If your sofa is your best friend, beware – new research has shown physical inactivity is responsible for up to 8% of non-communicable diseases and deaths around the world – mainly in countries like Australia.
Physical inactivity is a known risk factor for premature death and several ‘lifestyle’ diseases, including coronary heart disease, stroke, hypertension, type 2 diabetes, and several cancers.
The study – published online in British Journal of Sports Medicine – looked at estimates of the impact physical inactivity has on major health outcomes and data on physical inactivity levels for 168 countries from 2016.
This information was then used to estimate how much disease could be averted in each country if people did more physical activity by calculating the risk for each outcome and collating the results.
Physical inactivity was defined as less than 150 minutes of moderate-intensity or 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity physical activity per week.
Higher-income countries the worst off
The result?
Physical inactivity increased the risk of a range of health conditions, ranging from 1.6% for hypertension to 8.1% for dementia.
Those in higher-income countries were more than two times as likely to be physically inactive.
The worst-hit countries were those in Latin America and the Caribbean countries, and high-income Western and Asia Pacific countries – like Australia.
The study was observational – so it can’t prove cause and effect.
But it’s clear that keeping yourself moving as you age can’t hurt – and could even save your life.
