Physical activity is key for each age group

Regular physical activity provides significant physical and mental health benefits.

In adults, physical activity contributes to prevention and management of noncommunicable diseases such as cardiovascular diseases, cancer and diabetes and reduces symptoms of depression and anxiety, enhances brain health, and can improve overall well-being.

In children and adolescents, physical activity promotes bone health, encourages healthy growth and development of muscle, and improves motor and cognitive development.

Nearly 32 percent of adults and 80 percent of adolescents do not meet the recommended levels of physical activity.

The global target set to reduce levels of physical inactivity in adults and adolescents is a 10 percent relative reduction by 2025 and 15 percent by 2030, from the 2010 baseline.

The global estimate of the cost of physical inactivity to public health care systems between 2020 and 2030 is about $300 billion (approximately $27 billion per year) if levels of physical inactivity are not reduced.

Physical activity is defined as any bodily movement produced by skeletal muscles that requires energy expenditure. Physical activity refers to all movement including during leisure time, for transport to get to and from places, or as part of a person’s work or domestic activities.

Both moderate- and vigorous-intensity physical activity improve health. Popular ways to be active include walking, cycling, wheeling, sports, active recreation and play, and can be done at any level of skill and for enjoyment by everybody.

Physical activity is beneficial to health and well-being and conversely, physical inactivity increases risk for noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) and other poor health outcomes. Together, physical inactivity and sedentary behaviors are contributing to the rise in NCDs and placing a burden on healthcare systems.

Physical inactivity is one of the leading risk factors for noncommunicable diseases mortality.

People who are insufficiently active have a 20 percent to 30percent increased risk of death compared to people who are sufficiently active.

Regular physical activity is associated with: in children and adolescents, improved physical fitness, cardiometabolic health, bone health, cognitive outcomes, mental health and reduced body fat; in adults and older adults, reduced risk of all-cause mortality, risk of cardiovascular disease mortality, incident hypertension, incident site-specific cancers, incident type-2 diabetes, and falls and improved mental health, cognitive health, sleep and measures of body fat; and for pregnant and post-partum women, decreased risk of pre-eclampsia, gestational hypertension, gestational diabetes, excessive gestational weight gain, delivery complications, postpartum depression and newborn complications.

Physical activity has no adverse effects on birthweight or increased risk of stillbirth.

Sedentary behavior is any period of low-energy expenditure while awake such as sitting, reclining or lying.

Lives are becoming increasingly sedentary through the use of motorized transport and the increased use of screens for work, education and recreation.

Global guidelines on physical activity and sedentary behavior provide recommendations for children (age 5 and up), adolescents, adults, older adults, pregnant and post-partum women, and people living with chronic conditions and disabilities.

The recommendations detail the amount of physical activity (frequency, intensity and duration) required to offer significant health benefits and to reduce health risks.

The guidelines highlight that any amount of physical activity is better than none; all physical activity counts; all age groups should limit the amount of time being sedentary; and muscle strengthening benefits everyone.

Guidelines on physical activity, sedentary behavior and sleep for children under five years of age provide recommendations on the amount of time in a 24-hour day that young children, under five years of age, should spend being physically active or sleeping for their health and well-being, and the maximum recommended time these children should spend on screen-based sedentary activities or time restrained.

A recent study found that nearly one third (31 percent) of the world’s adult population, 1.8 billion adults, are physically inactive.

That is, they do not meet the global recommendations of at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity per week.

This is an increase of five percentage points between 2010 and 2022.

If this trend continues, the proportion of adults not meeting recommended levels of physical activity is projected to rise to 35 percent by 2030.

Globally, there are notable age and gender differences in levels of physical inactivity.

Women are less active than men by an average of five percentage points. This has not changed since 2000.

After 60 years of age physical inactivity levels increase in both men and women.

It is found that 81 percent of adolescents (aged 11–17 years) were physically inactive.

Adolescent girls were less active than adolescent boys, with 85 percent vs. 78 percent.

Many different factors can determine how active people are and the overall levels of physical activity in different population groups.

These factors can be related to the individual or wider social, cultural, environmental and economic determinants that influence access and opportunities to be active in safe and enjoyable ways.