Physical activity (PA): any bodily movement produced by skeletal muscles
that results in energy expenditure
Exercise: a subset of physical activity that is planned, structured, and
repetitive and has as a final or an intermediate objective the improvement
or maintenance of physical fitness
Global PA overview:
- Worldwide 31% of adults are physically inactive, from 17% in southeast
Asia to 43% in the Americas and the eastern Mediterranean
- Physical inactivity: rises with age; higher in women than in men;
increased in high-income countries
- 80% of 13-15 year olds are doing fewer than 60min of moderate-
vigorous physical activity per day. Boys are more active than girls.
Global burden of physical inactivity on health:
- Coronary heart disease
- Type 2 diabetes
- Breast cancer
- Colon cancer
- Premature mortality: More than 5.3 million of the 57
million deaths that occurred worldwide in 2008
If inactivity were not eliminated, but decreased instead by
25%, more than 1.3 million deaths could be averted every
year. Elimination of physical inactivity would increase the
life expectancy of the world’s population by 0.68 years
Global effect of PA on health: inactive impairs global health, but there’s substantial variability in burden between countries
Age and sex effects on PA:
- PA decreases in old age, particularly moderate ‐to ‐vigorous physical activity (MVPA) known to be beneficial for
musculoskeletal (MSK)
- Likely contribute substantially to decline in health
- Sex difference in MVPA, lower levels in women
Historical changes: physical activity in different populations:
- Physical activity level can be calculated as ratio of total energy expenditure:basal metabolic rate
- Ancestral foragers (larger body size than contemporary foragers) estimated mean physical activity levels of roughly 1.7
similar to industrialised populations with moderate activity levels.
- Non-human primates do less less activity (1.2-1.5) - humans adapted for foraging
- Subsistence farmers - variable levels of activity, around 1.9 in men and 1.8 in women, can be up to 2.5
, - In urban populations, sedentary individuals do around 1.5
- WHO and the Food and Agriculture Organisation for health in 2004 encouraged people to achieve levels of around 1.75
Physical activity and sedentariness: Secular changes in work-related physical activity: changes in
- Distinct behaviours, PA can reduce but not workplace have led to reduced work PA (move to service-
eliminated effects of sedentary behaviour based economy; mechanisation of jobs)
- Sedentary behaviour (TV watching)
Secular changes in leisure time physical activity: sedentary
behaviour and light PA stable, changes in MVPA
Social/environment influences on PA:
Genetics of physical activity: Physical activity effects on function:
that results in energy expenditure
Exercise: a subset of physical activity that is planned, structured, and
repetitive and has as a final or an intermediate objective the improvement
or maintenance of physical fitness
Global PA overview:
- Worldwide 31% of adults are physically inactive, from 17% in southeast
Asia to 43% in the Americas and the eastern Mediterranean
- Physical inactivity: rises with age; higher in women than in men;
increased in high-income countries
- 80% of 13-15 year olds are doing fewer than 60min of moderate-
vigorous physical activity per day. Boys are more active than girls.
Global burden of physical inactivity on health:
- Coronary heart disease
- Type 2 diabetes
- Breast cancer
- Colon cancer
- Premature mortality: More than 5.3 million of the 57
million deaths that occurred worldwide in 2008
If inactivity were not eliminated, but decreased instead by
25%, more than 1.3 million deaths could be averted every
year. Elimination of physical inactivity would increase the
life expectancy of the world’s population by 0.68 years
Global effect of PA on health: inactive impairs global health, but there’s substantial variability in burden between countries
Age and sex effects on PA:
- PA decreases in old age, particularly moderate ‐to ‐vigorous physical activity (MVPA) known to be beneficial for
musculoskeletal (MSK)
- Likely contribute substantially to decline in health
- Sex difference in MVPA, lower levels in women
Historical changes: physical activity in different populations:
- Physical activity level can be calculated as ratio of total energy expenditure:basal metabolic rate
- Ancestral foragers (larger body size than contemporary foragers) estimated mean physical activity levels of roughly 1.7
similar to industrialised populations with moderate activity levels.
- Non-human primates do less less activity (1.2-1.5) - humans adapted for foraging
- Subsistence farmers - variable levels of activity, around 1.9 in men and 1.8 in women, can be up to 2.5
, - In urban populations, sedentary individuals do around 1.5
- WHO and the Food and Agriculture Organisation for health in 2004 encouraged people to achieve levels of around 1.75
Physical activity and sedentariness: Secular changes in work-related physical activity: changes in
- Distinct behaviours, PA can reduce but not workplace have led to reduced work PA (move to service-
eliminated effects of sedentary behaviour based economy; mechanisation of jobs)
- Sedentary behaviour (TV watching)
Secular changes in leisure time physical activity: sedentary
behaviour and light PA stable, changes in MVPA
Social/environment influences on PA:
Genetics of physical activity: Physical activity effects on function:
