About a quarter of teenagers worldwide do essentially no physical activity, not even an hour of exercise a week, the World Health Organization said on Wednesday. The UN health agency warned that this significantly raises health risks.
The WHO’s new global estimates found that one in four adolescents aged 11 to 17 reported no active days in the previous week. An active day was defined as at least 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity. When extrapolated, the findings amount to some 240 million young people with no active days in a typical week, the agency said.
Global study covers more than 3.2 million teens
The findings come from a study published in The Lancet Global Health. It draws on hundreds of population-based surveys from 140 countries and territories, involving more than 3.2 million teenagers, according to the WHO.
On average, the adolescents in the surveys said they were active for 2.7 days a week. Only 14 percent reported being active on all seven days, the estimates showed.
The WHO warned that physical inactivity is a major risk factor for heart disease, type 2 diabetes and some cancers. In a statement, it said that building active habits early in life is critical to protecting health and reducing the global burden of these diseases.
The agency also expressed concern about the lack of progress. Physical activity among adolescents has remained virtually unchanged over the past 15 years, it said.
Girls far less active than boys in most countries
The WHO highlighted a persistent gender gap. Girls were far less active than boys in almost every country and region.
According to the estimates, 28 percent of girls reported no active days, compared with 22 percent of boys. Only 11 percent of girls said they were active every day, against 17 percent of boys.
Differences between nations were also stark. Fully 40 percent of adolescents in Namibia, Nepal and the Philippines reported no active days. In Bangladesh and Serbia, more than 30 percent of young people reported daily physical activity, the report showed.
WHO calls for safer streets, schools and policies
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in the statement that the world had made almost no progress in getting young people moving over 15 years, and that girls were being left furthest behind.
Tedros rejected the idea that the problem lies with young people themselves. “The answer is not to tell adolescents to try harder,” he said. “It is to build schools, streets and communities where moving, playing and being active is safe, easy and normal.”
The WHO said physical activity is shaped by the environment in which young people live. It pointed to modes of transport, access to safe spaces and the ability to walk or cycle safely. School environments, social norms and lifestyles increasingly centred on screens can also have a big impact on activity levels.
“Countries need policies that make physical activity an easy, safe and accessible part of everyday life,” the WHO said.
