Report Card for Physical Activity in Ireland

 The Report Card on Physical Activity in Children and Youth is a means of collating all data related to children’s physical activity levels in a particular country and ‘grading’ the evidence using a grading system just like a school report card. It was first started in Canada and since then a further 14 countries including Ireland have taken part.

There are a number of ‘indicators related to children’s physical activity’ that have been included in this Report Card. These indicators include the behaviours (TV viewing, sport participation, active transportation, active play and PE participation) that influence children’s overall physical activity levels. They can also include the settings (the home, the school, the community and the built environment and government investment and policy) that are known to support children’s physical activity.

Ireland received a ‘D minus’ overall in their first report card released this week. The same grade was handed down for our performance when it comes to physical education (PE). Despite this, Ireland still ranks in the middle on the global matrix of report card grades measuring physical activity in 15 countries. These grades were based on the physical activity levels of youth in Ireland (published between 2003 and 2013). This showed that between 12% and 43% of children do enough physical activity.

Some 54pc of Irish children aged 11 to 15 watched more than two hours of TV a day, while just one in eight met the target of doing 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity a day. Activity levels were higher amongst primary school children with 43pc of seven to eight year olds meeting activity targets.

Report author Dr Deirdre Harrington, of the University of Leicester, said that best-performing New Zealand had scored highly for active play at home, while in Mozambique children were very active doing chores and walking to get around. “The aim of all this is to see how we can learn from each other by looking at what countries do best,” she said.

Irish children scored a D minus for overall physical activity and for physical education (PE) at schools – with only 35pc of primary and 10pc of post-primary children reporting they got the recommended one or two hours a week of PE at school.

This first Report Card in Ireland will act as a baseline for surveillance of physical activity promotion efforts and to ensure that any changes are captured.

Read the full report here: ReportCardIreland2014

Read the summary report here: ReportCardIreland2014_Short