Government trying to get little potatoes off the couch

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Last updated at 6:33 AM on 13/12/07

Government trying to get little potatoes off the couch
Health

ROBYN YOUNG

Dance Dance Revolution, and other interactive video games, could end up getting kids in the province more active.

Health Promotion and Protection Minister Barry Barnet said yesterday at the launch of a renewed Active Kids Healthy Kids strategy that while technology is part of the reason kids are sedentary, it may also have to be part of the solution.

"Maybe we need to reach out to the industry itself and encourage them to develop more games that are interactive," he said.

Bunny Shields, a physical education teacher at Madeline Symonds Junior High School in Hammonds Plains, added a Dance Dance Revolution video game to her gym last year. She said there's a constant lineup to use it.

"I've had girls that have been very inactive in class, and it's hard to get them going and get them motivated, and I've had really good success with this," she said.

The Active Kids Healthy Kids Strategy was first developed in 2002 in response to a federal-provincial agreement to increase physical activity by 10 percentage points by 2010.

The revised strategy puts more focus on building infrastructure for recreation; promoting collaboration among schools, parents and government; and encouraging increased activity among teenage girls.

Angie Thompson, associate professor of human kinetics at St. Francis Xavier University, said children and teens need 90 minutes of moderate or more intense physical activity, at least five days a week.

A study of 2,300 students in grades 3, 7 and 11, conducted in 2001 and 2005, showed Nova Scotia's youth are not getting enough exercise.

The study, Physical Activity Levels and Dietary Intake of Children and Youth in Nova Scotia, compared the students' physical activity to a standard of 60 minutes of physical activity, five days a week.

In 2005, girls and boys in Grade 7 failed miserably, with less than 50 per cent of boys and less than 25 per cent of girls meeting the standard.

And by Grade 11, less than 10 per cent of boys and only one girl in the study met the standard.

"I don't even know if they're actually getting out of bed," Thompson said.

The province has committed $5.3 million annually to the revised active living strategy.

ryoung@hfxnews.ca


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