title: Physical activity for children in elementary schools: time for a rethink?
abstract: In spite of the well-known benefits of physical activity, the vast majority of children in North America do not meet current international guidelines for accumulating sufficient health-enhancing physical activity. Indeed, despite considerable attention to this population health crisis, the current prevalence of inactivity, along with its concomitant health consequences, shows little sign of abating. In this paper, we identify acknowledged barriers to wide scale physical activity adoption and maintenance at the population level among children and propose a viable tripartite framework (albeit one that would require political support) that we hope will provide the basis for debate and implementation. We emphasize that each of these considerations, in isolation, would be insufficient to substantively address the problem, but when combined would ensure that all elementary school children (without any medical contraindication) are sufficiently active, rather than the minority of this population.
authors.affiliation: Psychology of Exercise, Health, and Physical Activity Laboratory, School of Kinesiology, The University of British Columbia, War Memorial Gym, 122 - 6081 University Blvd., Vancouver, V6T 1Z1, Canada. mark.beauchamp@ubc.ca.
authors.forename: Mark R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Beauchamp
authors.affiliation: University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada.
authors.forename: Ryan E
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: Rhodes
authors.affiliation: University of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI, USA.
authors.forename: Claudio R
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Nigg
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D015444:Exercise / Q000502:physiology*; D006291:Health Policy / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D009656:North America; D012572:School Health Services / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D012574:Schools / Q000458:organization & administration*
keywords: Children; Physical activity; Policy; Population health