Most people know that exercise is good for them, personally and collectively. Physical activity not only helps prevent disease and promote healthy lives, it also enhances mental well-being and social interaction, and contributes to economic development in different geographical, cultural, and political contexts. Unfortunately, people simply do not move much anymore.
Indeed, physical inactivity has been recognized as a global pandemic that demands global action (Horton, 2016). Based on self-reported data, the estimated global prevalence of physical inactivity for adults, defined as not achieving 150 minutes of moderate-intensity activity or 75 minutes of vigorous activity per week (or an equivalent combination), was about 24 percent in 2016 (Horton, 2016). According to data from the WHO, Latin America and the Caribbean seems to follow this global trend with an adult prevalence of inactivity estimated at 32 percent. Latin America and the Caribbean ranks second among regions in inactivity in the world, behind the Americas region, of which it is also a part.
Within Latin America and the Caribbean, Caribbean countries are the least active. For instance, with a physical inactivity prevalence rate near 64 percent, Colombia’s rate almost doubles the regional rate. The Bahamas, Trinidad and Tobago and Saint Lucia follow in terms of physical inactivity, with rates between 43 percent and 41.5 percent. At the other extreme, Guatemala has the most active people with a prevalence rate of physical inactivity less than half the regional rate
Given the known limitations of self-reported data (which may explain in part some of the variance within the region), the use of objective physical activity measures, such as accelerometers, to estimate national prevalence is growing (Horton, 2016). Recent research uses data captured from smartphones to analyze the habits of 717,000 men and women from 111 countries, 1 whose steps were studied for an average of 95 days (Althoff et al., 2017) 2 .
According to this study, physical activity, measured as daily steps, varies greatly among countries. The worldwide average for the 111 countries included in the analysis is 4,739 steps per day (standard deviation σ = 753) over an average span of 14 hours. Figure 3 shows the geographic distribution of physical activity across countries, where cold colors correspond to high activity and warm colors indicate low levels of activity. China, Ukraine, Japan, Belarus, and Russia lead the ranks of countries with the highest activity, with nearly 6,211 steps. In contrast, among the countries with the lowest activity are several countries of the Persian Gulf, such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar, and Southeast Asia, like the Philippines and Malaysia. The least active are Pakistan, Honduras and El Salvador, with fewer than 3,415 steps
According to this measure of physical activity, Latin American and Caribbean countries are in the bottom half of the ranking. The most active country in the region is Chile, which comes in 35th out of 111 countries with 5,204 steps, followed by Peru and Mexico, which are in the 41st and 59th places, with 5,075 and 4,692 steps, respectively. In contrast, Caribbean countries are the least active of the region. Dominican Republic, Bahamas, and Venezuela place 100th, 101st and 105th, marginally better than Honduras and El Salvador, which are the most inactive countries of the region—and the world. Physical activity, measured in steps, also varies within countries.
Althoff et al. (2017) measure activity inequality within countries, which they define as the Gini coefficient of the population activity distribution. They focus on the 46 countries with at least 1,000 smartphone users. Figure 5 shows the ranking of these countries according to the Gini coefficient, where a value of 100 represents maximum inequality. The Latin American and Caribbean countries included in the sample are in the middle of the ranking. For example, although average activity is similar for people in the United States and Mexico, individuals in the United States reflect a wider range of activity levels than those in Mexico, hence the United States ranked fourth from the bottom in overall activity inequality while Mexico ranked 18th from the bottom. Thus, the gap between active and sedentary people is wider in the United States than in Mexico.
Certain patterns emerge from the data. First, physical activity varies with age. According to WHO estimates, physical inactivity is even more worrisome among school-going adolescents between the ages of 11 and 17.
For these adolescents, inactivity prevalence is defined as not achieving at least 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity daily. Based on self-reported data, inactivity prevalence is extremely high, with a global average of approximately 81 percent. However, in part the apparently higher inactivity prevalence of adolescents over adults reflects the higher recommended level for youth. Latin America and the Caribbean is no exception to this trend, ranking second among regions in terms of the inactivity of its school-going adolescents with a prevalence rate of 86.2 percent; only the youth of the Eastern Mediterranean are less active, with a prevalence rate of 87.5 percent
Not surprisingly, physical activity plays an important role in preventing children and adolescents from becoming overweight (body mass index between 25 and 30) and obese (body mass index greater than 30), and reducing the risk of obesity among adults. Compared to other world regions, physical activity is of particular importance in Latin America and the Caribbean where age-adjusted obesity is high among both adults and children. On average, 23 percent of the region’s adults are obese
Worse yet, adult and child obesity is increasing more than in other world regions. Obesity among adults in the 26 member countries of the IDB rose by 10 percentage points from 1990 to 2015 compared to 5.5 percentage points worldwide. Among children 2 to 19 years of age, obesity grew by 3 percentage points in Latin America and the Caribbean vs. 2.4 percentage points among all countries
Source : American inter development bank stats
