KOMPAN

KOMPAN Play Institute statement on overweight and obesity in children


Playgrounds: frameworks for health and life skills.
The KOMPAN Play Institute sees the growing overweight and obesity in our children as part of a society with a severe lack of movement in everyday behaviour: Parents take their children to school by car, do not dare them to play outdoors on their own and are themselves victims of the busy, yet obesogenic, life styles of today – role models with convenience food, too little time and lack of movement in their own lives.


At school and in the kindergarten, adults decide the pace of things. Amazingly enough our educational institutions worldwide spend a lot of time on making the children sit still and be quiet –  and then complain that children today are not in the physical shape they were before.


Childhood in control
But in fact childhood today is controlled to an extent that makes it hard for children to get a chance to be active at physical play: everything is already organised by well-meaning adults most of the day. Apart from having the effect that children are less trained in initiating play on their own, the adult control also means adult norms of movement equalling next to nothing for a child: The WHO recommends a minimum of one hour a day moderate physical activity for children and youngsters, half an hour for adults. 
 

This minimum demand of physical activity is far from being met. 16 per cent of 9-year-olds and 50 per cent of 15-year-old girls in Norway did not even live up to these minimum requirements. The reason is stated as lack of opportunities to be active, mainly during weekends. By increasing the number of PE (Physical Education) lessons at school, we know that the condition of children can be bettered. But by increasing the areas with free access to free play activity and non-prescriptive play, we offer our children the possibility of being physically active without having to compete and be instructed. Furthermore we stimulate their creativity, their social abilities and their self-esteem this way. Playgrounds are frameworks for health as well as for life skills.


Overweight not only physically damaging
Overweight and obesity not only affects the physical health of our children by heavily increasing the risk of childhood diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and general bad condition. Obesity also impacts the child’s social and emotional well-being, as overweight and obese children mostly find themselves to be outsiders due to their appearance. As a result their self esteem diminishes with isolation and general sadness as a result.

Overweight and obese children mostly grow up to become overweight adults. Grown-ups suffering from overweight or obesity have a shorter life expectancy, severe health risks and social implications as hardship with finding jobs, friends and partners. Not only is overweight or obesity a struggle for the individual. Our societies already face the economic consequences: more hospitalisations, therapy and programmes to cure obesity or overweight. 2.5 million people a year worldwide die of overweight related illnesses.


Lack of movement: an obesogenic environment
The WHO’s International Obesity Task Force already in 2001 defined too greasy and too sweat food in too big amounts as a main part of an obesogenic environment. But nutrition is far from the only cause – lack of safe playgrounds, lack of good school play areas, in other words lack of opportunities to be physically active in safe environments, are among the common reasons for child overweight and obesity. Lack of movement and sedentary behaviour are main reasons for child obesity. 43 per cent of overweight American children watch more than three hours television per day. Children who spend more then one hour a day on computer games have a three times bigger risk of being among the 10 % most obese children.


How KOMPAN helps fight obesity
The joy of physical play is a basics of life quality for children. As responsible societies we need to acknowledge that in respecting the children’s need for play by offering them room for play in safe outdoor environments, we in fact respect important health demands. By giving the children room, opportunities and rights to play we ensure happy children today – and healthy adults tomorrow.

Making the children age appropriate, stimulating play equipment in keeping with the times is KOMPAN’s core competence. By having varied, well planned and child appropriate  playgrounds as a part of each and every environment for children, the encouragement to be physically, socially, emotionally, creatively and cognitively active and enjoy it is as strong as it gets.  By planning in non-prescriptive play activities as well as well-known classics, the playground will become a learning environment – for the learning of life skills and healthy living.


KOMPAN apart from designing high-quality equipment that encourage play for today’s children, supports initiatives that promote play rights.  KOMPAN is a UNICEF [link to UNICEF and stories of tsunami playgrounds] sponsor. But KOMPAN also is a sponsor of the International Play Association – promoting the child’s right to play http://www.ipaworld.org/. A Non-Governmetal Organisation which globally advocates and preserves the right of children to play.


Sources:
Obesity in Europe – the Case for Action, International Obesity Task Force, European Association for the Study of Obesity, 2002 (www.iotf.org)
World Health Report, WHO, 17.3.2003
Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Risk Factors in Danish Children and Adolescents, PhD thesis, MD Niels Wedderkopp, Institute of Sports Science, SDU 2000
Gender and age differences in relation to the recommendations of physical activity among Norwegian children and youth, Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports, 2003
Lad børnene lege – styrk legen og vent med idrætten, Anne Brodersen dr.med., in Krumspring, DGI 2003 (Let the children play – strengthen play and wait with sports)