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U.S. Children Continue to Struggle with Meeting Physical Activity Guidelines

Report evaluates several indicators and gives physical activity a “D-” grade

OCTOBER 24, 2022 – Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates – The 2022 United States Report Card on Physical Activity for Children and Youth was released along with report cards from 56 other countries. Children and youth around the world are not moving enough to promote healthy growth and development, and the COVID-19 pandemic only made matters worse, according to the global report released today. 

The report by the Active Healthy Kids Global Alliance (AHKGA) compared 57 countries from six continents to assess global levels and trends in child and adolescent physical activity, resulting in the “Global Matrix 4.0” comparison of grades. The report revealed that modern lifestyles – increases in digital screen time, the growing urbanization of communities and the rise in automation of previously manual tasks – are contributing to a pervasive yet unequally distributed public health problem that must be recognized as a global priority. 

“The Global Matrix 4.0 represents the largest compilation of information to date on indicators related to the physical activity of children and adolescents, and the data show a failing grade,” said Professor Mark Tremblay, President of the AHKGA and Senior Scientist at the CHEO Research Institute in Canada. “New habits have been formed by children and adolescents around the world in response to the new normal provoked by a socially accepted screen-centric indoor living society and exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, global conflicts and severe weather associated with climate change”. 

“Compared to many countries, the United States has excellent infrastructure for physical activity in children and youth” reported Dr. Peter Katzmarzyk, Chair of the U.S. Report Card Research Advisory Committee and Associate Executive Director for Population and Public Health Science at Pennington Biomedical Research Institute. “However, children and youth continue to struggle to meet the physical activity guidelines, receiving grades of D- for overall physical activity, D- for active transportation, and D for sedentary behaviors”. The 2022 United States Report Card on Physical Activity for Children and Youth is available for download from the Physical Activity Alliance website.

About the Physical Activity Alliance

The Physical Activity Alliance is committed to leading efforts to create, support, and advocate policy and system changes that enable all Americans to enjoy physically active lives. Three national organizations (the National Physical Activity Plan Alliance, the National Physical Activity Society, and the National Coalition for Promoting Physical Activity) merged as the foundation for the Physical Activity Alliance, which promotes

policies and systems to help make the active choice the easy choice. To this end, the Physical Activity Alliance and its partners are responsible for the development and dissemination of the National Physical Activity Plan. A Board of Directors, composed of representatives of organizational partners and at-large experts on physical activity and public health, governs the Physical Activity Alliance and at-large experts on

physical activity and public health.

About the Active Healthy Kids Global Alliance Global Matrix 4.0 Project

The global comparisons were led by the Active Healthy Kids Global Alliance (AHKGA;

www.activehealthykids.org), a registered not-for-profit organization made up of researchers, health professionals, and stakeholders who work together to advance physical activity in children and adolescents around the world. AHKGA’s vision is a world of active healthy kids, with a mission to power the global movement to get kids moving through thought leadership, knowledge translation and mobilization, capacity building, and advocacy. The dominant effort of the AHKGA to date has been its Global Matrix initiative. Each participating country’s research process to determine grades was based on a harmonized framework and standardized grading rubric. Ten common indicators were compared: Overall Physical Activity, Organized Sport and Physical Activity, Active Play, Active Transportation, Sedentary Behavior, Physical Fitness, Family and Peers, School, Community and Environment, and Government. Report Cards from each of the 57 countries, as well as the results of the global comparisons, were presented at the 9th International Society for Physical Activity and Health Congress in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, and published in the Journal of Physical Activity and Health on October 24, 2022. Complete details of the Global Matrix 4.0, each country’s leaders, grades, report cards, priorities for action and more are available at www.activehealthykids.org. The

“Global Matrix 1.0” (2014, 15 countries), “Global Matrix 2.0” (2016, 38 countries), and Global Matrix 3.0 (2018, 49 countries) findings are also available on the AHKGA website.

Further information on solutions to “improve the grade” is available at:

https://paamovewithus.org

www.activehealthykids.org

www.participaction.com/en-ca

https://ispah.org/resources/key-resources/8-investments/

https://www.who.int/news-room/initiatives/gappa/action-plan

For more information, please contact:

• Dr. Peter Katzmarzyk, Chair, U.S. Report Card Research Advisory Committee
• Dr. Mark Tremblay, President, AHKGA
• Dr. Salomé Aubert, AHKGA Global Matrix 4.0 Research Fellow

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