More than 31% adults – or 1.8 billion people – did not get the recommended amount of physical exercise in 2022, an increase of five percentage points from 2010, according to a study by the World Health Organization (WHO) and other researchers.
“Physical inactivity is a silent threat to global health, contributing significantly to the burden of chronic diseases,” said Ruediger Krech, director of WHO’s health promotion department. “Unfortunately, the world is not going in the right direction.”
To be healthy, the global health authority recommends all adults spend at least 150 minutes every week doing moderate-intensity physical activity, which can include walking, cycling or even household chores – or at least 75 minutes of more vigorous exercise, such as running or competing in sport.
A combination of the two will also get people over the line, while not getting this level of exercise increases the risk of heart disease, diabetes, certain cancers, as well as mental health problems, Krech said.
If current trends continue, adult inactivity levels are projected to rise to 35% by 2030, according to the study published in The Lancet Global Health. This would fall far short of WHO’s goal of reducing physical inactivity by 15% by the end of the decade.
Fiona Bull, head of WHO’s physical activity unit, said the research was “a wake-up call that we’re not doing enough”.
‘Every step counts’
Inactivity rates vary widely from country to country: for example, 66%of adults do not get enough physical activity in the United Arab Emirates, while the figure was under 3% in Malawi.
There is also a gender gap, with nearly 34% of women worldwide not reaching the activity threshold, compared with 29% of men.
There are “multiple causes” for the decline in activity rates overall, including that people are walking less, working on computers more, and generally spending more leisure time looking at screens, Bull noted.
During the busy few months of world sport, which includes the Olympics and the European and Copa America football championships, Krech reminded people that “watching sports does not equal to being physically active”.
“Don’t just sit on your chairs, get up and be active – every step counts,” he advised.
Stressing that changing individual behaviour is not enough, WHO calls on countries to promote physical activity by boosting community sport as well as walking, cycling and public transport.
For the study, billed as the most comprehensive to look at the subject yet, an international team of researchers combined the findings from more than 500 studies involving 5.7 million people across 163 countries and territories.
It was not all bad news: almost half of the countries had made progress over the last decade, and 22 are on track to reach the 2030 target – as long as they keep moving in the right direction.