The health of today’s girls is threatened by inactivity. Physical activity plays a significant role to reduce health risks such as obesity, heart disease, osteoporosis, breast cancer, unintended pregnancy and lack of self-esteem among others. Hispanic girls are at greater risk than non-Hispanic girls for most of these health risks and more likely to be sedentary. Very little research has focused on the relationship between physical activity and health within the young Hispanic population, with the exception of the groundbreaking Women’s Sports Foundation Report: Minorities in Sports (Sabo, Melnick and Vanfossen, 1989). The current report highlights key indicators of the status of both the status of physical activity and health for Hispanic female youth in the Chicago metropolitan area; these indicators are then compared with national averages in order to contextualize the results.
