Dr Sharmel­la Roopc­hand-Mar­tin

I was pret­ty alarmed when I read the phys­i­cal ac­tiv­i­ty up­date from the World Health Or­ga­ni­za­tion (WHO) pub­lished in June 2024. The ti­tle reads ‘Glob­al lev­els of phys­i­cal in­ac­tiv­i­ty in adults off track for 2030’. So why was I alarmed? Over the years, ir­refutable re­search has shown that en­gag­ing in phys­i­cal ac­tiv­i­ty is the most ef­fec­tive med­i­cine for re­duc­ing the risk of de­vel­op­ing non-com­mu­ni­ca­ble dis­eases, man­ag­ing these dis­eases, im­prov­ing over­all health, and, by ex­ten­sion, qual­i­ty of life.  

By non-com­mu­ni­ca­ble dis­eases, I mean con­di­tions that can­not be spread through in­fec­tion or through oth­er peo­ple. They can be ge­net­ic, re­lat­ed to en­vi­ron­ment and lifestyle, or all of these. This in­cludes car­dio­vas­cu­lar dis­eases (heart dis­eases, ar­rhyth­mias, stroke), can­cers (all types), res­pi­ra­to­ry dis­eases (asth­ma and em­phy­se­ma, which you get from smok­ing, di­a­betes (types I and 2), and men­tal health (de­pres­sion and psy­chi­atric dis­or­ders). The typ­i­cal lifestyle fac­tors as­so­ci­at­ed with these dis­eases in­clude to­bac­co use, harm­ful al­co­hol use, un­healthy eat­ing, poor air qual­i­ty from pol­lu­tion, and phys­i­cal in­ac­tiv­i­ty. We can change all of these, in­clud­ing phys­i­cal in­ac­tiv­i­ty.  

Con­cerns about in­creas­ing lev­els of non-com­mu­ni­ca­ble dis­eases and the as­so­ci­at­ed bur­den and cost to coun­tries were raised in Sep­tem­ber 2011 at the first high-lev­el meet­ing of the Unit­ed Na­tions Gen­er­al As­sem­bly on the pre­ven­tion and con­trol of non-com­mu­ni­ca­ble dis­eases. In­creas­ing glob­al lev­els of phys­i­cal ac­tiv­i­ty were in­clud­ed in the adopt­ed roadmap for tack­ling the prob­lem of non-com­mu­ni­ca­ble dis­eases. Min­i­mal progress in ad­vanc­ing phys­i­cal ac­tiv­i­ty ini­tia­tives led to the WHO’s Glob­al Ac­tion Plan on Phys­i­cal Ac­tiv­i­ty 2018–2030 pub­li­ca­tion. The main goal is a 15 per cent rel­a­tive re­duc­tion in phys­i­cal in­ac­tiv­i­ty.  

As of June 2024, most of the glob­al com­mu­ni­ty was off track for meet­ing these tar­gets. For Caribbean is­lands like Ja­maica, Do­mini­ca, Grena­da, An­tigua and Bar­bu­da, and St Vin­cent and the Grenadines, 30 to 39.9 per cent of their pop­u­la­tion do not meet the WHO’s rec­om­mend­ed phys­i­cal ac­tiv­i­ty lev­els for health ben­e­fits. This fig­ure is high­er for Trinidad and To­ba­go, Bar­ba­dos, and St Kitts and Nevis, where be­tween 40 and 49.9 per cent of the pop­u­la­tion do not meet the rec­om­mend­ed guide­lines. Glob­al­ly, ap­prox­i­mate­ly 31 per cent of the adult pop­u­la­tion is not ac­tive enough. This rep­re­sents 1.8 bil­lion peo­ple who are miss­ing out on the many ben­e­fits of phys­i­cal ac­tiv­i­ty. If we do not change the cur­rent preva­lence of phys­i­cal in­ac­tiv­i­ty, it is ex­pect­ed that by 2030, there will be 500 mil­lion new cas­es of non-com­mu­ni­ca­ble dis­eases, in­clud­ing men­tal health prob­lems. This will re­sult in glob­al health costs of ap­prox­i­mate­ly US$27 bil­lion an­nu­al­ly. You or your fam­i­ly mem­bers could be in this count if you do not ‘move.’  

The known health ben­e­fits of phys­i­cal ac­tiv­i­ty in­clude a re­duc­tion in the risk of de­vel­op­ing most non-com­mu­ni­ca­ble dis­eases. Re­search has shown as much as a 20 per cent re­duc­tion in the risk of de­vel­op­ing colon and breast can­cer and a 35 per cent re­duc­tion in the risk of de­vel­op­ing heart dis­ease. En­gag­ing in rou­tine phys­i­cal ac­tiv­i­ty al­so leads to im­prove­ment in psy­cho­log­i­cal well-be­ing, mus­cu­loskele­tal health, joint and back pain, and sleep. 

The non-health ben­e­fits are al­so nu­mer­ous. If we can save US$27 bil­lion per year by re­duc­ing the preva­lence of non-com­mu­ni­ca­ble dis­eases through in­creased phys­i­cal ac­tiv­i­ty, it would mean hav­ing more mon­ey to in­vest in oth­er ar­eas of sus­tain­able de­vel­op­ment such as ed­u­ca­tion, phys­i­cal ac­tiv­i­ty, and sport. A more phys­i­cal­ly ac­tive work­force means em­ploy­ees will like­ly be hap­pi­er and health­i­er, re­sult­ing in few­er sick days, in­creased pro­duc­tiv­i­ty, and eco­nom­ic gains. En­gag­ing in phys­i­cal ac­tiv­i­ty through sports par­tic­i­pa­tion builds team­work, lead­er­ship skills, com­mu­ni­ty con­nec­tions, friend­ships, and re­silience. Sports bridges bar­ri­ers across age, race, gen­der, and abil­i­ties and can be, and have been, lever­aged for peace and de­vel­op­ment. En­gag­ing in phys­i­cal ac­tiv­i­ty through phys­i­cal ed­u­ca­tion im­proves phys­i­cal lit­er­a­cy, in­creas­es op­por­tu­ni­ties for life­long en­gage­ment in phys­i­cal ac­tiv­i­ty, im­proves skill de­vel­op­ment, and im­proves cog­ni­tive health and self-es­teem.  

The low­est rec­om­mend­ed amount of phys­i­cal ac­tiv­i­ty for health ben­e­fits is 150 min­utes week­ly. This trans­lates to ap­prox­i­mate­ly 20 min­utes of phys­i­cal ac­tiv­i­ty per day. How­ev­er, more is bet­ter, and one should try in­creas­ing their ac­tiv­i­ty lev­els to 300 min­utes per week or 40 to 45 min­utes dai­ly. For adults, strength train­ing at least two days per week is vi­tal to re­duce age-re­lat­ed de­cline in strength. For old­er adults, mul­ti­com­po­nent ac­tiv­i­ties in­volv­ing strength and bal­ance should be done at least three days per week due to age-re­lat­ed de­creas­es in bal­ance, which can lead to falls. This can be ac­tiv­i­ties like yo­ga, Tai Chi, or danc­ing. You do not have to go to a gym. Walk when­ev­er you can, take the stairs in­stead of el­e­va­tors, and play a sport.  

 The cur­rent re­port on glob­al lev­els of phys­i­cal in­ac­tiv­i­ty can be ac­cessed at https://www.who.int/pub­li­ca­tions/i/item/9789240096905.  

Dr Sharmel­la Roopc­hand-Mar­tin is a Se­nior Lec­tur­er in the Fac­ul­ty of Sport at UWI