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Swiss kids are becoming less physically active

Young girl playing on her smartphone
The digital revolution allows more time to be spent onscreen. A girl watches youtube clips on her smart phone. Keystone / Gaetan Bally

It turns out that Swiss youths are lacking in exercise: over 85 percent of young people between the ages of 11 and 17 don’t do enough sport in their everyday lives.

The latest research by the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends physical activity for at least one hour each day. However, 80 percent of young people worldwide do not follow this advice.

Leanne Riley, co-author of the study, says: “We’ve had an electronic revolution that has obviously changed the movement patterns of young people – and encouraged them to sit more, be less active, drive more, walk less.” In the end, young people play more digitally than actively.

The difference between boys and girls observed in Switzerland can also be found on a global level: while 77.6 percent of boys do not move sufficiently, the figure for girls is 84.7 percent. The greatest differences between the sexes were found in Ireland (17 percentage points) and the USA (16.5 percentage points).

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SWI swissinfo.ch - a branch of Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR