Health problems caused by a lack of daily physical exercise cost the world about US$67.5 billion in 2013 — more than many nations’ GDP, researchers said yesterday.
The total was divided between US$53.8 billion in healthcare spending and US$13.7 billion in lost productivity, according to a study published in The Lancet.
The research relied on economic and population data from 142 nations, representing 93 percent of the world’s population, its authors said.
However, the figure was likely an underestimate as the data covered only five diseases — coronary heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, breast cancer and colon cancer — at least the percentage attributable to physical inactivity.
The “cost calculations are based on conservative estimates and the true cost may be even higher,” a statement said.
The paper was the first to estimate the monetary cost of the global “pandemic” of inactivity and was part of a special series timed for release ahead of Friday next week’s opening of the Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games.
Living a sedentary lifestyle is associated with more than 5 million deaths in the world every year, the researchers said.
Of the total estimated cost, US$31.2 billion was tax revenue lost to public healthcare spending, US$12.9 billion in spending by the private sector, including health insurance companies, and US$9.7 billion in direct medical costs for households.
The amounts were listed in “international dollars” — the equivalent of what a US dollar can buy in the US in any given year.
The burden for rich nations was proportionally higher in money terms, while for poor and middle-income nations the cost was mainly in disease and premature death, the study found.
“Generally, poorer countries don’t have their health needs met due to less developed health and economic systems,” said Melody Ding of the University of Sydney, who led the research.
As these nations develop economically, “so too will the consequent economic burden, if the pandemic of physical inactivity spreads as expected,” she said.
A second study in the series said people who sit for eight hours a day might cancel out the increased risk of death this carries by doing at least an hour of exercise per day.
The WHO advises 150 minutes or more of physical activity per week — much less than the daily 60 minutes recommended by the study, which analyzed data from more than 1 million people.
“We defined physical activity as activity of at least moderate intensity,” study lead author Ulf Ekelund of the Norwegian School of Sport Sciences said. “Examples are brisk walking at 5kph or bicycling at 16kph.”
Only about a quarter of people in the analysis did an hour or more of physical activity per day, the authors found.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in