Teenagers not getting enough physical activity, Cancer Council warns

Only one in six teenagers is getting enough exercise, the Cancer Council warns – and feeling self-conscious is a big part of it.

In an active healthy family Helen Morgan does not mind being taxi driver to daughter Neive, 11, heading to netball, football and whatever else may be fun with a bit of huff’n’puff.

“We love being an active family and the benefits go far beyond health,” Mrs Morgan said.

While Neive is having fun while learning benefits of team work, the joy of winning and humility of losing and much more, a daunting new survey says she is a minority.

Cancer Council is calling for increased support for younger Australians to get active following data revealing just 1 in 6 Australian secondary school children aged 12 – 17 years meet the recommended guidelines for physical activity.

Neive, 11, plays football, netball, rugby and many more in Adelaide. But she’s a minority – too many children her age aren’t getting enough exercise. Picture: Morgan Sette

Their survey quizzing teens on diet and lifestyle habits found that while few teens are getting enough exercise, there is some promising news.

The latest survey found six in 10 teens get the recommended 60 minutes of physical activity at least four days a week.

A decade ago it was just five in ten.

Cancer Council spokeswoman Clare Hughes said very few young people are meeting the recommended guidelines.

“Physical activity in teenage years sets up good habits for your adult years,” she said.

“Being physically active reduces the risk of unhealthy weight gain and reduces the risk of developing 13 different types of cancer later in life including endometrial, breast and bowel cancer so we really want to see as many teens as possible setting up good exercise habits while they are young.”

Just over half of survey participants blamed a lack of physical activity options in school as a barrier and almost as many said they were too far from school to walk or ride.

Boys were more than twice as likely to meet the physical activity recommendations than girls (21 per cent compared to 9 per cent), with girls citing various personal barriers to participating in physical activity.

The most common was “feeling self-conscious when undertaking physical activity”.

Girls were around twice as likely to note feeling self-conscious, with 30 per cent of girls reporting this, compared to 16 per cent of males.

“Three in four students agreed that both their school and their parents encourage them to undertake sports and physical activities,” Ms Hughes said.

“We know how important physical activity is for overall health and wellbeing, including preventing cancers of the breast, bowel and endometrium.”

She called for support for encourage lifelong physical activity to reduce the risk of health problems including cancer.