Health of the Nation: Four ways to keep kids active using technology

One in four Aussie school-aged kids are overweight. Here’s what could be the key to helping them get active and eat healthier food.

Technology and computer games are blamed for making our kids less active but new research shows they could be the key to getting kids moving and eating more healthy food.

Kids given wristband activity trackers and information on a computer tablet about heart rate and step counts increased their activity levels by 30 per cent in a Sydney University study.

And preventive health agencies are now creating Bluey-style animated computer games to turn eating healthy food into quests that appeal to primary school kids.

Today’s busy working families often don’t feel like they have time to put healthy meals together or take their kids to the park but we’ve trawled the latest research to find some fast healthy hacks.

Studies show Aussie kids aren’t moving nearly enough, with one in four school-aged kids overweight - but technology could help to turn that around.

WHAT’S THE PROBLEM?

In their primary school years, kids should begin to learn physical skills that enable them to take part in sport, develop socially, and learn to manage their emotions — as well as eat lots of healthy, nutritious food.

Unfortunately, studies show Aussie kids aren’t moving nearly enough, 40 per cent of their diet comes from junk foods (News Corp survey) and 97 per cent of them don’t eat enough vegetables (ABS HEALTH SURVEY 2022).

One in four school-age kids are overweight and a Victoria University study found an astounding two in three can’t catch, throw or kick a ball properly because they spend most of their lives on screens.

The problem is now so bad the life expectancy of a child born in 2023 will be five years, shorter, Health and Wellbeing Queensland has estimated.

Primary school children are being treated for type two diabetes, fatty liver disease and sleep apnoea because of their obesity, paediatrician Louise Baur said.

“Some have required surgery on their growing bones because of excess weight. When I was a medical student, when I was a junior doctor in the 1980s we didn’t see children with type two diabetes,” Professor Baur, a University of Sydney obesity expert, said.

On the most recent measurements from 2022, nearly one in five children (17.8 per cent) are overweight by the time they start school, and a further 7.7 per cent are obese. In 2015 it was found the problem is significantly higher among children from low socio-economic status backgrounds (35 per cent) than children from high socio-economic status backgrounds (18.9 per cent).

Their poor diet and lack of physical activity causes low grade chronic inflammation that affects the way glucose is regulated and the way muscles work, according to University of Sydney physiology expert Professor Corrine Caillaud.

Less than one in five school age kids are meeting physical activity guidelines of 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity per day and muscle strengthening activity on three days per week.

The main culprit in falling activity levels in kids is screen time. Our kids have swapped outdoor play time for tablets and phones. Only around one in four kids aged 5-17 limit their screen time to less than the prescribed two hours a day.

HUNTING FOR VEGES

Queensland Health and Wellbeing has developed an app called Podsquad that has turned eating healthy food into an online game for children.

Children enter a world called Amigo which they explore through a map. Each site opens up an animated game that teaches children about healthy eating or moving.

For example, at the Evercloud mountains they learn about balancing ‘everyday’ and ‘sometimes’ food and drinks.

While they explore, children meet colourful and quirky little creatures called epipods which give them different quests to undertake back in the real world.

The epipods encourage them to drink more water by asking the children to become the water waiter for their family, and set out and fill glasses on the dinner table.

When kids report back that they fulfilled the quest it morphs into a new character allowing them to gather their own collection of up to 40 epipod characters.

“There’s a game called Food Hunter like a Where’s Wally map, and kids have to check up items on their shopping list and look for those illustrations of the food in the crazy map so they are exposed to different kinds of fruits and vegetables,” Queensland Health and Wellbeing’s Rebecca Farlatti said.

“So it’s not just about eating that vegetable off the bat. It could be you know, seeing the bok choy in a game might make kids more familiar with it and then one day down the line, they might be more willing to have it on their plate.”

TAKE OUR HEALTH CALCULATOR

HOME PLAY HACKS

No time to get to the park with your kids before dark? Try indoor duster hockey using rolled up newspapers for bats. Play balloon volleyball over the kitchen bench. Set up an indoor obstacle course or suggest a game to play with the dog.

There’s also 44 home — a game of hide and seek that involves trying to get from your hiding place to home base before the seeker catches you.

The Podsquad app has loads of other ideas including sock Olympics where you use a sock to play soccer or other ball-based sports inside so it’s safe.

The Podsquad app also includes a range of dance videos the children can move to.

FIVE-MINUTE FIX

Deakin researchers have discovered that five-minute active breaks in the classroom improve children’s brain functioning and impulse control.

“Breaking up prolonged time sitting down will not only help reduce students’ sedentary behaviour, it also supports the thinking skills critical for effective learning,” researcher at Deakin University’s Institute for Physical Activity and Nutrition (IPAN) Dr Emiliano Mazzoli said.

Activities included running on the spot, whereas more complex active breaks were those that required attention and decision making, like the game of ‘Simon Says’, he said.

Originally published as Health of the Nation: Four ways to keep kids active using technology