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June 22nd, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda FRIDAY, June 22 (HealthDay News) — Teens who engaged in more
moderate-to-vigorous outdoor activity reported better health and social
functioning than their peers who spent hours in front of television and
computer screens, a new study in Australia has found.
The teens who had the highest perceived health in the study spent an
average of 2.5 hours more per day playing sports or doing other
high-intensity activity than their least-active counterparts, according to
the researchers.
The research, done at the University of Sydney, found that youths in
the study overall spent an average of 3.3 hours a day playing video games,
watching television or doing other sedentary activities, compared with
only 2.1 hours in physical activity.
The findings suggest that parents need to limit how much time their
children spend using electronic media, the lead author said.
“Parents should be conscious of the fact that outdoor physical activity
is beneficial to their child’s overall health and well-being, and should
try to limit the time their child spends in front of the screen,” said
Bamini Gopinath, a senior research fellow at the university’s Westmead
Millennium Institute for Medical Research.
Although no causal link was established, the study provides “another
piece of evidence” that increasing physical activity and decreasing screen
time “would be beneficial” to teens, said Gopinath, adding that “the
impact of activity behaviors persists over the long term.”
The study, published in the July issue of Pediatrics, was
conducted from 2004 to 2009.
Study questionnaires asked how much time 1,216 teens spent on outdoor
exercise compared to indoor activities including computer use for
recreation and homework. Other sedentary activities such as reading were
included. The data were collected at age 12, and again five years later.
At that time, another group of 475 teenagers was recruited from the same
schools in the Sydney area. Both groups responded to items about their
health and general well-being.
The questionnaire included 23 items about the teens’ health and
physical functioning, as well as self-esteem, peer relationships and
school.
Not surprisingly, more time spent reading and doing homework was
associated with better school performance.
The more-active teens had significantly better scores relating to
social functioning, or getting along with peers. Teens “who rarely
exercised” were more likely to report “feelings of loneliness and
shyness.”
“Improved understanding of these relationships could help in developing
interventions to promote general well-being among adolescents,” the study
authors concluded.
Another expert said he wasn’t surprised by the findings.
“It makes sense that these kids who are getting outside, playing sports
and running around are going to feel better than those kids who are
sitting alone with a screen,” said Dr. Michael Rich, director of the
Center on Media and Child Health at Boston Children’s Hospital.
He cautioned against “over-interpreting” the results because other
factors not looked at in the study “may have more influence.” For
example, he noted that the study did not show whether some teens avoided
outdoor sports because they were less healthy to begin with.
But the findings are “worth paying attention to,” Rich said.
It also makes sense that kids who spend their time “running around in
the fresh air” and playing sports are going to be “not only physically
healthier, but socially healthier because they’re learning to work things
through with other teens,” he said.
The study gave “more objective data that supports what your mom always
said, which is ‘go outside and play,’ proving mom was right,” Rich
added.
More information
To learn more about children and physical exercise, visit the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention.
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