Our goal with the OMiCS study is to use a personalized medicine approach to better understand the health of kids across all levels of physical activity. We know that active kids are healthy kids, what we want to know is why and how.
It is now known that physical activity helps improve our health in many ways, including a lower risk of chronic disease and obesity, and improved self-esteem and mental health; but, only 9% of Canadian children aged 5-17 are currently meeting the recommended 60-minutes of physical activity per day.
Children who are physically active show improved musculoskeletal and cardiovascular health, and have a decreased risk of developing chronic conditions including type 2 diabetes and obesity. Active children also show decreased incidences of anxiety and depression, as well as improved socioemotional development and self-esteem.
All of these factors point to the abundance of benefits provided by physical activity, and serve as the motivation behind our study: why do children with increased levels of physical activity demonstrate these health benefits?