Dr. Richard Larouche, Associate Professor of Public Health, has been involved in a study looking at levels of physical activity amongst children and adolescents around the globe. He and Dr. Mark S. Tremblay at the CHEO Research Institute in Ottawa lead a team of co-investigators to compare physical activity levels within and between 17 countries on six continents.

Dr. Larouche presented some preliminary results from the Global Adolescent and Child Physical Activity Questionnaire (GAC-PAQ) at Outdoor Play Canada’s Breath of Fresh Air conference earlier this fall.

In their work to develop a standardized measure of outdoor time, the researchers used data from the first 12 countries who completed their pilot study of the GAC-PAQ to examine the percentage of children spending at least two hours a day outdoors, an amount that has been consistently shown to be associated with better mental health. Approximately 34 per cent of participants achieved this target and this proportion varied from 16.3 per cent in Nigeria to 60 per cent in Malawi. The research team also found that children living in rural areas spent more time outdoors than their urban counterparts. Children- and parent-reported outdoor time were moderately correlated, providing preliminary evidence of convergent validity. Researchers plan to further examine factors associated with outdoor time when countries participating in the GAC-PAQ project have completed their ongoing main study, which will involve 500 eight- to 17-year-olds per country.

Larouche was also involved in developing the newest position statement from Outdoor Play Canada as a member of the international steering committee tasked with developing the statement. He also served as a member of its Board of Directors.

“The evidence for outdoor play is compelling; it helps us move more, learn, sleep better, stay healthy, connect to nature and improve our confidence,” he says. “As George Bernard Shaw once said ‘We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.’”

Findings from the main study should help inform future interventions to promote outdoor play and physical activity.