STUDY : Kids Boost Activity Level When Around Active Friends

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June 4, 2012

Children with more-active friends tend to raise their own levels of physical activity, according to a new study.

Experts say the finding could help create interventions to curb the growing rates of childhood obesity.

To conduct the study, researchers interviewed 81 children ages 5 to 12, who were enrolled in after-school programs, and asked about their friendships. The kids also wore devices called accelerometers to monitor their activity at three points in time over the course of the 12-week study.

“By far, the greatest influence on how active kids are is what their friends are doing,” said study author Sabina Gesell, a research assistant professor of pediatrics at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. “In our study, they were six times more likely to adjust their behavior to be like their friends than they were not to.”

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