More women unfit in Kenya than men, new study shows

Health experts are scratching their heads on what can be done to get humanity do more exercises after a global survey showed that there are more “lazy” people in the world today than there were in 2001.

A comparative study by experts from the World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that more than a quarter of the world’s population is leading a sedentary lifestyle, which raises the risk of heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, breast and colon cancer among other disorders.

Interestingly, the trend of little physical activity is more prevalent among women than men. Only in two regions in Asia were there more men than women found to be leading sedentary lifestyles.

Kenya was one of the 168 countries covered by the analysis that probed the trends of physical activity as reported in various surveys conducted separately between 2001 and 2016.

INACTIVE KENYANS

Results of the study, published in the Lancet Global Health journal on Tuesday last week, show that 13.9 percent of Kenyan males are sedentary, compared to 16.9 percent of females.

Both genders considered, the average percentage of inactive Kenyans is 15.40, making it 35th among the 44 African countries analysed — where Mauritania tops with 41.30 percent and Uganda has the least percentage of inactive people at 5.5 percent.

“If current trends continue, the 2025 global physical activity target of a 10 percent relative reduction in insufficient physical activity will not be met,” say the four WHO researchers who collated the data.

The world health body says a person who is doing proper exercise is one who engages in moderate-intensity exercises for at least 150 minutes a week or 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity physical activity per week.

PHYSICAL ACTIVITY

“The health benefits of physical activity are well established,” state the researchers. “It has positive effects on mental health, delays the onset of dementia, and can help the maintenance of a healthy weight.”

The overriding theme of the study was that the wealthier a country is, the likelier it is that there are more sedentary citizens.

Kuwait had the highest number of inactive citizens at 67 percent, followed by Saudi Arabia at 53 percent.

“In wealthier countries, the transition towards more sedentary occupations and personal motorised transportation probably explains the higher levels of inactivity,” say the scientists who analysed surveys conducted in each of the studied countries to draw their estimates.

“Conversely, in lower income countries, more activity is undertaken at work and for transport. However, these behaviours are changing rapidly,” they add.

In Kenya, insufficient exercise is leading more and more people to hospitals.

LIFESTYLE DISEASES

According to Ms Nicoletta Nyagah, a fitness expert who has managed top gyms in Kenya and abroad for close to three decades, many enrol for exercises after they have contracted a lifestyle disease.

“A lot of times, people who are not interested in working out will hit the gym because they have gone to the hospital, they have got issues, the doctors have ordered them to go work out,” she says.

“Unfortunately, a lot of Kenyans now are catching up with it. Because we are eating junk food and our lives are not active. We want to go to the mall and park to the closest parking, which means less walking,” she adds, pointing out the habit of Kenyans using lifts instead of stairs is among the “lazy” traits.

Ms Nyagah opines that the health risk coming from little exercise is largely from the food we eat.

CALORIE EXPENDITURE

“Whatever you eat, the calorie intake has to balance with the calorie expenditure,” she says. “If you are a couch potato, after a while your metabolism slows down. So, the things that you do in your 20s and you still have your good shape; by the time you are getting to your mid-20s to your early 30s, life changes because what your body is consuming is not being dispensed.”

Those who abhor exercise, she adds, are denying their bodies a chance to have their blood circulate freely through the body.

“As long as you are getting some form of exercise, it means your blood is circulating. And as long as your blood is circulating, your heart is pumping; so it means that your heart is getting stronger,” she says.

WHO, in its 2001 study, approximated that two million deaths occur every year due to inactivity.