Report Card Grades

• Overall Physical Activity: D+
• Organized Sport and Physical Activity: B-
• Active Play: B-
• Active Transportation: D
• Sedentary Behavior: D+
• Physical Fitness: C
• Family and Peers: C
• School: C+
• Community and Environment: B
• Government: C+

Related Links

• Long form

Report Card Leader

Arunas Emeljanovas, Ph.D.
Prof. Dr. Arunas Emeljanovas an author of over 80 publications in international scientific journals (about 40 on Web of Science (Clarivate Analytics) data base with Impact Factor), has offered several keynotes and invited presentations, and over 90 conference paper presentations. He is an expert in the field of physical education for Lithuanian Ministry of Education, Science and Sport.

Prof. Dr. Arunas Emeljanovas actively participate in scientific activities at the international level: was an opponent in PhD thesis defense in Latvia and Estonia; member of Scientific Expert Commission of Latvian Council of Science; member of several international scientific institutions: FIEP, ENSSEE, INSHS, CEREPS, Active Healthy Kids Global Alliance, Global Community Health.

He was a leader and member in a number of scientific, study and experimental development projects at national and international levels. Among them:

• 2018 Grant for scientific research project "The examination of health determinants and recommendations for health improvement in conscripts and compulsory military service soldiers", funded by Lithuanian Council of Science;
• 2016 Grant for the International Project "Development of Physical Fitness Testing and Assessment Methodology for Preschool and Primary School Children and Integration into the Physical Education Process" funded by Program Norway Grants (European Economic Area).
• 2013 - 2015 Grant for scientific research project "Health Related Physical Fitness, its Variation and Determinants", funded by Lithuanian Council of Science.
  Main research interests: Physical fitness and physical activity of adolescents; Issues on school physical education.

Report Card Grades

• Overall Physical Activity: C-
• Organized Sport and Physical Activity: C
• Active Play: INC
• Active Transportation: C-
• Sedentary Behavior: C-
• Physical Fitness: C+
• Family and Peers: D
• School: C+
• Community and Environment: C
• Government: C

Related Links

• Long form
• Scientific paper
• Conference abstract
• Poster

Media Impact

Top Three Priorities

1. Strategies such as active breaks could be implemented especially addressing those who are most inactive. Parents, teachers and school policies could set the boundaries to excessive use of various digital technology devices by children and adolescents.
2. Motivational social support for families could be provided on an organizational level (school and workplaces) and community level (community leaders). More media support by providing evidence based benefits of physical activity and showing the ways for being physically active as well as providing good examples and sharing best practices would be also valuable.
3. Collaboration among researchers and policy makers is crucial for making steps towards improvement of physical activity indicators among children and youth.

Report Card Leader

Arunas Emeljanovas, Ph.D.

Testimonial

"Building active future for our (Lithuanian) children together with the rest of the world is a great opportunity and honor. Together we can do more than alone. Collaboration is inspiring. " - Arunas Emeljanovas, Ph.D.

Conference Abstract: Movement to Move

Lithuania’s 2018 Report Card on Physical Activity for Children and Youth

Arunas Emeljanovas¹, Brigita Mieziene¹, Rita Gruodyte-Raciene¹, Saulius Sukys¹, Renata Rutkauskaite¹, Laima Trinkuniene¹, Natalija Fatkulina², Inga Gerulskiene³, Tomas Daukantas⁴,  Vita Balsyte⁵, Tatjana Zabolotnaja⁶

¹Lithuanian Sports University
²Vilnius University
³Department of Physical Education and Sports
⁴Ministry of Education and Science
⁵National Olympic Committee of Lithuania
⁶Ministry of Health

Introduction

Research reveals worsening trends for physical activity (PA) (Zaborskis et al., 2012) and physical fitness (Venckunas et al., 2017) in Lithuanian school-aged children. Lithuanian youth are among the least active in the context of other European countries (Kalman et al., 2015). School-aged children’s physical fitness is constantly declining, with some aspects of physical fitness declining by as much as 50% during the last two decades (Venckunas et al., 2017), which can lead to earlier onset of health problems, decreased quality of life and increased financial burden on the society.

Methods: The Report Card

The 2018 Report Card included the 10 core PA indicators, which represents behaviors (Overall PA, Organized Sport and PA, Active Play, Active Transportation, and Sedentary Behaviors), settings and sources of social influences (Family and Peers, School, and Community and Environment), strategies and investments (Government) and health related Physical Fitness. Data from multiple sources were used to inform the grades in accordance with common benchmarks.

Results

Conclusions/recommendations

Many PA indicators in Lithuanian children and youth show that actions need to be taken to improve the current situation. Although in Lithuania policy agenda, policy formation, policy implementation, policy evaluation and decisions about the future regarding PA are discussed at the governmental level, these issues are still episodic, lack consistency, there is no clear policy for  PA (promotion) in school-aged children (and society in general). National recommendations for increasing PA and reducing sedentary behavior are also still missing. Attention should be focused on strengthening physical fitness at the national level. Finally, municipality level strategies and actions to encourage schools, communities, families and neighborhoods to get more involved in exercise and PA are needed.