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Fitness Studies Send an Unhealthy Signal

Posted on: Saturday, 14 January 2006, 09:00 CST

THE STAR'S VIEW: Two studies reveal little new, but they can serve as a reminder to be mindful of the impact of fitness on health.

While we were sipping a cup of eggnog (about 343 calories), nibbling a slice of Aunt Mildred's fruitcake (about 325 calories for 3.5 ounces ) and reading the newspaper, two analyses leaped fromWednesday's Star.

First, Americans are spending more time watching television and surfing the Internet and less time reading books, newspapers and magazines.

Second, about a third of U.S. teens would flunk a treadmill fitness test, which means that 7 million youngsters could face higher risks for heart disease later in life.

As the United States sinks into a sedentary lifestyle, neither of these reports comes as a surprise. During the season of spreading holiday cheer (and waistlines), these two reports can serve as a reminder to keep holiday celebrations to a reasonable, moderate level because our health depends on it.

The United States appears to be evolving to a spectator nation. Participation in almost every recreational sport decreased, and attendance at professional sporting events is climbing, according to the report based on this year's Statistical Abstract, a 1,023-page book of numbers quantifying various aspects of American life.

An analysis of the Statistical Abstract cited various reasons Americans spend their time watching the Discovery Channel rather than hitting the trail for a hike.

"During times of security and abundance, people feel more inclined to spend money and enjoy themselves," said Andrew Yiannakis, a sports sociologist at the University of Connecticut who teaches a course called "Defining Leisure: A Sociological Perspective."

"During times of, say, political unrest, insecurity, economic downturns, people feel insecure, and their mood shifts into a negative state," Yiannakis said. "People don't feel as good, so they shrink away from spending money and engaging in activities."

Yiannakis also said children are taught, intentionally or not, that they shouldn't play sports if they are not good at them.

Whatever the reason for the participation-avoidance trend, when it is coupled with research that indicates about 16 percent of U.S. schoolchildren are seriously overweight a red flag of concern should go up.

The analysis of nationally representative data from government health surveys by Northwestern University researchers found that 34 percent of girls and boys 12 to 19 showed a poor level of cardiovascular fitness on an eight-minute treadmill test.

Adolescents and young adults should be at top fitness levels. Children with low fitness levels are at risk for a future marked by high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease and the ailments of a couch-potato lifestyle.

"We've known for a long time that there's a trend toward declining physical activity" among U.S. children, said lead analysis author Mercedes Carnethon, an assistant professor of preventive medicine at Northwestern. The study shows this "is now being reflected by the prevalence of poor fitness."

"While adolescents aren't at risk for heart disease in the short term," Carnethon said, "this has important implications for the long- term health of youth in the United States."

The trend toward a more sedentary lifestyle, and the lack of physical fitness that follows, should be of grave concern to society as a whole. Aside from the personal pain of ill health, our nation suffers from staggering health-care costs and lost productivity.

During a season in which weight gain is common, these analyses can give us a peek at the future. We can be an unhealthy nation plagued by disease, or we can get moving - literally and figuratively - and take personal responsibility for our health.

- A.B.

Source: Arizona Daily Star

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