Abstract

Regular physical activity is one of the factors that act positively on health. Nowadays, with highly developed multimedia technologies, such as computers and computer games attract children and teens, as a result children tend to have less physical activity. According to the WHO report one of the ten leading causes of death and disability in the world, is sedentary lifestyle and lack of physical activity. Given the use of television, computers, computer games and the physical activities of children and their parents were studied. This cross-sectional, descriptive, and analytical study was conducted on 120 elementary school students and their parents, in 2012, in Zahedan city, Iran. Information by using a questionnaire about demographic, and children and their parents' physical activity and children time spent on watching television and using computers, was collected. The results of this study showed that only 43.7 students had regular physical activity, and meanwhile, only 42.7 of fathers and 24.5 mothers had physical activity. In children the average time of watching television per day was 2.5 hours, and mean time of computer use during a day was 1 hour. Consistent with many studies, this study showed that a significant percentage (56.3) of children aged 7-12 years had no regular exercise program, On average children engaged 2.5 hours in watching television and 1 hour using computers a day. In a similar study it has been reported students spent about 3 hours watching television a day(14). In another study It has been reported that average time engaged by students in watching television and computer games a day and night was 9 hours (15). This is because, based on research it was found about 15 of adolescents in different regions of Iran, due to physical inactivity are affected by overweight and obesity. If such lifestyle continues in future obesity will be a major health problem in teens and high treatment costs will be imposed on individuals and society in this area. In the absence of proper planning problems will be increased in the future.