Half of the adult population in India fails to meet the World Health Organisation's (WHO) standards for adequate physical activity, as per recent findings published in the Lancet Global Health.
A higher proportion of women (57 per cent) than men (42 per cent) are not physically active. What's especially concerning is the significant increase in the prevalence of insufficient physical activity among Indian adults, from 22.3 per cent in 2000 to 49.4 per cent in 2022.
This upward trend suggests that by 2030 if left unaddressed, an estimated 60 per cent of our population will be at risk of being unfit and susceptible to health issues due to insufficient physical activity.
The WHO recommends at least 150 to 300 minutes of moderate aerobic activity per week (or an equivalent amount of vigorous activity) for all adults. Insufficient physical activity is described as failing to engage in 150 minutes of moderate-intensity activity, 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity activity, or an equivalent combination per week.
As reported by the WHO, lack of physical activity increases the likelihood of adults developing cardiovascular conditions like heart attacks and strokes, Type 2 diabetes, dementia, as well as breast and colon cancers.
Statistics show that India ranks 12th in terms of the prevalence of insufficient physical activity out of 195 countries. Globally, nearly 1.8 billion individuals, which accounts for approximately 31 per cent of adults, did not adhere to the recommended levels of physical activity in 2022.
“The findings point to a worrying trend of physical inactivity among adults, which has increased by about five percentage points between 2010 and 2022,” said Dr Rüdiger Krech, Director of Health Promotion at WHO.
The region with the highest rate of physical inactivity was the high-income Asia-Pacific area, standing at 48 per cent, followed by South Asia at 45 per cent. In other regions, levels of inactivity ranged from 28 per cent in high-income Western countries to 14 per cent in Oceania.
The situation is particularly worrying in India, as individuals in this country are inherently more susceptible to developing non-communicable diseases such as heart disease and diabetes, often a decade earlier than people in other regions.
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