Poll reveals world’s laziest countries – links to obesity [1]
Thursday, July 27, 2017 - 19:49
A health survey conducted by Stanford University reveals how physically active populations around the world are, and Hong Kong is rated as having the most active citizens in the world walking 6,880 steps daily on average.
China follows as second most-active place with its population walking an average of 6,189 steps per day.
At the other end of the scale, lazier countries include Indonesia, whose citizens are only managing 3,513 steps daily, Saudi Arabia at 3,807 and Malaysia at 3,963.
The British walk 5,444 steps per day, more than the Australians (4,941), Canadians (4,819), Americans (4,774) and New Zealanders (4,582).
The statistics were collected from over 700,000 people worldwide using smartphones that automatically record stepping motion data, calculating the amount of steps taken and the results are published in the Nature Journal [2].
Researcher, bioengineer Scott Delp, told the BBC [3] ‘The study is 1,000 times larger than any previous study on human movement’.
He said the new study means they can collect data from more countries, more subjects, and continue tracking people’s activities on an on-going basis.
'This opens the door to new ways of doing science at a much larger scale than we have been able to do before.'
"Activity poor"
Besides the walking rate, the survey findings are also an indicator of obesity and activity inequality levels.
Researchers at Stanford say that in countries with less obesity, people walked a similar amount daily, whereas in countries with higher obesity rates, the gap is larger between those who walk a lot and those who walk a little.
“If you think about some people in a country as ‘activity rich’ and others as ‘activity poor,’ the size of the gap between them is a strong indicator of obesity levels in that society,” Delp told the Stanford news [4].
And the amount of activity in each country is mostly driven by gender with negative results for women in particular. In countries such as the US and Saudi Arabia, women are less-likely to be active than men.
“When activity inequality is greatest, women’s activity is reduced much more dramatically than men’s activity, and thus the negative connections to obesity can affect women more greatly,” said another researcher and computer scientist, Jure Leskovec.
Walkable cities
The survey also revealed that cities that catered more to pedestrians were found to have more active citizens. The easier and convenient it is to get around on foot, the more active a country’s population becomes.
US cities such as Houston and Memphis were rated as having a low walkability rate meaning people had difficulty getting around these cities without their cars, which means less active people.
Tonga
Although Tonga was not included in the survey, the findings somewhat correlate to some of its issues such as obesity and physical activity.
The increasing amount of vehicles especially on Tongatapu, evident with long traffic jams in peak hour, means less people are walking around. Although Nuku’alofa itself is pedestrian friendly with shops, restaurants and markets within a kilometre radius and footpaths lining all the streets, people still prefer to use a vehicle to get around.
The survey shows that those who walk more are fitter and healthier and those who don’t are more prone to obesity.