Prevalence of global physical activity among young people: an updated systematic review for the Brazil’s Report Card 5.0

The aim of this study is to update the estimates of the prevalence of global physical activity (PA) among Brazilian children and adolescents, as part of the Brazil Report Card. A systematic review search was conducted in eight databases (PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, LILACS, SPORTDiscus, BIREME, SciELO, and Google Scholar). Studies published between 2020 and June 2025 that assessed global PA among Brazilian youth were selected in pairs. Information on prevalence was extracted and aggregated with the set of studies from previous reviews. The initial search identified 6,938 potentially relevant titles (2,933 after duplicate removal); 34 studies (27 unique) met all inclusion criteria, resulting in a total of 125 studies included in the Report Card analyses. Few changes in the methodological characteristics of the studies were observed. Most of the studies included in the update were conducted in the Southern region (41.2%). Eight studies reported data from national surveys (23.5%), and one study included only children (6 to 10 years old). Three studies used accelerometry. In the update, the overall proportion of youth who were physically active ranged from 20.2% to 84.2%. Overall, an increase in PA prevalence was observed, except among girls. Advances in epidemiological research involving Brazilian children and adolescents are needed, particularly to improve the monitoring, evaluation, and promotion of global PA in Brazil.