In April, as the World Health Organization (WHO) began warning that physical inactivity causes 2 million deaths a year, Health Canada unveiled a plan to increase physical activity among children by at least 30 minutes a day.
WHO says sedentary lifestyles may now rank among the world's 10 leading causes of death and disability, and may be causing a rapid rise in illnesses such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes.
Chronic problems related to these illnesses are now the leading cause of death in every part of world except sub-Saharan Africa.
Closer to home, federal Health Minister Anne McLellan announced that she was setting her sights on combating childhood obesity. Recent research in CMAJ (www.cmaj.ca/ cgi /content/full/163/11/1461) revealed that 15% of Canadian boys carried excess weight in 1981, but this had grown to 28.8% by 1996; among girls, it increased from 15% to 23.6%. Research also shows that the prevalence of obesity in children more than doubled over that period, from 5% to 13.5% for boys and 11.8% for girls. This spring, CMAJ reported that obesity is now a pandemic in Canada (www .cmaj .ca/cgi/content /full/166/8/1039).
This fall Health Canada will release “additional tools” to help parents, teachers, physicians and others encourage youth to become more active. — Steven Wharry, CMAJ