Aleš Gába, Ph.D.
Dr. Aleš Gába is an Associate Professor at the Palacký University Olomouc, Czech Republic. Dr. Gaba’s main research interest is in the role of 24-hour movement behaviors in promoting health and preventing chronic disease. He is engaged in research looking at the associations of physical activity, sedentary behaviors, and sleep with health outcomes in different age groups. He also is concerned with assessment tools and statistical methods that are suitable for 24-hour movement behaviors.
Aleš Gába, Ph.D.
"It has been a privilege to be a part of the group of the more than 500 people from around the world who are keen on make world better through their enthusiasm to get children and youth more physical active." - Aleš Gába, Ph.D.
Results from the Czech Republic’s 2018 Report Card on Physical Activity for Children and Youth
Aleš Gába, Lukáš Rubín, Petr Badura, Eliška Roubalová, Erik Sigmund, Michal Kudlá?ek, Dagmar Sigmundová, Jan Dygrýn, Zdenek Hamrik, Petra Hiklová
Introduction: Regular physical activity (PA) is associated with numerous health benefits. However, the decreasing level of PA and increasing screen-time among Czech schoolchildren has been well documented in the last two decades. To build effective intervention and prevention programs, it is necessary to review all available sources of evidence. Therefore, the aim is to summarize the results of the first Czech Report Card on Physical Activity for Children and Youth based on a synthesis of the most recently available evidence.
Methods: The Report Card included the 10 indicators that are common to the Global Matrix 3.0 project. To assess the indicator grades, a multi-level search strategy was used to find all relevant sources that provide published/unpublished data collected from 2013 through 2018. We retrieved 724 records from database search and 81 records identified through other sources. A total of 40 records were identified as eligible for data extraction. The data were synthesised and a set of benchmarks was used to assign grades. Final grades were assigned upon consensus of all members of the national research work group.
Results: Overall PA in Czech children and youth was observed to be inadequate, with high rates of excessive screen-time and low numbers of children and youth spending time in unstructured/unorganized play. On the other hand, some grades indicated promising foundations to build on in future. They are represented, for instance, by a relatively high number of children and youth participating in organized sports and/or PA programs, or generally PA-friendly setting (e.g., family, school, and built environment).
Conclusions: There is ample evidence that Czech children and youth are insufficiently active, and the prevalence of physical inactivity and excessive screen-time has increased in both sexes during the last two decades. Thus, PA in childhood and adolescence should be promoted intensively and effective intervention and prevention programs are needed.
Funding: Supported by the institutional grant of Palacký University Olomouc (FTK_2018_007).
Table. Grades for the Czech Republic’s 2018 Report Card
| Indicator | Grade |
| Overall Physical Activity | D |
| Organized Sport Participation | B– |
| Active Play | D– |
| Active Transportation | C+ |
| Sedentary Behaviours | D– |
| Physical Fitness | C+ |
| Family and Peers | C+ |
| School | B+ |
| Community and Environment | B |
| Government | C+ |
