To implement effective non-communicable disease prevention programs, policy makers need data for physical activity levels and trends.
In this report, we describe physical activity levels worldwide with data
- For adults (15 years or older) from 122 countries
- For adolescents (13—15-years-old) from 105 countries.
Worldwide, 31·1% (95% CI 30·9—31·2) of adults are physically inactive, with proportions ranging from 17·0% (16·8—17·2) in Southeast Asia (ASEAN) to about 43% in the Americas and the eastern Mediterranean. Inactivity rises with age, is higher in women than in men, and is increased in high-income countries.
The proportion of 13—15-year-olds doing fewer than 60 min of physical activity of moderate to vigorous intensity per day is 80·3% (80·1—80·5); boys are more active than are girls.
Continued improvement in monitoring of physical activity would help to guide development of policies and programs to increase activity levels and to reduce the burden of non-communicable diseases.
They found that 31% of adults do not get enough physical activity—defined as 30 minutes of moderate exercise five days a week, or 20 minutes of vigorous exercise three days a week, or some combination of the two.
Women tend to get less exercise—34% are inactive, compared with 28% of men—but there are exceptions and regional variations, as the maps below show.
Women in Russia, Croatia, Luxembourg, Greece and Iraq (to name a few) move more than their male counterparts. Malta wins the race for the most slothful nation, with 72% of adults getting too little exercise. Swaziland and Saudi Arabia slouch close behind, with 69%.
In Bangladesh, by contrast, just 5% of adults fail to get enough exercise. Surprisingly, America does not live up to its sluggish reputation. Six in ten Americans are sufficiently active, compared with less than four in ten Britons. These figures are worrying
From country-to-country, inactivity rises with age, is higher in women than in men, and rises in higher-income countries, according to a new study on idleness in "The Lancet". Here's a map of the world's sloth, via "The Economist". Countries in darker colors had greater recorded inactivity or laziness, defined as failing to reach 30 minutes of moderate activity a day.
Inactivity might rise with income, but some of the world's most inactive groups are women in countries with barriers to female employment, such as Libya and Saudi Arabia. Among men, Great Britain and Japan are reportedly among the most slothful or the laziest countries in the world, but Europe collectively reported walking more than any other group in the study.
The survey found a surprising degree of bustle in the typical American's life America, (the alleged king of couch potatoes?). Six in ten Americans were deemed "active," compared with fewer than five in ten Brazilian men, four in ten Japanese, and three in ten Argentineans. We're still a far way from Benin, Bangladesh, Mozambique, and Mongolia, where more than 90 percent of men got at least 30 minutes of moderate exercise five days a week.
Other factors that could affect the activity of a person include the following;
- Climate – People will minimize its activity if the weather is too hot like in the African and Middle Eastern Countries. For the tropical climate like the Philippines and other ASEAN countries, higher activity recorded during early morning and the evening and activities would become lesser during noon times.
- Culture – Middle Eastern Women who are restricted in their culture to find jobs would also affects the daily activity.
- Financial Activities – Inactivity might rise with income. The more a person is earning in his business the more he would lost its time to do other jobs than just making business and sitting in their office all the time.
