Physical activity
- Updated on: 2020-03-27
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WHO defines physical activity as any bodily movement produced by skeletal muscles that requires energy expenditure – including activities undertaken while working, playing, carrying out household chores, travelling, and engaging in recreational pursuits.
The term "physical activity" should not be confused with "exercise", which is a subcategory of physical activity that is planned, structured, repetitive, and aims to improve or maintain one or more components of physical fitness. Beyond exercise, any other physical activity that is done during leisure time, for transport to get to and from places, or as part of a person’s work, has a health benefit. Further, both moderate- and vigorous-intensity physical activity improve health.
The intensity of different forms of physical activity varies between people. In order to be beneficial for cardiorespiratory health, all activity should be performed in bouts of at least 10 minutes duration.
Regular physical activity of moderate intensity – such as walking, cycling, or doing sports – has significant benefits for health. At all ages, the benefits of being physically active outweigh potential harm, for example through accidents. Some physical activity is better than doing none. By becoming more active throughout the day in relatively simple ways, people can quite easily achieve the recommended activity levels.
Insufficient physical activity is one of the leading risk factors for global mortality and is on the rise in many countries, adding to the burden of NCDs and affecting general health worldwide. People who are insufficiently active have a 20% to 30% increased risk of death compared to people who are sufficiently active.
Globally, around 23% of adults aged 18 and over were not active enough in 2010 (men 20% and women 27%). In high-income countries, 26% of men and 35% of women were insufficiently physically active, as compared to 12% of men and 24% of women in low-income countries. Low or decreasing physical activity levels often correspond with a high or rising gross national product. The drop in physical activity is partly due to inaction during leisure time and sedentary behaviour on the job and at home. Likewise, an increase in the use of "passive" modes of transportation also contributes to insufficient physical activity.
Globally, 81% of adolescents aged 11-17 years were insufficiently physically active in 2010. Adolescent girls were less active than adolescent boys, with 84% vs. 78% not meeting WHO recommendations.
Several environmental factors which are linked to urbanization can discourage people from becoming more active, such as:
Countries and communities must take action to provide individuals with more opportunities to be active, in order to increase physical activity.
Policies to increase physical activity aim to ensure that:
Policies and plans to address physical inactivity have been developed in about 80% of WHO Member States, though these were operational in only 56% of the countries in 2013. National and local authorities are also adopting policies in a range of sectors to promote and facilitate physical activity.
The “Global Strategy on Diet, Physical Activity and Health”, adopted by the World Health Assembly in 2004, describes the actions needed to increase physical activity worldwide. The Strategy urges stakeholders to take action at global, regional and local levels to increase physical activity.
The "Global Recommendations on Physical Activity for Health", published by WHO in 2010, focus on primary prevention of NCDs through physical activity. It proposes different policy options to reach the recommended levels of physical activity globally, such as:
To measure physical activity in adults, WHO has developed the Global Physical Activity Questionnaire (GPAQ). This questionnaire helps countries monitor insufficient physical activity as one of the main NCD risk factors. The GPAQ has been integrated into the WHO STEPwise approach, which is a surveillance system for the main NCD risk factors.
A module to assess insufficient physical activity among schoolchildren has been integrated into the Global school-based student health survey (GSHS). The GSHS is a WHO/US CDC surveillance project designed to help countries measure and assess the behavioural risk factors and protective factors in 10 key areas among young people aged 13 to 17 years.
In 2013, the World Health Assembly agreed on a set of global voluntary targets which include a 25% reduction of premature mortality from NCDs and a 10% decrease in insufficient physical activity by 2025. The “Global Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Noncommunicable Diseases 2013-2020” guides Member States, WHO and other UN Agencies on how to effectively achieve these targets. A sector specific toolkit is under development by WHO to assist Member States implement actions and achieve the targets.
WHO has established several partnerships to help support Member States in their efforts to promote physical activity – these include the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and United Nations Sport for Development and Peace (UNOSPD).
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the commitment made by world leaders to develop ambitious national SDG responses provides an opportunity to refocus and renew efforts at promoting physical activity. WHO is working on a new global action plan, which will leverage the contributions of all relevant sectors, in particular, environment, education, health, sports and technology to accelerate progress in achieving the global voluntary NCD targets set by the World Health Assembly for 2025 and the SDG targets set for 2030.
The plan will provide policy options for Member States, international partners and WHO, and developed in close collaboration with all relevant stakeholders, taking into account current scientific knowledge, available evidence, a review of international experience, innovations, and data.
