Title: Results from Qatar’s 2018 Report Card on Physical Activity for Children and Youth
Authors
Izzeldin Ibrahim1, Eiman Al Hammadi1, Suzan Sayegh1, Lena Zimmo1, Jwaher Al Neama1, Husam Rezeq1, Abdulla Saeed Al-Mohannadi1, Al Anoud AL-Thani2
1Exercise is Medicine Department, Aspetar Orthopaedic and Sports Medicine Hospital, Doha, Qatar
2Public Health Department, Ministry of Public Health, Doha, Qatar
Introduction
The second Qatar Active Healthy Kids Report Card (QAHK) provides an updated comprehensive assessment of available evidence on physical activity (PA) of children and youth in the State of Qatar. The goal of QAHK Report Card is to evaluate PA levels among children and youth, their behaviors, and influencing factors. QAHK report card (2018) could provide novel surveillance opportunities to understand PA trends over time and provide a platform for recommendations to improve PA level.
Methods
QAHK report card was developed by a Report Card Leadership (RCL) Team at Aspetar Orthopedic and Sport Medicine Hospital, in collaboration with Stakeholder Group. A thorough literature search was conducted including recently peer-reviewed published data and national surveys. Collected data was discussed with stakeholder group and PA indicators were identified accordingly. Grades were assigned based on benchmark comparisons.
Results
High grades were assigned to government indicator (B+) and school (C), as there is continuous collaborative effort to promote children PA at schools. Other indicators were either assigned lower grades or could not be graded due to the unavailability of relevant data (Table 1).
Table 1. Grades for QAHK report card indicators
Indicator |
Grade |
Overall Physical Activity |
D |
Organized Sport Participation |
D+ |
Active Play |
INC |
Active Transportation |
N/A |
Sedentary Behaviors |
D+ |
Physical Fitness |
INC |
Family and Peers |
INC |
School |
C |
Community and Environment |
INC |
Government |
B+ |
Conclusion
This second QAHK report card showed considerable improvement in PA indicators; however, unavailability of data for some indicators remains a major challenge. The newly developed national PA surveillance is an opportunity for obtaining valid and reliable data for the future report cards.