STOCKHOLM — The average level of aerobic fitness in Canadian children has declined by 31% over the past 23 years, Kate E. Reed said at the annual congress of the European Society of Cardiology.
She presented a retrospective cross-sectional comparison of running performance on a standardized test—the Leger 20-meter shuttle run—in two groups of Canadian children. One group consisted of 252 boys and girls aged 9–11 years who were tested in 2004. The comparison group was composed of 2,151 age- and gender-matched children from Leger's original 1981 data set.
The mean aerobic fitness in 2004 was equivalent to the 19th percentile in 1981. The decline was greater in boys.
Given the well-documented inverse relationship between aerobic capacity and cardiovascular risk factors, it is imperative that this marked deterioration be reversed, said Ms. Reed, a researcher at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver.