ABOUT 40 percent of adolescents in the Philippines reported having no physically activity in a week, placing the country among those with the highest rates of inactivity among young people, according to country estimates from the World Health Organization (WHO).
WHO said in a study that 40 percent of adolescents in the Philippines, Namibia and Nepal reported no active days, not even an hour of exercise a week.
The study, published in The Lancet Global Health, draws on hundreds of population-based surveys from 140 countries and territories, involving more than 3.2 million teens, WHO said.
In its global estimates released Wednesday, WHO found that one in four adolescents aged 11 to 17 worldwide reported no active days in the previous week, meaning they did not complete at least 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity on any day.
The findings translate to about 240 million young people worldwide who reported no physically activity days in a week, WHO said.
Adolescents in the study reported being physically active for an average of 2.7 days a week, while only 14 percent were active on all seven days.
WHO also found a gender gap in physical activity, with 28 percent of girls reporting no active days, compared with 22 percent of boys.
Only 11 percent of girls reported being physically active every day, compared with 17 percent of boys.
WHO warned that physical inactivity is a major risk factor for heart disease, type 2 diabetes and some cancers.
“Helping young people develop active habits early in life is critical to protecting their health and reducing the global burden of these diseases,” the agency said.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the world had made almost no progress in getting young people to become physically active over the past 15 years, with girls being left furthest behind.
“The answer is not to tell adolescents to try harder. It is to build schools, streets and communities where moving, playing and being active is safe, easy and normal,” he added.
WHO said physical activity was shaped by where adolescents live, study, travel and spend their free time. Transport patterns, access to safe public spaces, opportunities for walking and cycling, school environments, affordability, social norms and screen-based lifestyles can all influence their opportunities to be active.
The agency called for stronger action across education, transport, urban planning, sport and health, including policies that make physical activity an easy, safe and accessible part of everyday life.
