Decline in physical activity during children is associated with decreased skeletal muscle mass

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“Our findings may increase awareness regarding the need to assess muscle mass of school-age children engaging in substandard levels of physical activity,” said Tadashi Ito. “From a long-term perspective, it can be assumed that low skeletal muscle mass values are primarily the result of children’s low levels of physical activity. Therefore, maintaining an optimal skeletal muscle mass during childhood could improve the maximum muscle mass.” “More future longitudinal studies are needed to confirm this hypothesis,” said lead author Tadashi Ito. “The results of this study showed that gait quality, balance function, and body fat percentage are also related to physical activity,” said Tadashi Ito. “These findings call for studies that monitor participants over a period of time to understand the possible causal links between physical activity and physical functions during childhood.” The study results suggested that health care providers should begin including moderate-to-vigorous playtime activities outdoors alongside exercise when providing guidance to children regarding the recommended level of physical activity. “These results indicated the importance of engaging in the recommended level of physical activity for the development of skeletal muscle mass among children,” said Tadashi Ito. The study, “Relationship between the skeletal muscle mass index and physical activity of Japanese children,” authored by Tadashi Ito from the Aichi Prefectural Mikawa Aoitori Medical and Rehabilitation Center for Developmental Disabilities’, was recently published in the journal PLOS ONE. The link to the article: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0251025

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