Physical Activity: Learning the Outcomes and Benefits

Physical activity can be a broad spectrum which can including all forms of activity, stated by Davies (2011) “walking, cycling, active play, working out at a gym, dancing, gardening and competitive sport” (Davies et al., 2011: 1e61) (Active, 2011). Regular activity (leisure-time physical activity, workouts, sport, work/employment and household chores) can help reduce many risks of chronic conditions such as “coronary heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, cancer, obesity, mental health problems, and musculoskeletal conditions” (Davies et al., 2011: 1e61) (Active, 2011). Being physically fit or active you need to keep your body healthy, both physically and mentally, as it is shown that a “good diet or nourishment” (WHO, 2010) helps keep the body healthy, giving the body all-round wellbeing through the states of “physical, mental and social wellbeing” (WHO, 2010). Through taking part in regular activity it is important for children and adolescents to “eat a healthy, varied diet” (Young, 1997: 0) based on the ideologies of the ‘Eatwell Guidebook’. Following the recommendations alone can support an active lifestyle, however, when exercising your body will use up more energy. Eating well for physical activity and sport have many benefits for children and adolescents (Dunford and Doyle, 2011):

• - Allowing for high standard performance during sport or activity
• - Reducing the risk of injury and illness
• - Ensuring the best rehabilitation after exercise or a training program

It is important to follow current healthy eating guidelines, as it is reported that “fat intakes should be no more than 35% amount of energy intake from food” (Lappalainen et al., 1998: 467-478). Along with food guidelines, it is also important to stay “well hydrated” to help with your body’s health and well-being during physical activity and exercise (Shirreffs, 2009: 374-379). It’s not just about eating correctly and the importance and essential to know how to “put nutrition into practice” (Carlton et al., 2000: 555-563). Benardot (2007) stated that the timing of eating and exercising is important for how you feel and perform during the chosen physical activity (exercise or sport etc.), that the body needs the correct fuel in the “tank” to perform well, however, avoiding the feeling of fullness and empty or otherwise the performance level will not be to standard (Benardot, 2007: 13-19).

It is recommended that children over the age of 5 to 18 should “engage in at least 60 minutes of moderate physical activity (exercise or sport etc.) to vigorous intensity physical activity every day” (Davies et al., 2011: 1e61) (Active, 2011). Schools in Scotland are currently recommended to provide at least 2 hours of Pe for all pupils. In a recent sample of 53 Scots secondary schools, “only half (49%) delivered this in S1–S4 (age 12–16), and only one in eight for S5/S6 (age 16–18)” (Kirby et al., 2013: 954-969). Bornstein, Pate and Pratt (2009) states that “Regular physical activity reduces the risk of depression and has positive benefits for mental health, including reduced anxiety, and enhanced mood and self-esteem” (Bornstein et al., 2009: S245-S264) (Physicalactivityplan, 2005). It has been stated that “physical activity could improve some aspects of cognitive function that are important for tasks of daily living and is also associated with a reduced risk of developing problems of cognitive impairment in old age” (Tew et al., 2012) (NCSEM-EM, 2018). More benefits come with having a physically active lifestyle, as it “improves bone and muscles strength, reducing the risk of falls and fractures, protection against osteoarthritis and pain relief for those who suffer the conditions, or the help prevent the early onsets of the conditions” (Chang et al., 2005: 3515-3519). With physical activity it has been proven to be essential for ‘good health’(Thorburn et al., 2011), the importance for children and young people to be educated on the foundation of “participating in physical activities, sport, and a healthy eating fulfilling lifestyle; Stated together, the Taken together” (Thorburn et al., 2011: 383-398). The experiences and outcomes found in physical education, physical activity and sport aim to “establish the pattern of daily physical activity along with health and wellbeing” (Scotland, 2004), which the inquiry has shown it is more “likely to lead to sustained physical activity in adult life” (Scotland, 2004).

