Active pregnancy 'benefits kids'
Active mothers are more likely to have active children, study finds
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Friday, 23, Nov 2007 02:14
Mothers who are active during pregnancy are more likely to have active children, a new study has found.
After studying activity levels of 11- to 12-year-olds researchers from the University of Bristol discovered that several factors showed a modest association with parental activity.
As well as the link to more active children, the season in which children were born had an effect on how active they were.
Children born during summer to winter were more active than those born in spring.
To determine fitness levels the children were asked to wear an accelerometer for seven days while questionnaires were sent to parents asking about health and lifestyle from pregnancy to the time the study was conducted.
Writing in bmj.com, the researchers argue that the findings show children are "slightly more active if their parents are active early in the child's life".
They say this is unlikely to be due to factors in the womb but is more likely that women who are active during pregnancy and more likely to be active post-pregnancy, and this in turn influences children's physical activity.
"This suggests that encouraging physical activity in parents may also influence their children to become more active, with the added advantage that physically active parents are healthier," the researchers said.
Commenting on the link between the month of birth and children's activity, they said it is "difficult to explain".
"It is possible that season of birth has an effect through the age at which children start school," the study's authors wrote.
"In this study some children were measured while at primary school and some while at secondary school, where the environments may provide different opportunities for physical activity."