Miaoli County was named the “laziest” administrative region in the country due to the low rate of physical activity among its residents, according to a survey released by the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) on Tuesday.
The survey, which focused on health-threatening behaviors of Taiwanese during last year, showed that the areas with the highest percentage of inactive people were Miaoli and Yunlin counties and Hsinchu City.
The survey found that 76 percent of Taiwanese aged 15 and older do not get as much physical activity as they should, and that women are less likely than men to exercise. It also found that 83 percent of women and 69 percent of men in Taiwan were not doing at least 150 minutes of moderate exercise each week, as recommended by the WHO, representing high levels of physical inactivity compared with other developed nations.
The results were based on interviews with more than 20,000 people across the nation, which asked respondents how many times a week they exercised, for how long and if they broke a sweat or had to breathe hard.
They were then used to draw a “Taiwan map of exercise,” which was released yesterday.
HPA Deputy Director-General Yu Li-hui (游麗惠) cited a WHO report as saying that insufficient physical activity was behind the deaths of more than 2 million people around the world each year.
Six of the 10 diseases responsible for the most deaths in Taiwan — cancer, heart disease, stroke, diabetes, high blood pressure and chronic lower-respiratory diseases — are all related to a lack of exercise, Yu said.
Additional reporting by Stacy Hsu
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