Almost 500 million people around the world will develop heart disease, obesity, diabetes or other non-communicable diseases by 2030 because of the lack of physical activity if the government do not take urgent actions. The following alert has been made by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Gathering data from 194 nations, the WHO’s first-ever global report on physical inactivity shows that little progress has been made and countries must accelerate policies to increase physical activity and thereby prevent disease and reduce the burden on healthcare systems.
Meanwhile, the Director-General of the WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said that, “We need more nations to scale up implementation of policies to favour people to be more active via walking, cycling, sport & other physical activity. The benefits are huge, not just for the physical or mental health of individuals but also for societies, environments and economies.
However, the reports found that less than half of countries have a national physical activity policy, of which only about 40% are operational. Only 30% of countries have national physical activity guidelines for all age groups.
While nearly all countries have a system for monitoring physical activity in adults, only 75% monitor it among adolescents and less than 30% monitor physical activity in children under 5 years old. Barely 40% have road design standards that make walking and cycling safer.
“We hope countries & partners will use this report to build more active, healthier, and fairer societies for all,” Ghebreyesus said.
He stated that in addition to health complications, the economic burden of physical inactivity is important and the cost of treating recent cases of preventable diseases will reach nearly $300 billion (€305,115 billion) by 2030 – around $27 billion (€27,46 billion) annually.
While national policies to tackle these diseases and physical inactivity have increased in recent years, 28% of policies are currently reported to be not funded or implemented.
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