Questions & Answers
Canada's Physical Activity Guides and Support Resources for Children
and Youth
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- How will the Guides and support resources help Canadian
children and youth?
- What do these new resources consist of?
- How much physical activity do the Guides recommend children
and youth need for good health?
- My children are already very active and they are not
overweight. How do the Guides and support resources apply to them?
- Canadians already know that it's important for children
and youth to be physically active, yet many youngsters and teenagers
are not. How will these Guides make a difference between what we know
and what we do?
- How can Canadians get a copy of the Guides and support
resources?
- What is the economic impact of physical inactivity among
Canadians?
Q1. How will the Guides and support resources help Canadian
children and youth?
A1. Canada's Physical Activity Guides
for Children and Youth provide Canadians with clear and concise recommendations
on how to help children and youth achieve optimal growth and development
by making physical activity an important part of their daily routines.
The Guides and support resources reinforce the importance
of daily physical activity and promote the benefits of being physically
active.
By making this important information readily available
at no cost, the Guides provide families, caregivers, teachers, health-care
provides and recreation leaders with information and tips to help inactive
children and youth understand the importance of daily physical activity,
and make informed decisions about taking steps to become more active.
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Q2. What do these new resources consist of?
A2. In total there are 8 resources:
- Canada's Physical Activity Guide for Children
- Canada's Physical Activity Guide for Youth
- Family Guide to Physical Activity for Children, 6 to 9 years of age
- Family Guide to Physical Activity for Youth, 10 - 14 years
of age
- Teacher's Guide to Physical Activity for Children, 6 to 9 years
of age
- Teacher's Guide to Physical Activity for Youth, 10 -
14 years of age
- Gotta Move, Magazine for Children 6 - 9 years of age
- Let's Get Active!, Magazine for Youth, 10 - 14 years
of age
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Q3. How much physical activity do the Guides recommend children and youth
need for good health?
A3. The Guides recommend that inactive
children and youth increase the amount of time they currently spend being
physically active by at least 30 minutes more per day and decrease the
time they currently spend on sedentary activities -- such as watching
TV, playing computer games and surfing the Internet -- by at least 30
minutes per day.
The increase in physical activity should include a combination
of moderate activity (such as brisk walking, skating and bike riding)
with vigorous activity (such as running and playing soccer).
The guidelines recommend that inactive children and youth
accumulate this increase in physical activity per day in periods of at
least 5 to 10 minutes or more. Over several months, children and youth
should accumulate at least 90 minutes more physical activity per day and
decrease by at least 90 minutes per day the amount of time spent on sedentary
activities like watching videos and sitting at a computer.
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Q4. My children are already very active and they are not overweight. How
do the Guides apply to them?
A4. According to the Canadian Fitness and
Lifestyle Research Institute, about 45 percent of Canadian children are
active enough, so your children may be among this group.
Even so, the Guides can help them to understand the importance
of physical activity to good health and help them to develop the values
they'll need to continue being physically active on a regular basis
for their entire lives.
Children who are already active should record their moderate
and vigorous activities for a few days. They can total up the minutes,
then progress gradually from there until they reach at least 90 minutes
of daily physical activity.
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Q5. Canadians already know that it's important for children and
youth to be physically active, yet many youngsters and teenagers are not.
How will these Guides make a difference between what we know and what
we do?
A5. While Canadians realize that children
and youth need to be physically active, they may not be fully aware of
the dangers of this inactivity.
The disease process leading to osteoporosis, diabetes,
hypertension, high cholesterol and other cardiovascular disease begins
in childhood if physical activity levels are insufficient.
The goal of the Guides is to close the a gap between
what Canadians understand to be necessary for children's health
and what they are doing to see that it happens.
The Guides provide families, educators, physicians and community/recreation
leaders with the information they need to help inactive children and youth
increase their physical activity to levels where they will achieve health
benefits.
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Q6. How can Canadians get a copy of the Guide?
A6. The Public Health Agency of
Canada has
set up a toll-free telephone service at 1-888-334-9769 for people
to order the Guides free of charge. As well, the Guides are available
on the Internet.
The Guides are also being distributed by provincial/territorial
governments and a large number of national organizations who strongly
support the Guides, including the College of Family Physicians of Canada
and the Canadian Paediatric Society.
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Q7. What is the economic impact of physical inactivity among Canadians?
A7. Canadians who become physically active can reduce the
burden on our health-care system as the population ages. Federal, provincial
and territorial ministers responsible for fitness, recreation and sport
have set a target to decrease the level of physically inactive Canadians
by 10% between 1998 and 2003.
If we achieve this target, it is estimated that this would
result in a savings of $5 billion in discounted lifetime costs for medical
care, sick leave, and lost revenues from taxes resulting from premature
mortality.
More specifically, results from a study on health-care costs
by the Conference Board of Canada indicate that, for example, a 1% increase
in physical activity could save $10.2 million for heart disease, $877,000
for adult-onset diabetes, and $407,000 for colon cancer each year (in
constant 1993 dollars).
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