Australian children undertake physical activity survey

One of the most important surveys of children ever to be undertaken in Australia is occurring nationally with thousands of phone calls to families across Australia inviting them to participate.

Four thousand young people are being sought to take part in the national nutrition and physical activity survey, known as Kids Eat, Kids Play, being undertaken by CSIRO, through the Preventative Health Flagship and the Human Nutrition Centre, in partnership with the University of South Australia.

Participants are being recruited throughout the first half of 2007, and the interviews are expected to continue until August 2007.

Children will be randomly selected from metropolitan and regional areas of all Australian states and territories. The selected families will be telephoned and invited to take part in the survey, which will involve 230 towns and cities across Australia.

Participants will be interviewed face to face about their food intake, activity patterns and physical measurements. Additional information about the number of steps they take will be collected using a pedometer for seven days for children aged over five, and some general questions about the household will be asked.

Project director, Professor Tim Olds from the School of Health Sciences, University of South Australia, will lead the activity survey, which will measure how children use their time and their weight status.

Nutrition survey activities are managed for the Preventative Health Flagship by Professor Lynne Cobiac, head of the Department of Nutrition and Dietetics at Flinders University of South Australia. This will involve gathering information about the food, beverage and dietary supplement intake of children aged two to 16 years.

For more information, visit www.kidseatkidsplay.com.au.