More than one in three adults in the European Union does not do enough sport, a trend aggravated by the Covid-19 pandemic which has adverse health effects, underlines Friday February 17 a report from the OECD and of the WHO. In 2016, 35.4% of adults in the 27 EU Member States were insufficiently active according to World Health Organization criteria, which recommends 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity per week. Almost half (45%) report that they never exercise or play sports, according to this report from the WHO and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Low levels of physical activity are also common among adolescents, especially girls: only 17.6% of boys and 9.6% of girls report meeting the WHO recommendation of at least one hour of exercise. moderate to vigorous physical activity per day. And the situation does not improve with age: only a quarter of adults over 55 practice a sport or exercise at least once a week. Women are also less active than men. The difference between the sexes is obvious between 15 and 24 years old: 73% of men practice sports or exercise at least once a week, compared to 58% of women. If everyone met WHO-recommended activity levels, more than 10,000 premature deaths of people between the ages of 30 and 70 could be prevented each year. Life expectancy would increase by 7.5 months for people who are insufficiently active. In addition, the Member States of the European Union would save 0.6% of their health budget, underlines this report.
According to the WHO, one in three adults in Europe does not do enough sport
