While the Spanish government has reduced funding for the sports sector as part of its austerity package, the Spanish Health Ministry has now announced the establishment of an observatory for the study of obesity, according to Diffusion Sport, following indications that 46 percent of the Spanish children between the ages of 6 and 9 are obese or overweight.
Another study of 7,234 school-age children in seven European countries, presented last month at the European Energy Symposium, found that 34 percent of Spanish children between the ages of 10 and 12 have a weight problem, surpassed only by Greece with a rate of 50 percent. In contrast with other countries, Spanish children tend to be more overweight than obese.
Based on IOTF criteria, 25.8 percent of boys and 21.8 percent of girls are overweight or obese in Europe, according to this study, with the highest rates found in Greece and the lowest found for boys in Belgium and the Netherlands.
There is apparently a link between excessive weight and the time spent practicing sports or in front of a screen. The study shows that engagement in sports activities among boys averages 260 minutes per week in Europe, with the highest rate at more than 300 minutes in Norway and the lowest one at less than 200 minutes in Greece. For girls, the average is almost 200 minutes per week, ranging from 250 minutes in Slovenia down to 150 minutes in Greece.
On the other hand, boys tend to spend about two and a half hours per day viewing TV and computer screens, and girls somewhat less than two hours, with the lowest rate in Spain. Interestingly, children of more educated parents reported less screen time than those from lower-education parents.
