A new survey says parents' biggest health concern about their kids has to do with their physical inactivity. (Melanie Holtsman/Flickr Creative Commons)
Will Smith said parents just don't understand, but maybe kids ought to cut their parents some slack, too – they've got a lot on their minds.
At least, that's according to the annual national survey by C.S. Mott's Children's Hospital, which looked at the most pressing health concerns parents have about their kids.
Here are the top 10 concerns of 2012 and how many parents rated them as a "big problem":
1. Physical inactivity, 39 percent
2. Child obesity, 38 percent
3. Smoking and tobacco use, 34 percent
4. Drug use, 33 percent
5. Bullying, 29 percent
6. Stress, 27 percent
7. Drinking, 23 percent
8. Teen pregnancy, 23 percent
9. Internet safety, 22 percent
10. Child abuse and neglect, 20 percent
From 2007 to 2011, says the report, child obesity, drug abuse and smoking were consistently rated as the top three health problems for kids from the perspective of adults, whether or not they were parents.
Physical inactivity is certainly deserving of the dubious distinctions of both breaking the top three and becoming the number-one concern – a growing body of research is saying the prognosis for those who are sedentary is nothing short of deadly.
Also on the list was sexting (19 percent), depression (14 percent) and hunger (9 percent).
Researchers also broke down parents' top 10 health concerns by ethnicity:
– Sexually-transmitted diseases made an appearance on the list for black and Latino parents, but not for white parents.
– Alcohol abuse broke the top 10 for white and Latino parents but not black parents.
– Gun-related injuries, racial inequality and unsafe neighborhoods were among the top concerns for black parents but not white and Latino parents.
As far as similarities, physical inactivity and obesity were among the top three concerns for all three ethnicities. Other worries common to all three top 10 lists were drug use, tobacco use, bullying and teen pregnancy.
In their conclusion, survey authors said physical inactivity topped this year's list for two reasons: awareness created by First Lady Michelle Obama's "Let's Move" campaign and the fact that exercise has benefits that go beyond the prevention of obesity.
Photo by Melanie Holtsman via Flickr Creative Commons.
