Research by a team at the Peninsula Medical School at PlymouthUniversity found that less than half of boys and only one in eight girlswere getting the recommended one hour of physical activity per day.
They also found that the change in body mass index (BMI), the officialmeasure used to monitor the impact of exercise, was no different betweenthose who did and those who did not meet the hour target.
The research, published in the Archives of Disease in Childhood, waspart of the Early Bird Study tracking the long-term health of childrenborn between 1995 and 1996.
Researchers measured the activity levels of 113 boys and 99 girlsbetween the ages of five and eight, along with their predictive healthindicators, which include insulin resistance, blood fat and cholesterollevels, and blood pressure.
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