More than one in three adults in the European Union does not comply with the recommendations of the World Health Organization on physical activity and Portugal is the worst placed country of the 27, reveals a report released this Friday.
The report, by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the World Health Organization (WHO), concludes that, in 2016, 35.4% of adults in the 27 countries of the European Union did not were active enough according to the WHO criteria recommended at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity per week.
Of the 27 EU member states, Finland was the highest ranked country, with less than 20% of adults not meeting the WHO recommendation, while Portugal is at the opposite extreme, with more than 45% of adults who do not comply with what is recommended.
The report also cites data from the latest Eurobarometer, according to which only four in 10 adults (38%) in the EU exercised or sported at least once a week in 2022, and only 6% did so five times a week. week.
In addition, almost half (45%) of adults admitted never having exercised or played sports, despite the fact that physical activity is one of the most important things you can do to improve your physical and mental health and well-being, underline the authors. Of the report
Low levels of physical activity are also common among adolescents, particularly girls, with fewer than one in five boys and fewer than one in 10 girls saying they adhere to the WHO recommendation of at least one hour of activity moderate to vigorous physical per day.
Portugal, along with Italy and France, was among the EU Member States with the worst levels of physical activity among adolescents, unlike countries such as Slovakia, Slovenia, the Netherlands or Bulgaria.
Although the participation of Europeans in physical activity or sport has improved little between 2017 and 2022 – the EU average improved from 44% to 53% – some countries have even seen the level of physical activity decrease, namely Portugal.
According to the report, the covid-19 pandemic has worsened the situation for most, although some adults have taken advantage of the lockdowns to exercise more: More than half of Europeans have reduced their physical activity and only 7% intend to do more exercise when the pandemic is over.
The authors estimate in the report that if everyone adhered to the WHO physical activity guidelines, it would be possible to prevent more than 10,000 premature deaths of people aged 30 to 70 a year and increase life expectancy by 7 .5 months to those who are insufficiently active.
In addition, EU Member States could save 0.6% of their healthcare budget annually.
Source: TSF
