Draper, Tomaz, Bassett, Harbron, Kruger, Micklesfield, Monyeki, Lambert and HAKSA 2018 Secinetific Advisory Group

Healthy Active Kids South Africa 2018 Report Card

South Africa – research findings

Rating research about South African Children and Youth/Adolescence

Many countries produce regular such Report Cards. In South Africa there was a 2014, 2016 and now the 2018 Report Card.  In SA, 29 academics and content/experts reviewed a large body of research and then scored or evaluated by awarding a grade (A to F) to a particular component. Grades – A (succeeding with a large of majority of children and youth (81-100%); B (61-80%); C (41-60%); D (21-40%); F (0-20%) and INC (Inconclusive owing to insufficient information/data)

A Report Card reports on the latest evidence relating to: (i) Physical Activity (PA) – active play, physical fitness, active transport, school, community, etc. ; and ii) Nutrition and body composition – eating habits and types of food, education and advertising; overweight, undernutrition and body composition.

PA indicator; General Grade and Reason for awarding the grade.

• Overall PA – C (lower obesity, improved quality of life and reduce use of tobacco and marijuana)
• Early childhood PA – A- (180 min per day f total PA – (pre-school and school children; barriers to PA like crime, lack of space, screen time)
• Organised sport participation – D (interventions, policies and strategies)
• Active Play – INC (not enough research evidence on contest/safety/play environment, etc.)
• Active transportation – C (walk to school and safety issues)
• Sedentary behaviours – F (screen-time use, smart phones, social networking, risks)
• Early childhood sedentary behaviour – INC (pre-school children spend about 73% of the day sedentary and about 1h screen time or more.
• Physical fitness – INC (no data available)
• Family and peer support – C- (support from parents differ and no change since 2016)
• School – D- (PE participation in school is sub-optimal with policy-implementation gap widening; 32% of learners do not participate in PE and no clear evidence of progress of prioritising PE in school curriculum)
• Community and environment – C- (unsafe areas, high traffic risk despite various civic society initiatives addressing the safety of children – small number of locations.
• Government – C (SRSA National School Sport programme remained core deliverable in 2016 – 2017 and commitment from DBE to maximise access to sport, PA and PE, but lack of implementation and evaluation.

On which of these PA indicators do I deliver and how? Do I have the evidence to proof this?

What programmes/activities do I include to deliver on these indicators?

How can organisations collectively address the issue of health-optimising PA and report findings?