Bu sayfa henüz sizin dilinizde mevcut değil. İngilizce gösteriliyor.
Nearly five hours of daily screen time and only one in three young people active enough: cheap, collective traditional games are part of the answer.
Almost five hours a day in front of a screen. Only one in three young people meets physical activity recommendations. Health data on young people in Spain are a wake-up call, and traditional games — cheap, collective and fun — are part of the answer.
The worrying numbers
The PASOS 2022 study by the Gasol Foundation looked at almost 3,000 children and adolescents aged 8 to 16 across Spain. Its results, gathered in our State of the Art report, paint a clear picture:
33.4% are overweight or obese, and 11.8% are obese.
Only 36.7% meet the World Health Organization's physical activity recommendations.
Just 13.2% meet all three movement guidelines at once: physical activity, sleep and screen time.
Average screen time is 294 minutes a day, when the WHO benchmark is below 120.
The Basque Country has slightly lower obesity rates than the Spanish average, but it does not meet the WHO targets either. This is not someone else's problem: it is a problem here.
It is not just the body: the mind too
Inactivity does not stop at weight. A study published in 2022 using data from Spain's National Health Survey (4,195 young people aged 15 to 35) found that inactive young people are far more likely to suffer from mental health disorders than their active peers: around six times more likely to experience anxiety and around five times more likely to experience depression.
Other research with secondary school pupils confirms the same relationship: more physical activity is associated with less anxiety, less stress and fewer depressive symptoms, with girls emerging as the most vulnerable group.
Sport is almost never used in a structured way as a tool for young people's emotional well-being. That is the missed opportunity.
Europe barely moves
The European Union does not come out of this well either. According to the 2022 Special Eurobarometer on sport and physical activity, 45% of Europeans never exercise. Spain is above the European average for overall participation, but below it for young people's compliance with the guidelines.
Public authorities have taken note: Spain's National Strategy against Sedentary Lifestyles and Physical Inactivity 2025–2030 focuses precisely on young people, women and the rural population. And the European Union is promoting the HealthyLifestyle4All initiative, within which I-PLAY sits.
Why a traditional game and not something else
We do not claim that a playground game can replace a public health programme. But traditional games have four virtues that fit very well with what the data tell us:
They cost very little. A rope, some corncobs, a handkerchief or a ball. No fees, no expensive equipment: money does not decide who plays.
They are played in groups. Unlike a solitary screen, a traditional game makes you look up, talk, negotiate rules and celebrate with other people.
They really get the body moving. In the I-PLAY library, every game carries a HEPA (health-enhancing physical activity) intensity label. Games such as lokotxak, mendil kapmaca and palant are of moderate intensity: enough to work up a sweat, yet accessible to almost everyone.
They have a history. Playing what your grandmothers played, or what is played in your classmate's home country, gives the activity meaning and is more engaging than an exercise without context.
From data to session
That is why each I-PLAY game sheet indicates the level of physical effort, so that an educator can combine active games and calmer games in the same session, depending on the age and condition of the group. And that is why the training curriculum devotes an entire module to safety and risk assessment: we want more movement, but sensibly.
Give it a try
Here is a simple challenge: this week, swap half an hour of your group's screen time for a traditional game from our library. Choose one at i-play.abarka.org, play it and tell us what happened. Evidence, too, is built one data point at a time.
Sources: PASOS 2022 study (Gasol Foundation and IMIM); study on physical activity and mental health using data from the National Health Survey (2022); Special Eurobarometer 525 (2022); compiled in the I-PLAY D2.1 State of the Art report – Spain/Euskal Herria (2026).