Abstract 4135629: Grades and trends from the 2024 United States Report Card on Physical Activity for Children and Youth

Background: Regular physical activity provides numerous health benefits including improved cardiovascular health. Population-level physical activity surveillance is critical for informing research, practice, and policy efforts for supporting population health and health disparities. The United States Report Card on Physical Activity for Children and Youth addresses physical activity surveillance needs by integrating data from numerous sources capturing levels of physical activity and related behaviors (e.g., sedentary behavior, sleep), and facilitators and barriers for physical activity among United States youth. The 2024 Report Card is the 5 th and decennial iteration in the series, released October 2024. Methods: A Report Card Working Group was assembled under the auspices of the Physical Activity Alliance and National Physical Activity Plan. Members reviewed the evidence for 11 indicators using data from nationally representative surveys and assigned grades. Data were examined for the overall population and, when possible, by age, sex, race/ethnicity, and disability subgroups. A standardized grading rubric was used to assign a letter grade to each indicator ranging from A to F. Trends in key benchmarks over time were examined since the first report card (2014) or earliest available data. Results: Sufficient data were available to assign grades for 8 of the 11 indicators. The assigned grades ranged from B- to F, with overall physical activity levels earning a D- (Table 1). No indicators improved since 2014. Five indicators - overall physical activity, organized sport participation, active transportation, sedentary behaviors, and school - worsened since 2014. Conclusions: The compiled surveillance report indicates generally poor grades and concerning trends over the recent decade. These findings highlight opportunities to improve physical activity levels and resources for supporting cardiovascular health among United States youth. Policy approaches are needed to combat societal factors that interfere with physical activity. Gaps in data availability, specificity, and quality point to needs for improved surveillance to track impacts. The 2024 Report Card can be a tool for supporting advocacy of regular physical activity at the national and local level.