Child exercise rates 'overestimate'

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Research into the activity levels of a group of children found they took far less exercise than their parents thought they did.

The study, published online in the Archives of Disease in Childhood, followed 130 children aged six and seven.

The amount of moderate to vigorous physical activity they undertook in seven days was estimated using a device called an accelerometer, which was attached to their belts. The results were compared with information supplied by their parents for the Health Survey for England - the questionnaire by which estimates of the nation's exercise habits are calculated.

Researchers found that the true level of exercise was around six times lower than that suggested by the Health Survey.

Guidelines suggest that children undertake at least 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous exercise a day, including taking part in sports, brisk walking and running.

Parents said their children were moderately to vigorously physically active for an average of 146 minutes per day.

But the accelerometer results put this figure at an average of 24 minutes a day - with boys doing 26 minutes and girls 22.

According to the survey data, 83% of boys and 56% of girls met the recommended daily amounts of exercise but the accelerometer put this at just 3% of boys and 2% of girls.

The authors, from Newcastle University and the University of Glasgow, suggested steps would be needed to improve monitoring in a bid to battle obesity and other weight-related diseases, including cancer.