Results from Ghana’s 2018 Report Card on Physical Activity for Children and Youth

Abstract

It is recommended that children aged 5 to 17 years should accumulate at least 60 minutes of moderate- to vigorous-intensity physical activity (MVPA) daily.1,2 However, there is limited empirical evidence on how much physical activity Ghanaian children and youth engage in. Although the Ghana Education Service requires at least 80 minutes per week of physical education3 in schools, in practice, this is often not achieved. When children and youth fail to achieve the minimum recommended physical activity levels, they are at risk of adverse health consequences. The purpose of this short paper is to summarize the results of the 2018 Report Card (Figure 1).