Children's fitness, fatness and sugar

This issue brings two particularly important papers in the area of physical activity and children’s health. The first paper, from Vella, Gardner, Kemp, Schweickle and Cliff, drawing data from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (N = 4286). The authors measured time spent in organised sports at age 10 years and time spent in physical activity at age 12 via parental-reported time-use diary, dietary behaviours were self-reported at age 12, screen time was parent-reported and body fat was measured at age 14 using bioelectrical impedance analysis. They found no significant indirect relationships between sports participation and body fat via any of the mediating variables in the total sample, or among sport participants. The authors underlined the need for the generation of better-quality evidence to support the promotion of organised sports programs as public health initiatives in their current form during childhood and adolescence.