Getting kids active may not be enough to make active adults

Kids who participated in sports in childhood are more likely to participate as adolescents or adults, but the link is weaker than popularly believed, new University of Otago research has found.

The findings, just published in the US journal Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport, come out of the University's Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study, which has followed 1000 Dunedin-born people since their birth in 1972/73.

Lead author Dr Rose Richards says the study examined study members' participation in sports group at ages 7, 9, 15, 18 and 21 years and examined if those that were most active at early ages remained the most active as they got older.

"We found that the stability of participation was only low to moderate, which meant that there was considerable movement into and out of sports during this period.

"While children who participated in sport were twice as likely to participate during adolescence and adulthood, the strength of this relationship was much weaker than that suggested by the popular phrase active kids become active adults," says Dr Richards.

"There is certainly a case for encouraging kids to be active as an early intervention to encourage adult activity, but it is dangerous to regard this as inoculating them against adult inactivity.

"We still need to be working to help adolescents and adults to get active and stay active."

Dr Richards is a Post Doctoral Research Fellow based in the Social and Behavioural Research in Cancer Unit at the University's Department of Preventive and Social Medicine.