BMJ: Young children need to be more active

At lest half of all seven-year-olds are not getting enough exercise, and girls are far less active than boys, research by a leading medical journal has found.

Only 51 percent of British seven-year-olds are getting an hour of exercise every day - the recommended amount - and twice as many boys than girls are active enough.

Just 38 percent of girls take part in the required hour of exercise, according to the British Medical Journal's (BMJ) research.

On top of this, half of all seven-year-olds have no or very little exercise, spending at least 6.4 hours of every day in activities which require sitting still.

Children of Indian origin or living in Northern Ireland are among the least physically active, according to the BMJ.