Cape Town - South Africans are among the most inactive people in the world, with more than half of the country’s population leading inactive lives.
This puts SA citizens at risk of developing lifestyle diseases, a US researcher has warned.
According to Professor I-Min Lee, an epidemiologist from Harvard University, the country has “reached high levels of physical inactivity” and most people are likely to suffer from chronic conditions such as diabetes, hypertension and cardiovascular diseases.
Lee said research showed that more than half of the country’s women were inactive, with latest studies putting the figure at 58 percent, while about 48 percent of SA’s men were couch potatoes.
At a conference entitled “Life Through Movement International Conference”, organised by the Biokinetics Association of SA at North-West University, Lee said the prevalence of lifestyle diseases in SA had put the country in third place for obesity in the world.
The conference discussed among other things the application of physical activity as a modality in the prevention and treatment of chronic lifestyle diseases.
Another scientist who raised concerns about the country’s inactivity was Cape Town professor Vicki Lambert. She said inactivity killed more people in the world than obesity, diabetes and smoking combined.
“There needs to a movement towards an increase of physical activity by motivating the 93 percent of the population currently not exposed to physical activity as intervention modality for non-communicable diseases,” Lambert said. - Cape Argus