Far more women in India (57%) were found to be insufficiently physically active, compared to men (42%)
Globally, the authors found that about a third of the adults (31.3%) were insufficiently physically active — defined as not performing at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity per week or 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity physical activity per week.
This was up by 5% from 26.4% of the adults worldwide insufficiently engaging in physical activity in 2010, they found, and if the 2010-2022 trends continued, the authors said that the global target of improving physical activity engagement by 15% would not be met. In India, a little over 22% of the adults engaged in insufficient physical activity in the year 2000, while in 2010, close to 34% of the adults were insufficiently physically active.
They projected that in 2030, 60% of adults could be insufficiently engaging in physical activity, should current trends continue.
For the study, the researchers analyzed data on physical activity reported by adults (aged at least 18 years) in population-based surveys to estimate the number of adults performing insufficient physical activity for 197 countries and territories from 2000 to 2022.
The team also found that around the world, older adults, both men and women, aged 60 years and above, were increasingly engaging in insufficient physical activity.
Physical inactivity is known to heighten the risk of developing non-communicable diseases, including diabetes and heart disease. Rising levels of physical activity, along with an increasingly sedentary lifestyle, are contributing to an increase in cases of these diseases and burdening healthcare systems worldwide, according to the WHO.
A 2023 Indian Council of Medical Research-India Diabetes (ICMR-INDIAB) study, published in The Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology journal, estimated that 101 million people in India were diabetic in 2021, and about 315 million had hypertension the same year.