Mapping out a healthier future with orienteering (From Gazette)

Mapping out a healthier future with orienteering

8:10am Saturday 10th October 2009

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ORIENTEERING at playtime is the best way for schools to help in the battle against childhood obesity, according to an Essex University study.

Research carried out with two primary schools also concluded that learning navigation skills helps boost self-esteem, particularly among overweight children. To add to this, the children are also exercising without realising it.

Thirty children at Willow Brook Primary School, in Barnardiston Road, Colchester, and Langenhoe Community Primary School, in Abberton, were given all-weather clothing and an accelerometer, which measures the amount and intensity of exercise they do.

Dr Caroline Angus, of the university’s centre for sports and exercise science, said the popularity and impact of orienteering was “quite surprising”.

She said: “The changes in activity levels and self-esteem were dramatic among overweight children and much greater than we anticipated.

“Orienteering has a different focus with the concentration on working together and reading a map to achieve something, rather than the good co-ordination and motor skills required to use sports equipment.

“Children are exercising without realising it.”

Providing equipment, such as frisbees and skipping ropes, did the most to boost activity levels among fitter children, but less-fit children did not become involved as much.

Nationally, a third of children are overweight or obese by the time they leave primary school and a third of under-tens fail to do the recommended 60 minutes of exercise every day.

Dr Angus added: “The amount of time children play outdoors has halved in the last 20 years, but we have shown we can improve children’s health with very simple measures.”

The research was funded with £10,000 from Heart Research UK.

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