The Physical Activity Alliance, the nation’s largest national coalition dedicated to advancing regular participation in physical activity, today released the 2024 United States Report Card on Physical Activity for Children and Youth. The overall physical activity grade for children and youth remained low at D-, the same grade it received in 2022, the last time a report was made.

The grade was derived from National Survey of Children’s Health and National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey data that showed that only 20 to 28% of 6- to 17-year-olds meet the 60 minutes of daily physical activity recommended by the U.S. Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans. Also, the proportion of children who meet the physical activity guidelines has decreased slightly since 2016, when these data were first available.

Dr. Amanda Staiano, Director of the Pediatric Obesity and Healthy Behavior Laboratory at Pennington Biomedical, served as co-chair of the report card committee, and Dr. Katie Spring, postdoctoral research fellow in the Pediatric Obesity and Healthy Behavior Laboratory at Pennington Biomedical, also served as a committee member.

The Report Card synthesizes the best available data from multiple nationally representative surveys to provide a comprehensive evaluation of physical activity among children and youth. It covers 11 indicators, individual state data, and recommendations for how grades can be improved. A letter grade is assigned to each indicator based on the evidence. Each grade reflects how well the United States is succeeding at providing children and youth opportunities and/or support for physical activity.

In Louisiana, half of the child population exceeds the screen-time recommendations and do not get the recommended hours of sleep each night. In addition, less than 1-in-5 Louisiana youth meet the physical activity guidelines of an hour of physical activity every day.

Findings from the 2024 Report Card, the fifth iteration in the series that started in 2014, highlight the need for programs and policies to combat the rise in societal factors that interfere with children’s physical activity and healthy development.

“The findings in the 2024 Report Card highlight the need for programs and policies that aid in enhancing children’s physical activity and healthy development,” Dr. Staiano said. “This is why programs like Pennington Biomedical’s Greaux Healthy initiative as so vital for our youth. Greaux Healthy provides easily accessible products, tools, and resources tailored to meet children and families where they are in both life and health, all based on years of our scientific evidence.”

The report card is an advocacy tool that provides accountability and a call-to-action for decision-makers regarding how parents, teachers, health professionals, community leaders and policy makers can implement new initiatives, programs and policies to improve the physical activity levels and health of children and youth.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as of 2021 more than 40% of school-aged children and adolescents had at least one chronic health condition such as asthma or obesity. In 2022, a report published in JAMA Pediatrics found that nearly one in three adolescents now meet the criteria for prediabetes and the rate among 12- to 19-year-olds had more than doubled from 11 to 28% between 1999 and 2018.

The United States Report Card Research Advisory Committee responsible for developing this report card is a sub-committee of the National Physical Activity Plan, an initiative of the Physical Activity Alliance.

“We are thankful to Dr. Amanda Staiano and Dr. Katie Spring for serving on the 2024 United States Report Card committee,” said Dr. John Kirwan, Executive Director of Pennington Biomedical.

“Combating childhood obesity is a major focus of what we work on every day at Pennington, and it is extremely important for the future of our children that programs and initiatives are implemented to help combat the frightening statistics that we are now seeing. This report provides another wakeup call that we need to find new solutions and more effective ways to get our children moving again.”

Support for development of the 2024 United States Report Card was provided by Children’s Mercy Kansas City and the Center for Children’s Healthy Lifestyles & Nutrition.

“Children’s physical activity is highly influenced by factors within our communities,” said Jordan Carlson, Ph.D., Professor of Pediatrics at Children’s Mercy Kansas City and Chair of the 2024 United States Report Card on Physical Activity for Children and Youth. “Human bodies were designed to move and be active, but modern society has made life more sedentary.

“We need to reengineer our environments and routines to build activity back in. This means providing more opportunities for children to be active that are safe and enjoyable. Policy makers and other community leaders can support children‘s health by carefully considering the important role all sectors of society play in removing barriers to physical activity.”

Physical Activity Alliance President and Executive Director of NIRSA: Leaders in Collegiate Recreation Pam Watts, CAE, said, “Improving the health of our young people will require parents, teachers, health professionals, community leaders and policy makers working together to change the systems and settings impacting youth health. As the nation’s largest coalition dedicated to making the active choice the easy choice, PAA is the home for the collaborations and coordinated effort needed to reverse these trends and improve our physical activity grade.”