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Most adolescents worldwide - including more girls than boys - fail to meet WHO physical activity guidelines, putting their health at risk, according to a study published in Lancet Child and Adolescent Health.
Results from the study - which enrolled 1.6 million children aged 11 to 17 years - showed that adolescents are falling short of WHO's goal of a 15% relative reduction in global prevalence of insufficient physical activity by 2030.
"We are off track," Regina Guthold, PhD, a scientist in the WHO department of maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health and aging, said at news conference. "This target will not be met if these trends continue."
For the study, Guthold and colleagues included data from 298 school-based surveys from 146 countries, territories and areas. Results showed that more than 80% of school-going adolescents did not get the...