Teen Girls in Pittsburgh Get Less Physical Activity than the National Average
By: Allison Hydzik
Teen girls in Pittsburgh lag far behind the expected levels of physical activity for U.S. adolescent females, according to a new analysis based on a representative sample of that population. This study was led by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and Graduate School of Public Health.
The findings, published online and in a coming print issue of Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise—the journal of the American College of Sports Medicine—suggest that teenage girls living in urban settings may need additional, targeted opportunities for physical activity to achieve the levels reached by their suburban and rural counterparts.
“Sadly, we found that only about 5 percent of the hundreds of girls who participated in our study met the minimum daily activity level recommended by national and international health agencies,” said lead author Bonny Rockette-Wagner, Ph.D., director of physical activity assessment at Pitt Public Health. “Girls who were obese or had given birth in the last year were even less likely to achieve adequate levels of physical activity.”
