With the lockdowns getting stricter with each phase, reports suggest that it might affect children’s health and fitness further hampering overall development.
Children Show Lower Levels of Cardiorespiratory Fitness
A study was conducted by the team of researchers from Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) in the United Kingdom and the University of Zaragoza in Spain. The research showed that the boys and girls aged between 12 and 14 showed lower levels of cardiorespiratory fitness than they generally show with the VO2 max rate development.
VO2 max is a well-known cardiorespiratory fitness indicator and levels increase during adolescence, in line with physical growth and development.
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Healthy Fitness Zone (HFZ) levels which is a standard measure of health based on age and sex also dropped by 3.4 percent within a period of 12 months.
Lee Smith, Reader in Physical Activity and Public Health at ARU said in normal conditions, VO2 max levels generally increase in adolescents up to a certain age. However, in their study, each age and sex showed lower levels of VO2 max rate development than usually expected. And specific subgroups for boys aged 12 years and girls aged 14 years, reductions in VO2 max levels would show higher vulnerability.
Kids Not Allowed to Leave House Unless For Medical Conditions
This study comes after Span introduced a strict six-week lockdown in Spring last year. Under this, children under the age of 15 were not allowed to leave their homes unless they had medical reasons to do so.
The research was published in the European Journal of Pediatrics and involved a group of 89 children from a school in North-Eastern Spain. The children between the ages of 12 and 14 took part in the fitness tests to measure their maximal oxygen uptake i.e, VO2 max in November 2019 (before the pandemic started) and then again in November 2020.