Within Scotland, the NHS health has quoted that “the creation and provision of surroundings that encourage and support physical activity offers the greatest potential to get the nation active” (Bornstein et al., 2009: S245-S264). Stated that “Physical activity levels are low in the UK as a whole, however self-reporting of health behaviours is always suspect and the reality may be much lower” (Prince et al., 2008: 56). Here in Scotland, the corresponding figures of the recommendations are presented from pre-2011 where “43% men and 32% women in Scotland to make the requirements set by the Chief Medical Office’s (CMO) (Active, 2011). Scotland is currently estimated that “low activity contributes to around 2,500 deaths per year and costs the NHS £94 million annually” (Www2.gov.scot, 2018), with this impact it is shown in Scotland that only “67% of 2-15 years old males and 76% of 2-15 years old females met the requirements of being in regular physical activity” (Active, 2011). To help engage children and adolescents in Scotland, currently looking closely at the ‘impact of sport promotion activities’ which corresponds with the success of the ‘2014 Commonwealth games’ (Www2.gov.scot, 2018), which helps campaign for sports and activities, as many have led to insufficiently active people to attain the recommended levels.
Health and wellbeing can be broken down into 2 categories, health is defined as “state of being linked with freedom from illness and disease” (Kaplan et al., 1984: 85-95), where wellbeing is described as “a positive component of health; quality of life; sense of well-being; a product; multidimensional” (Corbin et al., 2000). It is important to know what foods consumed for fuel during exercise to ensure the body stays healthy, as the correct food selections can help ensure the body has enough energy for movement, as well as recovery (Corbin et al., 2000). A healthy diet suggested for children who are involved in sport and exercise should contain ‘plenty of starchy foods’, ‘plenty of fruit and vegetables’, ‘protein foods and some dairy foods’, and it is also important to stay hydrated (Ståhl et al., 2001). Learning about health and wellbeing ensures that children and adolescents develop the knowledge and understanding; “skills, capabilities, and attributes which they need for mental, emotional, social and physical wellbeing” (Corey, 2015) (Scotland, 2004), plus the ‘nutritional benefit’ that comes with the importance of regular physical activity. In school’s curriculum it contributes to children’s diets with the ‘promotion of consistent healthy eating messages’(Corey, 2015), enabling them to make healthy food choices to help improve and develop lifelong health, eating habits, as it stated that a “good diet is essential for good health” (Corey, 2015) (Scotland, 2004).

Food and nutrition play a ‘vital role’ for children and adolescents, as evidence shows that young peoples’ “food choices can affect their attendance and behaviour as well as their health” (Hyland et al., 2006: 758-768). Nutrition is fundamentally the ‘development of wellbeing’ to ensure children and adolescents meet their growth, development and activity needs of healthy, making them confident individuals (Hyland et al., 2006). There is a focus on providing experiences that help children learn how to “stay fit and develop self-help and self-care skills” (Hyland et al., 2006: 758-768). Children and adolescent who develop the knowledge of healthy nutrient choices, understand the cultural importance of certain food, as physical well-being consists of food consumed for “physical health, growing and development; a balance of the required nutrients and adequate hydration” (Hyland et al., 2006: 758-768). Through growing, harvesting, and sharing vegetables and fruit and using the product when cooking with children and adolescents, provides them with a range of learning opportunities, encouraging them to make healthy food and beverage choices (Hyland et al., 2006). With healthy food and nutrition choices, it can impact the “attributes of children’s and adolescents learning and development, as this will give a balance of familiar and unfamiliar foods and establishing routines around meals that promote the enjoyment” (Hyland et al., 2006: 758-768).

