Inactivity and its effect on non-communicable disease

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Findings​

Worldwide, we estimate that physical inactivity is responsible for 6% of the burden of disease from CHD (range: 3.2% in South-east Asia to 7.8% in the Eastern Mediterranean region); 7% of type 2 diabetes (3.9% to 9.6%), 10% of breast cancer (5.6% to 14.1%), and 10% of colon cancer (5.7% to 13.8%). Inactivity is responsible for 9% of premature mortality (5.1% to 12.5%), or >5.3 of the 57 million deaths that occurred worldwide in 2008. If inactivity were not eliminated, but decreased instead by 10% or 25%, >533,000 and >1.3 million deaths, respectively, may be averted each year. By eliminating physical inactivity, life expectancy of the world’s population is estimated to increase by 0.68 (0.41 to 0.95) years.

Interpretation​

Physical inactivity has a major health impact on the world. Elimination of physical inactivity would remove between 6% and 10% of the major NCDs of CHD, type 2 diabetes, and breast and colon cancers, and increase life expectancy.

Lee IM, Shiroma EJ, Lobelo F, Puska P, Blair SN, Katzmarzyk PT; Lancet Physical Activity Series Working Group. Effect of physical inactivity on major non-communicable diseases worldwide: an analysis of burden of disease and life expectancy. Lancet. 2012 Jul 21;380(9838):219-29. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(12)61031-9. PMID: 22818936; PMCID: PMC3645500.

Impact of Physical Inactivity on the World’s Major Non-Communicable Diseases

Strong evidence shows that physical inactivity increases the risk of many adverse health conditions, including the world’s major non-communicable diseases (NCDs) of coronary heart disease (CHD), type 2 diabetes, and breast and colon cancers, and ...

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