
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, November 8, 1994                   TAG: 9411080116
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The Washington Post
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

SURVEY FINDS TEEN-AGERS PREFER EASY CHAIRS TO ACTION

Despite the popular culture's emphasis on fitness, a new government survey shows that teen-agers are less physically active than they were a decade ago, prompting health experts to worry about the long-term consequences of their increasingly sedentary lifestyle.

Only 37 percent of students in grades 9 through 12 reported that they performed at least 20 minutes of vigorous exercise - such as running, swimming, basketball or fast cycling - three or more times a week. While half of boys said they regularly engaged in strenuous exercise, only one-quarter of girls said they did so.

``The concern is that the pattern of inactivity of adults is already well established by adolescence. The trend is that the proportion of young people who are inactive continues to increase,'' said Gregory Heath, an epidemiologist with the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

Heath and colleagues published their findings on high school students' exercise habits in the November issue of the American Medical Association journal Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine. He presented the results Monday at an AMA briefing in Seattle. The findings are based on the 1990 Youth Risk Behavior Survey, in which a representative group of 11,631 students in grades 9 through 12 from every state and the District of Columbia was asked about physical activity, injury, sexual activity, alcohol and drugs, tobacco, and diet.

The results suggested that teen-agers are far more likely to devote time to television than to exercise. More than one-third of high school students reported watching television for three or more hours every school day, and about 70 percent said they spent at least one hour daily in front of the tube.

A sedentary lifestyle is a risk factor for heart disease and other chronic illnesses.

The CDC researchers found what they called ``disturbing declines'' in participation in school physical education programs and in community recreation programs.

Almost half of all students in grades 9 to 12 reported they were not enrolled in physical education classes. Only about one-fifth of all students said they attended PE classes on a daily basis - one in three ninth- graders compared to only one in 10 seniors.

Health experts said being on a varsity team does not necessarily mean that a student is getting regular, vigorous exercise.

Sports such as football, softball, baseball and volleyball are not considered aerobic because they do not require sustained hard exercise.

``The fallacy of promoting team sports is that they are not all vigorous activity,'' Heath said.

Black female students were the least physically active and also the most television-dependent, with 60 percent reporting that they watched at least three hours a day.

by CNB