Ireland’s pupils get top marks for exercise

Irish schoolchildren are among the most physically active in the world, with teenage girls topping the list of the globe’s best exercisers.

That’s according to the findings of an international study of teenage behaviour, which compared the health and well-being of adolescents in 27 high-income countries.

The research, published in British medical journal The Lancet found Irish girls between the ages of 13 and 15 take more daily exercise than anyone else in the Western world.

Teenage boys here are almost as committed to their daily work-outs, coming in second to their counterparts in the US, while teenage boys in Norway and adolescent girls from France were found to be the laziest.

Despite Ireland and the US topping the ‘Daily Exercise For At Least 60 Minutes’, the US also unsurprisingly has the fattest adolescents according to the study, with both males and females there being proportionately more overweight than in any other high-income country.

On a global scale, when so-called lower-income nations were included in the mix, the Pacific island nation of Tonga had the highest rates of obesity.

But despite repeated warnings here about soaring obesity rates amongst children, Ireland’s males were among the slimmest in fifth place, with girls marginally plumper in ninth position. Teenage boys from Holland and girls from Switzerland were found to be the least overweight.

According to other findings published in the special adolescent health issue of The Lancet teenage Irish boys smoke more cannabis than their female counterparts, but far less than their peers in Canada and the US, which were bottom of the list for females and males respectively. Belgian males and Finnish females were found to be the most abstinent.

However, despite the encouraging findings, Ireland’s 15-year-olds were found to have a higher binge-drinking rate than any other country except Austria, while Italian and Norwegian youngsters had the highest number of teetotallers.

Alarmingly, Ireland has one of the highest adolescent mortality rates in the Western world, according to the international study.

Irish people between the ages of 10 and 24 were found to be among those most at risk of death “from all causes”.

Only Portugal, New Zealand and the bottom-placed US had a higher overall mortality rate for young people than Ireland, which was ranked in 24th place.

The disturbing findings show injuries are the biggest killer of young people worldwide, accounting for 40% of all deaths. This included injuries from car accidents and intentional harm caused by suicide and violence, with vehicle crashes the leading single cause of death.

Researchers also discovered that suicide rates, deaths of young males from violence and traffic mortality rates among 15 to 24-year-olds, were higher in Ireland than in most other countries.