Our kids are getting fatter. While the Otago University research published today by the New Zealand Medical Journal isn’t surprising, it is significant in that it confirms what most of us would’ve thought. And that is, children today are bigger than their parents were at the exact same age.

Specifically, we’re talking 15-year olds. Almost 350 Kiwis were tested in the 1980s and here we are, 30 years on and there’s been a 25% decline in fitness in the girls compared to their mothers and a 15% decline for the boys compared to their dads. The study was done in Dunedin.

My first reaction is that it’s cold in Dunedin! Too cold to be outside playing, but the truth is that irrespective of climates, in the developed, a similar trend is being noticed. And it’s not like Dunedin was any warmer in the 80s.

There are some obvious conclusions: kids are hooked on their electronic devices and their health is suffering as a result. But what the research shows is that their parents have gotten bigger too.

Currently, New Zealand has a life expectancy of 81.46 and while that’s about 10 years higher than in was in the 1960s, it’s rate of growth has slowed in recent years. Unless something is done, there’s the prospect that at some point this century, life expectancy could potentially drop. This notion would have been unheard until recently.

So is this a time for despair or a time to reset? The opportunities are exciting. If we now have inarguable evidence of the expanding waistlines not just of our adults, but of the very children of a people who were once fit themselves, then surely we can do something about it.

Schools can be a massive part of this. I miss PE. PE was so much fun. As a lifelong cricket and tennis fan, the last time I played softball or did a beep test was in school PE. I miss the softball but I think I even miss the beep tests too!

A greater emphasis on PE and after school sport programs is one strategy, but so too is a de-emphasis on after school homework. If we’re dealing in research-based policy, the international research about the benefits of homework is hardly glowing.

The other shift in our thinking should come with what we can do with limited money. Build homemade back-boards for kids to bowl cricket balls against. Buy secondhand trampolines. Find an old basketball hoop and put it up. If we move away from the notion that gifts to friends and family have to cost money, we’ve got a greater shot in everyone – regardless of income – being able to be more inclined to play outside rather than in.

None of this touches of diet and the expense of healthy food options, but it is a start.