagues discovered. In the United States it's even worse -- kids' heart endurance fell an average 6 percent in each of the three decades from 1970 to 2000.

These levels of fitness in childhood will more than likely result in worse health in adulthood, Tomkinson said. Kids will have weaker hearts and thinner bones, and an overall lower quality of life.

Tomkinson is scheduled to present his findings Tuesday at the American Heart Association's annual meeting in Dallas.

Sam Kass, executive director of Michelle Obama's Let's Move! initiative, called the results of the one-mile cross-generational footrace "shocking."

"It's clear over the last four decades we've been in a cycle of inactivity, and that's leading to some devastating health outcomes," Kass said.

MoBikeFed's Vision for Bicycling and Walking in Missouri envisions the creation of a world-class, connected, and safe bicycle, pedestrian, and trails system across the state and in every community. The Missouri Safe Routes to School Coalition works to make Missouri communities safer and more inviting for children to walk and bike to school and other activities.  Your membership and support helps turn our Vision into reality!