Surveillance systems and strategies,and levels of physical activity and fitness for school-aged children and adolescents in Denmark,Finland,and Sweden

Abstract

Aim:

The aim of this paper is to grade and compare national surveillance systems and strategies, as well as the levels of physical activity (PA), and fitness for school-aged children and adolescents in Denmark, Finland, and Sweden.

Methods:

Surveillance systems for the three countries were evaluated based on the quality and representativeness of the data used for the Active Healthy Kids (AHK) Global Matrix 4.0 report card. Governmental strategies for repeated data collection were also evaluated. Both were graded by the authors of the present paper, and grades from 1 (excellent) to 5 (very poor) were set. The levels of PA and fitness reported in the country report cards were also compared.

Results:

The national surveillance strategy grades for 10 different PA and fitness indicators varied between 1 and 5 for Denmark, 1 and 2 for Finland, and 1 and 5 for Sweden. The surveillance strategy for organized sport participation and active transportation was graded as excellent for all, whereas the surveillance strategy related to community and environment was rated 4 in Denmark, and 1 in the other countries. Furthermore, the grades for the quality of the methodology used in collecting the ten indicators for the AHK compilation varied between 1 and 3 for Denmark, 1 and 2 for Finland, and 1 and 5 for Sweden; however, the methodologies varied largely between countries making direct comparison of these results difficult.

Conclusions:

Systematic surveillance of PA tends to be superior in Finland compared with Denmark and Sweden. Levels of PA and fitness among school-aged children and adolescents seem similar, but it is difficult to draw conclusions due to different methodologies used.