Your weekly physical activity bulletin

10 December 2024

We are working towards improving the health and wellbeing of the nation through sport, exercise and physical activity. For more information on our work visit our website or follow us on X @NCSEM_PAnews

Children’s activity levels remain stable but significant and sustained action required

Children and young people’s activity levels have been maintained and remained stable across the 2023-24 academic year. Sport England’s latest Active Lives Children and Young People Survey Report shows that 47.8% of children are meeting the Chief Medical Officers’ guidelines of taking part in an average of 60 minutes or more of sport and physical activity every day.

The report demonstrates the long-term impact of the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic on children and young people’s relationship with sport and physical activity.  

Children who were in nursery to school Year 4 (ages 4-9) when the pandemic struck in 2020 have been particularly disadvantaged. This age group, in school Years 3-8 (ages 7-13) during this report’s timeframe, remain less likely to have positive attitudes towards activity and have a lower sense of opportunity.  

Research explores the psychosocial impact of physical challenge

It is widely understood that the more a muscle is challenged, the stronger it gets. Now, researchers at Loughborough University have put this to the test by describing how the psychological ‘muscle’ also positively adapts following physical challenge.

In partnership with The Leadership High, colleagues from the School of Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences investigated the impact on workplace performance of those exposed to various physical challenges.

The researchers designed studies with the aim of better understanding the links between physical challenge, people’s mindset, and organisational setting.  Using some of the latest scientific approaches, including randomised controlled trials and mixed methods, they studied the effects of different physical challenges in nature (for example, a high rope course, skiing) and the laboratory (for example, a cold tolerance task) on aspects of people’s mindset and workplace performance.

Changes in self-reported health between Census 2011 and Census 2021

The Office for National Statistics has published findings from an analysis of changes in self-reported health between 2011 and 2021 in England and Wales by demographic and socioeconomic characteristics.

Main points

• The percentage of people who reported being in "very good" or "good” health increased by 1.0 percentage point in England and by 1.3 percentage points in Wales over the 10 years between Census 2011 and Census 2021.
• The percentage of people in self-reported good health increased despite an ageing of the population.
• Improvement in self-reported good health between the two census dates occurred within some, though not all, sociodemographic groups.
• In 2011, adults in England aged between 70 and 74 years were 85% less likely to report being in good health than those aged between 35 and 39 years.
• Although the prevalence of self-reported good health was highest among young adults in both 2011 and 2021, the relative difference in the likelihood of being in good health for people in this age group, compared with those in older age groups, decreased between the two census dates.

Junk food ad ban legislation progresses to curb childhood obesity

Children will no longer be exposed to TV adverts for junk food products as new law set out confirms the final details of advertising restrictions. Ads on television will only be allowed past the 9pm watershed from October 2025 as part of plans to curb childhood obesity.

Fulfilling a key manifesto commitment for this government and supporting the pledge to give every child the best and healthiest start in life, the advertising restrictions will also include a ban on paid online junk food adverts to reduce children’s excessive exposure to many foods high in fat, sugar or salt and helping to address rising rates of obesity-related diseases such as diabetes and heart disease. 

Guidance has also been published to provide more detail on which food or drink categories will be covered by the regulations - giving industry the final details needed to prepare for the regulations coming into force next year. 7.2 billion calories per year are expected to be removed from UK children’s diets as a result of the measures, preventing an estimated 20,000 cases of childhood obesity.

Women’s Health Plan for Wales launched to close the gender health gap

The first Women’s Health Plan for Wales has been launched this week setting out a 10-year vision to improve healthcare services for women. Research shows that while women live longer than men, they live fewer years free from disability, wait longer for pain relief and many women report having their symptoms dismissed.

The plan, created by the National Strategic Clinical Network for Women’s Health, part of the NHS Wales Executive, sets out how NHS organisations in Wales will close the gender health gap by providing better health services for women, ensuring they are listened to and their health needs are understood.

It includes nearly 60 actions across eight priority areas to improve healthcare for women throughout their lifetime, based on feedback from around 4,000 women across Wales. As part of the plan, £750,000 will be spent on research for women’s health conditions and women’s health hubs will be set up in every part of Wales by 2026.

Disabled people’s activity could contribute £6.2k per person per year

The Activity Alliance has released new research revealing the social value in disabled people being active and the societal cost of inequality.

Building on Sport England’s recent report for the whole population, the charity worked with the same experts, State of Life, on a specific assessment of disabled people’s activity. It found there is £6,200 social value per disabled person per year if supported to meet the official Chief Medical Officers’ guidelines of 150 plus minutes a week. This works out three to four times’ the value of non-disabled people being active. To give a comparison of size, this figure is almost equivalent to being employed rather than unemployed, which has a social value of £7,000.

Add the figures for active with moderate and light activity for disabled people, it shows the societal cost of inequality equates to at least a £10.9 billion ‘activity gap’.

Raising the healthiest generation in history – report launch

 The Town and Country Planning Association (TCPA) has published Raising the healthiest generation in history: recommendations and an evidence review from the Levelling Up Committee inquiry into children, young people and the built environment.

In November 2023, the Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (LUHC) Select Committee launched an inquiry looking at how better planning, building and urban design in England could enhance the health and wellbeing of children and young people.

This report seeks to fill the gap and summarises all the evidence, including all the questioning and debate by MPs, providing recommendations to Government and other decision-makers for creating places and spaces where children and young people can thrive.

The weekly physical activity bulletin in a summary of news stories that appear across the physical activity sector. The National Centre for Sport and Exercise Medicine is not responsible for the content of external sites.

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