Skip to main content

Main menu

  • Home
  • Articles
    • Current
    • Published Ahead of Print
    • Archive
    • Supplemental Issues
    • Collections - French
    • Collections - English
  • Info for
    • Authors & Reviewers
    • Submit a Manuscript
    • Advertisers
    • Careers & Locums
    • Subscribers
    • Permissions
  • About CFP
    • About CFP
    • About the CFPC
    • Editorial Advisory Board
    • Terms of Use
    • Contact Us
  • Feedback
    • Feedback
    • Rapid Responses
    • Most Read
    • Most Cited
    • Email Alerts
  • Blogs
    • Latest Blogs
    • Blog Guidelines
    • Directives pour les blogues
  • Mainpro+ Credits
    • About Mainpro+
    • Member Login
    • Instructions
  • Other Publications
    • http://www.cfpc.ca/Canadianfamilyphysician/
    • https://www.cfpc.ca/Login/
    • Careers and Locums

User menu

  • My alerts

Search

  • Advanced search
The College of Family Physicians of Canada
  • Other Publications
    • http://www.cfpc.ca/Canadianfamilyphysician/
    • https://www.cfpc.ca/Login/
    • Careers and Locums
  • My alerts
The College of Family Physicians of Canada

Advanced Search

  • Home
  • Articles
    • Current
    • Published Ahead of Print
    • Archive
    • Supplemental Issues
    • Collections - French
    • Collections - English
  • Info for
    • Authors & Reviewers
    • Submit a Manuscript
    • Advertisers
    • Careers & Locums
    • Subscribers
    • Permissions
  • About CFP
    • About CFP
    • About the CFPC
    • Editorial Advisory Board
    • Terms of Use
    • Contact Us
  • Feedback
    • Feedback
    • Rapid Responses
    • Most Read
    • Most Cited
    • Email Alerts
  • Blogs
    • Latest Blogs
    • Blog Guidelines
    • Directives pour les blogues
  • Mainpro+ Credits
    • About Mainpro+
    • Member Login
    • Instructions
  • RSS feeds
  • Follow cfp Template on Twitter
EditorialEditorial

Getting bums out of seats

Nicholas Pimlott
Canadian Family Physician September 2013, 59 (9) 911;
Nicholas Pimlott
Roles: SCIENTIFIC EDITOR
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • Article
  • eLetters
  • Info & Metrics
  • PDF
Loading
Figure

Walking is the best possible exercise. Habituate yourself to walk very far.

Thomas Jefferson

Children and adolescents are disproportionately affected by the global obesity epidemic, leading to adulthood compromised by early onset diabetes, heart disease, and degenerative arthritis.1 As a family medicine resident in the early 1990s, it was unheard of to see a teenager presenting with type 2 diabetes mellitus—the kind we used to call adult-onset diabetes—but I have now had that experience in my practice, and it is deeply disturbing. In industrialized countries, for the first time in more than a century, the life expectancy of young people might be less than that of their parents. If we think the so-called silver tsunami of aging boomers presents a challenge to our health care system, we haven’t seen anything yet.

There is an epidemic of obesity among our youth, but there is also a shadow epidemic of inactivity. Health Canada recommends that children and adolescents participate in activity for an hour or longer each day at a somewhat hard intensity in order to maintain good health.2 Most Canadian kids fall far short of that goal. A 2010 report3 showed that only 1 in 6 boys and 1 in 20 girls met this target, and a 2012 study showed that in the Saskatoon school system only 9% of boys and 6% of girls did.4 The numbers are similar in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia.

How did our children become so sedentary? Many blame screen time—television, computers, and video games. While these play their part, there is more to it. Indoctrination into this sedentary way of life starts early, usually when we first start school at the age of 4 or 5. The whole education system is predicated on sitting still in front of a teacher, blackboard, or computer for up to 6 hours a day. There isn’t enough physical education in schools. Recess, one of the brief periods in the day when kids get a break from sitting, is too short and, in northern countries like ours, by the time kids get their winter gear on and off, there isn’t much time left for running around. When I was growing up, hour-long physical education classes 3 times per week were mandatory even in high school. Now, in high school physical education is optional, and by the final 2 years most kids do no physical activity at school. Many kids are driven to and from school, even if they live just a few blocks away. Among girls other powerful forces are at work. Research shows that in high school peer pressure disproportionately affects girls, so fewer of them are active or participate in organized sport.

