More than one in three adults in the European Union does not comply with the World Health Organization's recommendations on physical activity and Portugal is the worst placed of the 27 countries, reveals a report released today.
The report, by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the World Health Organization (WHO), concludes that, in 2016, 35,4% of adults in the 27 countries of the European Union were not active enough according to the criteria WHO recommends at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity per week.
Out of the 27 EU member states, Finland was the highest ranked country, with less than 20% of adults failing the WHO recommendation, while Portugal was at the opposite extreme, with more than 45% of adults falling short. of recommended.
The report also cites data from the latest Eurobarometer, according to which only four out of 10 adults (38%) in the EU did exercise or sport at least once a week in 2022, and only 6% did it five times a week.
In addition, almost half (45%) of adults admitted never to exercise or sport, despite the fact that physical activity is one of the most important things you can do to improve your physical and mental health and well-being, stress the authors. of the report.
Low levels of physical activity are also common among adolescents, particularly among girls, as less than one in five boys and less than one in 10 girls say they respect the WHO recommendation of at least one hour of physical activity. moderate to vigorous per day.
Portugal, along with Italy and France, was among the EU Member States with the worst levels of physical activity among adolescents, unlike countries such as Slovakia, Slovenia, the Netherlands or Bulgaria.
Although the participation of Europeans in physical activity or sports has improved little between 2017 and 2022 – the EU average improved from 44% to 53% – some countries have even seen the level of physical activity decrease, namely Portugal.
According to the report, the covid-19 pandemic has made the situation worse for the majority, although some adults have taken advantage of the confinements to exercise more: More than half of Europeans have reduced their physical activity and only 7% intend to do more exercise when pandemic ends.
The authors estimate in the report that, if all people adhered to the WHO guidelines for physical activity, it would be possible to prevent more than 10.000 premature deaths of people between 30 and 70 per year and life expectancy would increase by 7,5 months to those who are insufficiently active.
Furthermore, EU Member States could save 0,6% of their health budget annually.
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