Schoolchildren can lose up to 80 per cent of fitness over summer holidays

Schoolchildren in the UK may be losing as much as 80 per cent of fitness gained during term time through inactivity over the summer holidays, according to the latest research from ukactive.

In a bid to provide an accurate measure of children’s fitness, ukactive Research Institute teamed up with Premier Sport and conducted tests on more than 400 schoolchildren in the North West of England over 13 months.

Children who attended schools where Premier Sport delivered regular activities had a much lower drop off rate over the summer and a more limited increase in BMI.

ukactive has called for the government to use funds from  its ‘sugar tax’ to provide incentives for parents to get children active over school summer holidays.

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