Active parents can, by their example, encourage their children to be physically active, but the effect is less than widely thought, according to a study of more than 5,000 10 and 11-year-olds published last Friday.
Its findings touch on strategies for reducing diseases such as obesity, cardiovascular conditions and diabetes that are growing at epidemic proportions due mainly to a couch-potato lifestyle.
A team of British and US researchers led by Calum Mattocks of the University of Bristol in the UK monitored 5,451 children for at least 10 hours a day over three days, tracking the intensity and frequency of their exercise with accelerometers attached to their ankles.
The children were also asked to record any time they swam or rode bicycles because the devices do not monitor these activities accurately.
The researchers then compared the results against statements provided by the parents on their level of physical activity in several categories.
These included maternal walking or swimming during pregnancy, parental exercise when the child was 21 months old, maternal smoking during pregnancy, and parental smoking at an early age.
Surprisingly, children of smoking parents tended to be slightly more active physically than kids whose parents were non-smokers.
"Few of the early life factors were associated with later physical activity in 10 to 11-year-olds, and for those that were, the association was modest," says the study, published in the British journal The Lancet.
But even the scarcity of links is important, the researchers said.
It can help health officials provide guidelines to parents which emphasize the factors - however few - that are known to work, they said.(AFP)
上週五一項新出爐的研究指出，好動的父母會影響小孩在生理上較為好動。但是這種影響力不如我們想像中大。這項研究共採樣了超過五千位十到十一歲的孩童作為研究對象。
這份研究結果論及如何減少諸如肥胖、心血管疾病和糖尿病等疾病的策略，這類疾病的患者數量，以等同傳染病的比例驚人成長，而患病的主要原因是好吃懶做的生活習慣。
這項研究由英國布里斯托大學的柯倫:馬托克斯主持，他所帶領的英美研究團隊，在五千四百五十一位孩童的腳踝綁上計速器，以每天至少十小時，為期三天的時間，來追蹤監看他們運動的強度和頻率。
另外，他們也請孩童記錄下游泳或騎腳踏車的情形，因為這些裝置並無法精確地監看這類運動。
研究員接著以孩童的觀察結果，比對家長在問卷中不同項目下供述的生理活動等級。
這些項目包含了母親在懷孕期間的步行或游泳習慣、父母在孩童一歲九個月大時的運動狀況、母親在懷孕期間是否抽煙，以及父母年輕時的吸煙習慣。
出乎意料地，父母有吸煙習慣的孩童，較父母不吸煙的孩童來得稍微好動一些。
「父母早期生活因素與十到十一歲孩童日後的生理活動表現鮮少相關，至於有相關的因素，關聯性也不強，」這項發表在英國期刊《刺胳針》的研究顯示。
但研究學者說，即使關聯性不強，也不失其重要性。
研究學者也指出，這項結果有助於衛生官員提供家長一些強調活動力因素的指導方針─即使為數不多。
（法新社／翻譯：袁星塵）
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