Active kids have active mothers, a new study has found, with evidence pointing to links in the degree of physical activity experienced by both parties.
The study looked at 554 mothers with four-year-old children, each wearing heart rate monitors and accelerometers (to measure movement) continuously for seven days. The findings saw a 10 percent increase in the child's physical activity for each minute of exercise the mother participated in.
"The more activity a mother did, the more active her child. Although it is not possible to tell from this study whether active children were making their mothers run around after them, it is likely that activity in one of the pair influences activity in the other," said Kathryn Hesketh, one of the study's lead authors and research associate at Institute of Child Health at University College London. She continued: "For every minute of moderate-to-vigorous activity a mother engaged in, her child was more likely to engage in 10 per cent more of the same level of activity. If a mother was one hour less sedentary per day, her child may have spent 10 minutes less sedentary per day."
Of the mothers surveyed, only 53 percent participated in just 30 minutes of 'moderate-to-vigorous' physical activity a week - well below the recommended amount of 150 minutes.
The study also notes that the mother's activity levels weren't the only factors to determine their children's physical activity. School interactions, weight, and the mother's level of education also bore some influence on a child's degree of physical engagement, though strong links suggest that maternity activity was perhaps the most significant factor. "There are many competing priorities for new parents and making time to be active may not always be top of the list. However, small increases in maternal activity levels may lead to benefits for mothers and children," said Hesketh.
The study, published in Pediatrics, also pointed to physical activity engagement dropping with age, particularly amongst new mothers. "If activity in mothers and children can be encouraged or incorporated into daily activities, so that more time is spent moving, activity levels are likely to increase in both."
