Shocking news: Every 4th Hungarian child is overweight

Recent studies state that Hungary’s fertility rate is EU average, the majority of Hungarians support the border fence, and all CEOs are concerned about the labour shortage. Newest survey results, conducted by Hungarian School Sport Federation (HSSF), reveal that obesity is still a serious problem among the Hungarian youth, reports Pénzcentrum.hu. The number of overweight kids increased by 15%.

The test

For the third time, HSSF conducted the so-called NETFIT test [Hungarian National Student Fitness Test] which measures the physical states of youngsters including stamina, the fitness of skeletal muscles, flexibility, nutritional status and body composition.

Based on their test results’, children are categorised into zones. NETFIT has three such zones: the Healthy Fitness Zone, the To be Improved Zone, and the To be Strongly Improved Zone.

Results

The number of overweight children increased by 6-15%, and the number of children with normal body mass index decreased. Students’ test results start to decline drastically after puberty, especially in the case of girls.

Based on their body mass index, every fourth child falls into the overweight category.

The number of overweight children increased in all age groups, and in both genders. Test results suggest that there are more and more obese children every year. Findings suggest that children’s back muscle results are especially bad, only 52% of the participants were categorised as healthy. However, these results are still better (by 4.4%) than they were three years ago.

There were improvements

Introducing five compulsory P.E. classes per week has proven to be successful because overall, fewer children (by 11-20%) finished in the red zone (To be Strongly Improved Zone) this year than three years ago.

However, there is some development regarding the stamina of children with weight problems: the number of people reaching the healthy zone increased by 37% on the running test. Although,

only 60% of the students reached the healthy zone overall,

which is considered to be a poor result. There is also an improvement in children’s skeletal muscle fitness and their overall fitness status.

HSSF tries to raise attention to the importance of exercise, and why it is crucial motivating children to do sports and pay attention to their physical fitness. Physical inactivity is really unhealthy, and it is related to many health problems.

Source: www.penzcentrum.hu