Parents' exercise habits rub off on their children, according to Swiss study

Exercise is contagious - at least in the family. A Swiss study published on Tuesday shows that if parents are physically active, their children also tend to be more active. The researchers from the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (Swiss TPH) analysed movement data from several hundred parent-child pairs from Switzerland. Over several days, children and parents wore movement sensors that recorded how much time they spent sitting, being slightly active or moving more intensively. +Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox The results showed that if parents changed their exercise behaviour, the children followed this pattern. However, the effect was significantly weaker in the children. Specifically, the change in the child was around 18 times less when it came to the mother's behaviour and around 29 times less when it came to the father's behaviour. The influence remained visible over several years: even five years after the first measurement, children ...