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Exercise: Children

Answer

The information is not available in the format requested. Data on childhood physical activity is not available for 2007. Data on physical activity among children is collected in the Health Survey for England (HSE), but not in every year. We can provide data on the level of physical activity undertaken outside of school by boys and girls aged two-10 and boys and girls aged 11-15 for 1997 and 2002. Data are published in ““Statistics on Obesity, Physical Activity and Diet: England, 2006””, produced by The Information Centre for health and social care (The IC) at:"www.ic.nhs.uk/statistics-and-data-collections/health-and-lifestyles/obesity/statistics-on-obesity-physical-activity-and-diet-england-2006"This information is provided in the following table.In addition, data are available on participation in physical education (PE) and school sport from the School Sport survey. These are also published in ““Statistics on Obesity, Physical Activity and Diet: England, 2006””. The data were collected from 16,882 schools that are within school sport partnerships in England. The latest survey results show that in 2005-06 80 per cent. of pupils in school years one to 11 (mainly aged five to 15-years) in partnership schools participated in at least two hours of high quality PE and school sport in a typical week. These school sport partnerships were set up in a number of phases starting September 2000 and so there is no data available for 1997.

Table 1: Children’s summary physical activity levels¹, ², ³,1997 and 2002—England
Percentages
	1997	2002
Boys 2-10
High4	54	55
Medium	9	20
Low	37	26
Boys 11-15
High4	55	56
Medium	13	16
Low	33	29
Girls 2-10
High4	45	48
Medium	10	21
Low	44	30
Girls 11-15
High4	27	34
Medium	15	22
Low	59	44
Bases (weighted)
Boys aged 2-10	1,425	2,705
Boys aged 11-15	719	1,495
Girls aged 2-10	1,456	2,598
Girls aged 11-15	679	1,460
¹ High = 60 minutes or more on all seven days; Medium = 30-59 minutes on all seven days; Low = Lower level of activity
² Only activities that lasted 15 minutes and over were included.
³ It was assumed that all walking and housework/gardening sessions in 2002 lasted 15 minutes. This was necessary in order to make 2002 and 1997 data comparable as there was no duration question for walking and housework/gardening in 1997.
4 Based on the assumption that all activity was of at least moderate intensity, this group represents those who met the physical activity recommendations for at least an hour of at least moderate-intensity activity a day.
Source:
Health Survey for England, 2002. The Department of Health

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

150357; 463 c627-9W

Session

2006-07

Subjects

Children Exercise

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk