A children’s health expert on Friday said it is “alarming” that Hong Kong youth are still not getting enough exercise, even after pandemic restrictions on school activities have been dropped.

Only eight percent of those between the ages of five and 17 fulfilled the World Health Organization’s recommended one hour of daily moderate-to-intense physical activity, research by the paediatrics department of the University of Hong Kong showed.

The department’s Professor Patrick Ip said his team surveyed 245 primary and 283 secondary students in the SportsHour Participation Index Primary and Secondary Youth Research study.

In another study, Ip's team surveyed more than 137,000 primary school students to check their physical fitness and body mass index before, during, and after the pandemic.

Ip said that just fifteen minutes of exercise each day could improve health and sleep, while those who do not have enough exercise could see worsening health.

"Most of them actually got a deterioration in their general physical fitness, in particular in their cardiopulmonary function. Among those, we find those who are suffering from exaggeration growth problems, including excessive obesity and underweight seem to be particularly vulnerable," he said.

"We also found actually the [percentage] of obesity among Hong Kong students has increased dramatically from around 25 percent a few years ago to over 31 percent last year."

He added that younger children will have a higher tendency of developing unhealthy lifestyles because of Covid’s impact.

“Younger children actually do not have the chance to [be] exposed to normal social interaction or even school life. To start with, they have already built up a very poor habit of staying at home all the time, lacking the physical exercise, or even focusing on electronic devices,” he said.

Ip’s team has proposed the government and schools should provide more opportunities for students to exercise, and provide more sports options to increase their motivation.