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By Patrick GALEY
Paris (AFP) – More than 1.4 billion adults face increased risk of life-threatening illnesses by not exercising enough, doctors warn, with activity levels virtually unchanged for nearly two decades .
According to a World Health Organization (WHO) study, one third of women and a quarter of men worldwide suffer from diseases such as heart disease, diabetes and cancer. activity.
"Insufficient physical activity is a major risk factor for noncommunicable diseases and has a negative effect on mental health and quality of life," said the study of global levels of life. exercise published by the Lancet Global Health Journal.
The WHO recommends that each adult do at least 150 minutes of "moderate intensity" exercise – such as brisk walking, swimming, or a gentle cycle – every week, or 75 minutes of exercise. "vigorous intensity" activity – such as running or team sports.
The study followed the activity levels of 1.9 million people in 168 countries around the world in 2016.
The researchers found that there has been no improvement in physical activity levels since 2001, despite the many public health initiatives extolling the benefits of exercise.
According to the data, more than a quarter of the world's adults (1.4 billion people) were not sufficiently active.
"We certainly have not done enough" to encourage people to exercise, Regina Guthold, principal author of the study, told AFP.
"We have not seen any progress."
The authors of the study highlighted several worrying trends, including a marked fracture in exercise rates between poor and rich countries and between men and women.
Wealth, gender gaps
Levels of insufficient activity to prevent noncommunicable diseases, including dementia and cardiovascular disease, are twice as high in high-income countries as in developing countries.
Guthold said that the link between lifestyle in rich countries – more time indoors, longer office hours, easier to eat foods and lower exercise levels – was part of health problems".
"As countries become more urbanized, people who used to work as farmers in the past were very active in their work. In the past, they live in an urban environment where they may be out of work or in employment. sedentary. to compensate, "she said.
In four countries – Kuwait, American Samoa, Saudi Arabia and Iraq – more than half of the adults were classified as insufficiently active.
In Kuwait, a Gulf state where temperatures regularly reach 45 degrees Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit), two-thirds (67%) of adults did not exercise enough.
Melody Ding of the University of Sydney, who worked on the paper, said some countries were more active than others, including "biological, psychosocial, institutional, cultural and environmental barriers".
"I consider that one of the biggest obstacles is our environment: the physical activity has been abandoned, the office jobs replacing the jobs, the elevators replacing the stairs, the cars replacing the active trips".
"Technological advances have made our lives more convenient, but also less active."
Women are still lagging behind men in almost every region of the world, with the gender gap being highest in Bangladesh, Eritrea, India, Iraq and the Philippines.
"In these contexts, women are often called upon to stay at home, to look after children, to manage the household and sometimes do not always have time to exercise", said Guthold.
Southeast Asia was one of the strengths of the Global Exercise Plan, where women were as active as men in the only region where inactivity has decreased since 2001.
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