a third of adults don’t get enough exercise

Nearly a third of all adults don’t get enough exercise, posing a growing threat to health around the world, a major study said Wednesday.

More than 31 percent of adults – 1.8 billion people – did not get the recommended amount of physical activity in 2022, an increase of five percentage points from 2010, according to a study by the World Health Organization and other researchers.

“Physical inactivity is a silent threat to global health and contributes significantly to the burden of chronic diseases,” said Ruediger Krech, Director of WHO’s Department of Health Promotion.

“Unfortunately, the world is not moving in the right direction,” he told an online press conference.

To stay healthy, the WHO recommends that all adults spend at least 150 minutes each week on moderate-intensity exercise, such as walking, cycling or doing household chores, or at least 75 minutes on more vigorous-intensity exercise, such as running or playing sports.

A combination of both can also convince people.

Not getting this level of exercise increases people’s risk of developing heart disease, diabetes, some cancers and mental health problems, Krech said.

If current trends continue, inactivity among adults is expected to rise to 35 percent by 2030, the study shows. The Lancet Global Health.

This would fall far short of the WHO’s target of reducing physical inactivity by 15 percent by the end of this decade.

Fiona Bull, head of the WHO’s physical activity department, said the study was “a wake-up call that we are not doing enough”.

‘Every step counts’

Inactivity rates varied widely from country to country. For example, 66 percent of adults in the United Arab Emirates do not get enough physical activity, while in Malawi this was less than three percent.

There was also a gender gap. Nearly 34 percent of women worldwide do not meet the activity threshold, compared to 29 percent of men.

There are “multiple reasons” for the overall decline in activity levels, including that people are walking less, working more on computers and generally spending more free time looking at screens, Bull said.

During a busy few months of world sports, including the Olympics and the European Football Championships and the Copa America, Krech reminded people that “watching sports is not the same as being physically active.”

“Don’t just sit on your chairs, get up and be active; every step counts,” he said.

WHO stressed that changing individual behavior is not enough and called on countries to promote physical activity by encouraging community sports, walking, cycling and public transport.

For the study, considered the most comprehensive study on the subject to date, an international team of researchers combined findings from more than 500 studies involving 5.7 million people from 163 countries and territories.

It wasn’t all bad news.

Nearly half of countries have made progress over the past decade, and 22 countries are on track to meet the 2030 target – as long as they keep moving in the right direction.

© 2024 AFP