Study reveals most three and four-year-olds don’t get enough exercise or sleep, but too much screen time

Most three and four-year-old kids are not exercising or sleeping enough and spend too much time on screens, an alarming global study has revealed. Only one in seven children is meeting recommended guidelines for sleep, physical activity and screen use, according to the Australian-led study. For the first time, researchers pooled analysis of data from 14 studies in 33 countries to estimate the proportion of three and four-year-olds who were active for more than three hours a day, spent less than one hour a day staring at screens and slept between 10 and 13 hours a night — in line with World Health Organisation guidelines. The findings, published on Tuesday in Journal of the American Medical Association Pediatrics, showed that less than half of children were meeting the physical activity or screen time recommendations. A higher proportion of boys than girls met all three guidelines. Lead author Kar Hau Chong, from University of Wollongong, said the findings were “definitely concerning” because sedentary habits established in early childhood were likely to carry through children’s school years and into adulthood — leading to risk of diabetes or cardiovascular disease. “We often tend to forget about how important it is to get our children to go out and play, just getting enough sleep, not spending too much time on screens,” he said. “With these findings we’re hoping that everyone — not just parents — but communities, teachers, policy makers at a regional, national or global level will see this as a critical public health issue.” Dr Chong said the data revealed inequalities in kids’ movement habits around the world, with slightly more children in lower-middle-income countries, at 16.6 per cent, meeting the WHO guidelines than in high-income countries, at 14.4 per cent. “We know that as children grow they’ll become less active and probably get less sleep,” he said. “If we’re able to help direct them to the correct trajectory ... that will help us to reduce the disease burden in the future.” The researchers called for renewed focus on factors influencing children’s behaviour and on programs promoting healthy levels of movement. While four-year-old friends Mila Macdonald and Sage Mitchell have plenty of energy to burn and love playing outside, Mila’s mum, Ali Newman, said the study’s findings were concerning. “Screens are always enticing for kids, but we try and balance it out with plenty of fresh air and unstructured, outdoor play,” she said. “I find the kids sleep better when they’ve been running around outside and have had less screen time.”