Physicians and other health professionals have been identified as potentially powerful agents of change in promoting physical activity, but most don’t do it in their practices. One US study showed that less than a third of the adult sample reported receiving advice about physical activity from their physicians and, of those who did, less than half got help making a plan or follow-up support.5 Sadly, most physicians lack the training, the knowledge, and often the time to do the job well. Perhaps that is why, in spite of recommendations, physicians don’t spend less time offering their patients screening tests and physical examinations and more time promoting physical activity. The medical literature shows that advice to exercise given by physicians is not highly effective in changing behaviour.6

If physicians can’t turn back this tide of inactivity, who can? The answer lies within us—in our communities and particularly in our schools. Leading researchers think that the most effective way to get and keep our children moving is through school- or community-based interventions.7

An example of just such a powerful intervention lies close to my home. In my neighbourhood a dedicated volunteer parent named Brent Lockridge approached physical education teacher John Ellis to start a cross-country running program for kids from grades 1 to 8. Within 2 years more than 300 kids—almost half the school—were running 3 to 5 mornings a week and racing in local and regional meets. I wondered how they did it, so I asked Brent. He emphasized 4 things: make the activity simple and accessible to all; make it fair—kids who show up to train get to race no matter their ability; manage parents’ expectations—he and John spent more time coaching parents to focus on participation instead of winning than they did coaching the kids to run; and make it congruent with the values of the community. It has been more than a decade now and every autumn during the first weeks of school dozens of children of all ages, shapes, sizes, and colours begin to stream past my house and down into a nearby park for their morning runs.

Footnotes

  • Cet article se trouve aussi en français à la page 912.

  • Competing interests

    This editorial is based on a talk given by Dr Pimlott at TEDx Stouffville on June 21, 2013.

  • Copyright© the College of Family Physicians of Canada

References

  1. ↵
    1. World Health Organization
    . The world health report 2002: reducing risk, promoting healthy life. Geneva, Switz: World Health Organization; 2002.
  2. ↵
    1. Public Health Agency of Canada
    . Canada’s physical activity guide for youth. Ottawa, ON: Government of Canada; 2007.
  3. ↵
    1. Active Healthy Kids Canada
    . The Active Healthy Kids Canada report card on physical activity for children and youth. Toronto, ON: Active Healthy Kids Canada; 2010.
  4. ↵
    1. Lemstra M,
    2. Nielsen G,
    3. Rogers M,
    4. Thompson A,
    5. Moranos J
    . Physical activity in youth. Prevalence, risk indicators, and solutions. Can Fam Physician 2012;58:e54-61. Available from: www.cfp.ca/content/58/1/e54.full.pdf+html. Accessed 2013 Jul 25.
    OpenUrlAbstract/FREE Full Text
  5. ↵
    1. Glasgow RE,
    2. Eakin EG,
    3. Fisher EB,
    4. Bacak SJ,
    5. Brownson RC
    . Physician advice and support for physical activity: results from a national survey. Am J Prev Med 2001;21(3):189-96.
    OpenUrlCrossRefPubMed
  6. ↵
    1. Petrella RJ,
    2. Latanzio CN
    . Does counseling help patients get active? Systematic review of the literature. Can Fam Physician 2002;48:72-80.
    OpenUrlAbstract/FREE Full Text
  7. ↵
    1. Salmon J,
    2. Arundell L,
    3. Hume C,
    4. Brown H,
    5. Hesketh K,
    6. Dunstan DW,
    7. et al
    . A cluster-randomized controlled trial to reduce sedentary behavior and promote physical activity and health of 8–9 year olds: the Transform-Us! study. BMC Public Health 2011;11:759.
    OpenUrlCrossRefPubMed
PreviousNext
Back to top

In this issue

Canadian Family Physician: 59 (9)
Canadian Family Physician
Vol. 59, Issue 9
1 Sep 2013
  • Table of Contents
  • About the Cover
  • Index by author
Print
Download PDF
Article Alerts
Sign In to Email Alerts with your Email Address
Email Article

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word on The College of Family Physicians of Canada.

NOTE: We only request your email address so that the person you are recommending the page to knows that you wanted them to see it, and that it is not junk mail. We do not capture any email address.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Getting bums out of seats
(Your Name) has sent you a message from The College of Family Physicians of Canada
(Your Name) thought you would like to see the The College of Family Physicians of Canada web site.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Citation Tools
Getting bums out of seats
Nicholas Pimlott
Canadian Family Physician Sep 2013, 59 (9) 911;

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
Respond to this article
Share
Getting bums out of seats
Nicholas Pimlott
Canadian Family Physician Sep 2013, 59 (9) 911;
del.icio.us logo Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo CiteULike logo Facebook logo Google logo Mendeley logo
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One

Jump to section

  • Article
    • Footnotes
    • References
  • Info & Metrics
  • eLetters
  • PDF

Related Articles

  • Que l’on se grouille
  • PubMed
  • Google Scholar

Cited By...

  • Promoting exercise and preventing injury
  • Google Scholar

More in this TOC Section

  • An inside perspective of Parkinson disease
  • Le Parkinson vu de l’intérieur
  • La crise dans les soins de santé au Canada
Show more Éditorial

Similar Articles

Subjects

  • Collection française
    • Éditoriaux

Navigate

  • Home
  • Current Issue
  • Archive
  • Collections - English
  • Collections - Française

For Authors

  • Authors and Reviewers
  • Submit a Manuscript
  • Permissions
  • Terms of Use

General Information

  • About CFP
  • About the CFPC
  • Advertisers
  • Careers & Locums
  • Editorial Advisory Board
  • Subscribers

Journal Services

  • Email Alerts
  • Twitter
  • RSS Feeds

Copyright © 2023 by The College of Family Physicians of Canada

Powered by HighWire