Schoolchildren in England are the least fit they have ever been, but their sedentary lifestyles – not the growing obesity epidemic – is to blame, research shows.

The year-on-year fall in children’s fitness levels has become even more acute, to the extent that it is now declining at the rate of 0.95% annually, twice the global average of 0.43%.

That represents a significant worsening in fitness levels, which declined by 0.8% a year between 1998 and 2008, researchers from Essex University have found.

The study, which is a follow up from the same research carried out in 2008 and 1998 tested the fitness levels of 300 schoolchildren aged 10 and 11 from schools in Essex, with children from deprived backgrounds being tested as well as those from more affluent areas.

Despite sport receiving increased attention following the Olympics in 2012, the change in government between the two studies could have had a greater impact on levels of activity in schoolchildren, experts believe.

Lead researcher Dr Gavin Sandercock said: “These are the children who had free swimming taken away, these are the children who lived through the demolition of the schools sports partnerships and they were the ones who lost the five-hour offer of PE,” Sandercock said. “Cycling England also went too. The Olympics pulled one way but there has been a lot pulling the other way.”

Other studies have shown that fitness levels have declined while obesity levels have risen and Sandercock admitted he had been surprised to find the children in his study were thinner. He said: “Obviously having a lower BMI is quite welcome because we hear a lot about the obesity epidemic but this is the first time where we’ve seen children less able to run and turn even though they weigh less. Together that tells us quite simply that they must be much less active.”

Fitness levels in childhood are seen as a strong indicator for health problems in the future. Sandercock said: “We have a criterion for low fitness and a lot of the children we tested are what we call clinically unfit because they sit below our health-related threshold. We’ve never seen that before.

“Those below the threshold are clinically three times more likely to get a chronic disease such as heart disease or diabetes in adulthood. We also know more recently that it’s linked to a number of common cancers as well.”

He added: “It has got to the stage now that if we took the least fit child from a class of 30 we tested in 1998, they would be one of the five fittest children in a class of the same age today.”

This week ukactive, the leading not-for-profit health body for the physical activity sector published Generation Inactive, a report which called for schools to begin testing physical activity as they do for maths or science.

Responding to Thursday’s research, Lady Grey-Thompson, chair of ukactive and celebrated paralympian said: “Earlier this week, we highlighted the specific danger of childhood inactivity, distinct from childhood obesity. Inactivity has been found by a recent Cambridge University study to be twice as significant an indicator of premature mortality than BMI-judged obesity.

“Yet we persist in viewing the challenge of inactivity through an obesity-tinted lens when they are two distinct problems.”

The government responded to ukactive’s Generation Inactive report by stating that it is tackling childhood obesity by investing in school sport. However, Grey-Thompson believes this approach is narrow-minded.



She said: This study is yet more evidence that we need a fresh approach to understanding the real problem, which is not solely obesity but childhood inactivity and obesity; before we can have the correct solution which certainly isn’t solely more school sport.”

Public Health England declined to comment.