Project status
In progress
Duration
Project started on 1 Oct 2022
In progress
Project started on 1 Oct 2022
The Active Healthy Kids England 2022 Report Card is a source for knowledge, insight, and understanding of the state of child and youth physical activity in England.
It aims to influence thinking and action among stakeholders to help them build better programmes, campaigns, and policies in order to increase physical activity among children and youth.
In addition to academic audiences, it is an important real-world tool for numerous stakeholders, including:
We used the best available sources of data to compile this Report Card. This included national surveys and peer-reviewed research from January 2016 to April 2022.
This data was then consolidated, synthesised, and assessed by members of an expert panel, who collectively assigned grades to each of the Active Healthy Kids Global Alliance (AHKGA) indicators (an agreed, and standardised, international criteria).
Following detailed discussions, and in some instances secondary data analyses, the panel assigned the grades of A, B, C, D, F, or INC (incomplete) to each indicator. This was based on based on whether children across England were achieving the AHKGA benchmarks.
The Active Healthy Kids England 2022 Report Card provides an updated and comprehensive 'state of the nation' assessment of child and youth physical activity in England. Here are some of the key results.
Overall Physical Activity - 55.1% of English school children getting an average of one hour of moderate intensity physical activity per day
Organised Sport and Physical Activity - 33% of children took part in organised competitive sports outside of school
Active Transportation - 56.6% of children regularly using active transportation
Sedentary Behaviours - Computer game engagement increases with age
Community and Environment - 385.46 metres is the average distance to nearest park, public garden, or playing field in England
The 2022 Report Card findings are very similar to previous iterations (i.e. those released in 2014, 2016, and 2018).
The provision to engage children and youth in physical activity in England remains good, yet more effort is required to maximise the use of the existing resources, monitor progress, and subsequently improve the physical activity engagement of English children and youth.
Our ability to grade all indicators, and our confidence in these grades, would benefit greatly from a stratified and targeted survey designed to directly assess the ten core AHKGA indicators. Such an approach would overcome several research gaps that led to the awarding of INC grades.
Similarly, nationally representative monitoring with device-measured physical activity in England is required (i.e. nationally representative data are currently derived from self-report measures).
Find out more about this research
Download the Active Healthy Kids England 2022 Report CardIf you have any questions about the Report Card and our research, please contact us.