Stand up for your health before a sedentary lifestyle kills you

Taking hurried walks or cycling for an hour can help the average office worker reduce diseases associated with sedentary lifestyles.

Most adults spend their days seated at their 8am to 5pm jobs, commuting to work and relaxing in front of the television or at social gatherings after office hours.

Inactivity has been linked to the increased risk of non-communicable conditions like heart disease, diabetes and some cancers.  

A new study of over a million people shows that doing at least an hour of physical activity each day will eliminate the increased risk of death associated with sitting for eight hours a day.

The report said if you are active for 60 minutes or more a day you will offset the risk association of sitting time and mortality.

The research showed that the level of activity does not have to be limited to taking up a sport or going to the gym as brisk walking at 5.6 kilometres per hour or cycling for pleasure at 16 kilometres per hour was likely to do the trick.

“Analyses indicate that high levels of physical activity, equivalent to 60–75 minutes of moderate intensity physical activity per day, seem to eliminate the increased mortality risks associated with high total sitting time,” it read in part.

World Health Organisation guidelines recommend that adults should do at least 150 minutes of physical activity per week.

This means that adults aged 18–64 years should do at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity throughout the week, or do at least 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity physical activity throughout the week.

Previous research shows that a quarter of adults worldwide fail to meet the basic recommendations of physical activity.

The research published in the UK medical journal Lancet showed that people who sat for eight hours a day but were physically active had a much lower risk of death compared to people who sat for fewer hours a day, but were not physically active.

The sedentary behaviour of sitting to watch TV for over three hours a day was associated with an increased risk of death for all people in the study, except the most active.

“For TV-viewing time, high physical activity attenuated but did not eliminate the risk in those viewing television for five hours or more a day.”

Economic burden

It is also estimated that as a result the world economy loses over US$67.5 billion per year in health care costs and lost productivity.

“Physical inactivity is a global pandemic that causes not only morbidity and mortality, but also a major economic burden worldwide.”

While the study shows that higher income countries bear a larger proportion of the economic cost of physical inactivity, middle income and low income countries are poorly equipped to deal with the chronic diseases suffered as a result.

About 75 per cent of the global burden of disease for physical inactivity is borne by low and middle income countries.

“Generally, the poorer the country, the more the unmet health needs and so it is individuals and households who ultimately pay in the form of premature morbidity and mortality,” the report reads.

The four series papers highlight the role of physical activity in combating non communicable diseases which continue to burden the global economy.

These disease that are fuelled by adoption of unhealthy lifestyles account for more than 50 per cent of inpatient admissions, about 40 per cent of hospital deaths and  27 per cent of the total deaths in the country, the Kenya STEPwise Survey for Non Communicable Diseases (NCD) Risk Factors 2015 Report shows.

The country’s major NCDs are cardiovascular conditions, cancers, diabetes and chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases.

Cancer is estimated to be the second leading cause of NCD related deaths after cardiovascular diseases.

The report highlights the risk factors for cancer in Kenya as environmental carcinogens, infections genetic predisposition and behavioural risk factors which include smoking, alcohol use, inadequate physical activity and poor diet.

Approximately 39,000 new cancer cases are reported in Kenya every year and the country is estimated to lose over 50 people daily to various forms of cancer.

Public awareness

“Overall, 6.5 per cent of Kenyans do not engage in the recommended amount of physical activity. It was established that 69 per cent of total physical activity is work-related, 26 per cent transport-related and five per cent recreation-related. The median minutes spend on sedentary time is 120 minutes,” the report showed.

While highlighting the need to prioritise NCD prevention, the report recommended sustained public awareness campaigns and interventions to reduce the modifiable risk factors for NCDs including physical inactivity, unhealthy diets, harmful use of alcohol, tobacco use and exposure to tobacco smoke.