Children worldwide engaged in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity for an estimated 17 minutes (20%) less a day during the COVID-19 pandemic—a rate that grew to 25% when the study period was longer—reveals an international systematic review and meta-analysis published yesterday in JAMA Pediatrics.

University College Dublin researchers led the analysis of 22 international longitudinal studies involving 14,216 children with child- or parent-reported data published from Jan 1, 2020, to Jan 1, 2022. Median participant age was 10.5 (range, 3 to 18) years, and 51% were boys.

Of the 46 independent samples included in the studies, 22 (48%) were from Europe, 8 (18%) from North America, 7 (15%) from South America, 5 (11%) from Asia, 1 each (2%) from the Middle East, Central America, and Australia/New Zealand (2%), and 1 sample reported data from multiple regions. Between-study heterogeneity was moderate to large.