Long-Term Benefits From Organized Youth Sports
Children who participated in sports program show health benefits as adults.
Keep supporting organized sports programs for children; it may set them up for a healthy life. A recent longitudinal study found long-term health benefits for youth who participated in organized sports from middle to high school and/or college. Even after 12 years, young people who participated in organized sports continued to show higher physical activity levels and superior test results in health biomarkers such as body mass index, waist circumference, blood pressure and more, when compared with young people who did not take part in organized sports or who quit at earlier ages.
Find the study in Preventive Medicine Reports (2020; 19, 101107).
Shirley Eichenberger-Archer, JD, MA
Shirley Archer, JD, MA, is an internationally acknowledged integrative health and mindfulness specialist, best-selling author of 16 fitness and wellness books translated into multiple languages and sold worldwide, award-winning health journalist, contributing editor to Fitness Journal, media spokesperson, and IDEA's 2008 Fitness Instructor of the Year. She's a 25-year industry veteran and former health and fitness educator at the Stanford Prevention Research Center, who has served on multiple industry committees and co-authored trade books and manuals for ACE, ACSM and YMCA of the USA. She has appeared on TV worldwide and was a featured trainer on America's Next Top Model.