The perspective allows children and adolescents to be aware of the “interdependence and interrelationship” (Culpan and Bruce, 2007: 1-11) which exists between themselves and society. Socio-ecological (i.e. money astute, social deprivation, domestic class) highlights the different effects that would ‘impact the behaviour’ which has found during an “investigation that factors of children’s and adolescent’s physical cavity” (Sallis et al., 2002: 462-84). The behavioural impacts which include individuals (e.g. beliefs around physical activity), social (e.g., peers and family) and physical environmental factors (e.g. neighbourhood design) (Sallis et al., 2002). A social-ecological approach provides a ‘theoretical framework for informing the development of intervention’ to “reduce obesity and its co-morbidities, interventions must embrace an understanding of community-level factors including the social, built and natural environments” (Trasande et al., 2008) (Haug et al., 2009: 63-72). It is understandable that a young person’s environment will have an impact on physical activity due to the complexity. Within schools, they offer organized non-curricular physical activity several times a week, which showed a ‘higher proportion’ of pupils reporting daily participation in physical activity (Haug et al., 2009) but however, another study showed no association between school sports facilities and increased physical activity (Kirby et al., 2011). It is proven that if “there is a positive impact on children and adolescent’s physical activity and health and wellbeing, there was greater access to neighbourhood recreational facilities” (Tucker et al., 2009: 357-363), which is associated with physical activity, “after adjusting for respondent and neighbourhood characteristics” (Coombes et al., 2010: 816-822), giving young peoples’ views more positively on the engagement of physical activity and the importance of health and wellbeing. Potentially giving more importance to the “density of facilities and resources available will impact personal and social significance” (Macintyre et al., 2008: 26), as the importance of friends and family in relation to a ‘develop a sense of place’ and how this will shape the young people’s experience in physical activities being demonstrated (Lee et al., 2009).

The association between “physical activity and obesity” is well documented (Goodman, 2003: 228-230), highlighting the need to reduce obesity rates among young people of lower socioeconomic status. There are independent correlations that have shown to those in less affluent families, as becomes more restricted for children and adolescent’s physical activity, as “mothers education level and family income” (Ferreira et al., 2009: 129-154), affect their choices and opportunities, particularly during adolescence when physical activity may involve more “financial costs (e.g. club memberships) compared with recreational play” (Ferreira et al., 2009: 129-154). In Scotland, a significant association between “area deprivation and the density of physical activity facilities” (Lamb et al., 2010: 76) suggesting that access to opportunities where more restricting among deprived communities (Lamb et al., 2010). There is an association between “area-level deprivation and density of physical activity and facilities alerted after the adjustment for urbanicity” (entering indicator variables for urban-rural classification) (Levin et al., 2014: 162-170). Furthermore, the notion of the ‘walkability’ and ‘connectivity of communities’ within cities may also affect young people’s “use of green space and sports facilities” (Seaman et al., 2010: 78), as it is recommended that the consideration of ‘urbanicity may confine the relationship between deprivation and physical activity’(Seaman et al., 2010: 78). ‘Cost and affordability’ of facilities are shown to be important between both genders of adolescents across socio-ecological status, as there is some evidence of an association between “green space and obesity-related health indicators” (Lachowycz and Jones, 2003: 183-189). In Scotland it is suggested that “physical availability of urban green space interacts with community contexts already established (e.g., social cohesion) and that a more holistic understanding of access is needed”, (Seaman et al., 2010: 78) with reference to physical (e.g. safety) and social (e.g. spending time with friends) factors, should be considered when promoting it as a resource for physical activity. There is an importance of the role of parents when encouraging their children’s and adolescent’s physical activity, as this supports the association with increased physical activity into adulthood (Kirby et al., 2011). Recent research has shown that parents’ decisions to ‘enrol’ their children in the sport are influenced by the “availability of a greater variety of locations, and this has been shown as particularly important to lower-income families” (Hardy et al., 2010: 197-203). With physical activity, the influences that “affect participation would be to understand the role of parental behaviours and restrictions” (Granich et al., 2008: 199-210)

To conclude, Physical activity and nutrition have proven to help children and adolescents stay fit and healthy through sticking to the recommendations set by the government of ‘1 hour of moderate to vigorous exercise’ but not only that it can help their growth into adulthood as they need to understand the importance of “eating a healthy diet” (Young, 1997). There is an insight into young peoples by the use of their environment in relation to their physical activity. In line with socio-ecological theory, as it is clear that an individual behavioural choice that is facilitated by the wider aspect of the social and physical environment. Participate in different types of activities by availability and access to sports facilities, which particularly has a negative impact on young people’s ability to engage in a range of activities. Poor access and high cost are the key barriers which disadvantage a lot of children and adolescents, to help promote children and adolescents into physical activity is to offer free opportunities, reinforcing the importance of local green space as a resource, and finding a way to help inform them about the development of local innovative interventions, which are aimed at promoting active living among the children and adolescents age groups.