Shawnda A Morrison, Gregor Jurak, Gregor Starc, Marjeta Kovač, Mojca Golobič, Poljanka Pavletič Samardžija, Mojca Gabrijelčič, Primož Kotnik, Kaja Meh, Marko Primožič, Vedrana Sember
Background: Slovenian children are facing considerable health challenges from the rapid social changes that influence their opportunity to engage in daily physical activity.
Objective: To overlay the social changes to the established Report Card model as a means of contextualising the extreme changes in physical activity and fitness observed over several years.
Methods: Benchmarks were graded for 10 core indicators, plus two (Sleep, Seasonal Variations). Active Healthy Kids Slovenia members met (predominantly via zoom) liaising with team leader(s) on a flexible, individual basis, based on coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) regulations, over the ∼2-year assessment period of the project. Data were separated to the years prior to, 'pre' 2018-2020, and 'during' the global pandemic (2020-2021). Where sufficient data existed for both timeframes, grades were averaged to produce an overall grade.
Results: Grade results are expressed as pre/during/final grade, where the final grade (bolded) is a straight average of the two preceding time epochs: Overall Physical Activity (A-/A-/), Organized Sport and Physical Activity (C+/C/), Active Play (D/C+/), Active Transport (C/INC/), Sedentary Behaviour (B/C/), Physical Fitness (A+/A-/), Family and Peers (B+/INC/), Schools (A/A/), Community and Environment (A+/A+/), Government (A/F/), Sleep (D-/INC/), Seasonal Variations (D/C-/).
Conclusion: Although Slovenia has some of the most consistently physically-active children in the world, the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic exerted significant reductions in physical activity opportunities, and especially when coupled with funding re-distributions, resulted in the steepest decline of child physical fitness observed within the >35-year history of Slovenia's well-established national fitness surveillance system.
