A survey released by the Department of Health ahead of Mother’s Day shows that Taiwanese mothers aged 21 to 30 get less exercise than mothers in other age groups.
The survey, which interviewed 20,036 women over the age of 18, including mothers aged from 18 to 64, found that the amount of exercise a mother gets increases with her age, Kung Hsien-lan (孔憲蘭), deputy director-general of the department’s Bureau of Health Promotion, said yesterday at a press conference held by the department to promote healthy eating and exercise among the nation’s mothers.
According to the survey, only 30.5 percent of mothers aged 21 to 30 said they had exercised in the past two weeks, while the figure was 43.8 percent for those aged 31 to 40, 56 percent for those in the 41 to 50 age group, 59.4 percent for those aged 51 to 60 and 56.2 percent for those aged 61 to 70.
According to Kung, mothers are more willing to spend time working out as they get older because they become more concerned about their health as they age.
Kung added that mothers become more health conscious when they are older because by this time their children have grown up and their work is sometimes less demanding, giving them more time to focus on their own well-being.
In addition, the survey showed that mothers who exercise are happier than those who do not.
Of the mothers in the habit of working out, 62.4 percent said they were always or often happy, while only 5.9 percent said they were never or seldom happy. Among mothers who did not exercise, 51.9 percent said they were often happy compared with 11.5 percent who said they were never or seldom happy, the survey showed.
In terms of eating habits, the survey showed that more than 80 percent of mothers were in the habit of eating breakfast, while mothers aged 21 to 40 were more likely to eat out than mothers in the 41 to 60 age group. In response to this figure, Kung said that mothers who eat out should try to consume food that is less oily, less sweet and less salty.
The survey also showed that the risk of mothers being diagnosed with diabetes, high blood pressure or high cholesterol increased with age.
A total of 25 percent of mothers suffered from one of these diseases, with the number increasing to more than 60 percent among mothers aged 61 to 70, the results showed.
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