(ORDO NEWS) — The World Health Organization has stated that by 2030, inaction on the consequences of a sedentary lifestyle will have a profound impact on the whole world, forcing people to spend tens of billions of dollars on medical treatment.
A new World Health Organization (WHO) report says that by 2030 there will be nearly 500 million new cases of type 2 diabetes, with many more suffering from high blood pressure and dementia.
For example, if governments do not take urgent action to encourage more people to exercise regularly, according to the WHO, the annual cost of treatment will reach about $27 billion (£24 billion).
Harm from sitting
“There are few areas in public health where the evidence for action is so compelling, cost-effective and practical,” says the first WHO global report on physical activity, which found that regular exercise reduces the risk of premature death by 20% to 30%.
However, despite the clear benefits, the implementation of policies to encourage more exercise has been “slow and uneven,” resulting in “little progress,” the report said.
“The consequence of this ‘inaction’ is that already overburdened health systems are burdened with preventable diseases,” the experts add.
If the situation does not change, WHO predicts that by 2030 there will be 499 208 million new cases of preventable noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) and mental disorders such as type 2 diabetes, stroke, dementia, depression and some cancers.
More than 40% of these will be in lower middle income countries such as Kenya, India and Bangladesh.
The benefits of sports
According to a WHO report, almost half of new cases of NCDs are associated with hypertension (high blood pressure) and 43% are associated with depression.
The organization also said that about 7-8% of all cases of cardiovascular disease, depression and dementia could be prevented if people were more active.
After reviewing data from 194 countries, experts found that less than half of the countries have a national policy on physical activity, of which less than 40% are in force.
Physical activity levels in young children have been a particular gap, as less than 30% of countries track the physical activity of children under five years of age.
Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of WHO, urged governments, “We need more countries to scale up policy implementation to keep people active.
The benefits are enormous, not only for people’s physical and mental health, but also for society, the environment and the economy.”
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