Newswise — HOUSTON – (Dec. 3, 2015) – The Global Observatory for Physical Activity (GoPA!), a council of physical activity researchers including Harold Kohl, Ph.D., of The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) School of Public Health, unveiled today baseline data cards for 131 countries across the world. These cards offer a detailed look at physical activity research, policy and surveillance worldwide.
GoPA! was launched in 2012 after publication of the landmark Lancet Physical Activity Series which described a worldwide physical inactivity pandemic. It is a global organization consisting of physical activity researchers, epidemiologists, public health policy makers and practitioners. The group produces and analyzes reliable, high quality and current global data, information and knowledge on the topic of physical activity and health. GoPA! is a council of the International Society of Physical Activity and Health (ISPAH). Kohl was the founding president of ISPAH.
“In 2012, we published a series in the medical journal Lancet which emphasized that the global health burden from physical inactivity – the numbers of deaths worldwide – was similar to that of smoking. Physical inactivity is every bit as important and it hasn’t been getting the attention it deserves. Physical inactivity should be considered an urgent public health problem,” said Kohl, who is part of the Michael & Susan Dell Center for Healthy Living and associate regional dean at UTHealth School of Public Health Austin Regional Campus.
Physical inactivity is a major risk factor for the development of chronic diseases globally, affecting low-, middle- and high-income countries. According to the Lancet study, it accounts for more than 5 million deaths per year globally, ranging from 1 percent of all deaths in Bangladesh to 19 percent in Malta. Worldwide, approximately 30 percent of adults are physically inactive, with as few as 17 percent in Southeast Asia and as many as 43 percent in the Americas and the Eastern Mediterranean region.
Four of the 10 most physically active countries in the world are concentrated in South and Southeast Asia, and five of the least active countries are located in Europe. In addition to the prevalence of physical activity, GoPA! assessed scientific productivity, national surveys and monitoring, and the development of public policies in the area of physical activity and public health.
According to the cards, the United States is the leader in publishing research about physical activity, accounting for 25 percent of research worldwide in 2013. While 68 percent of men and women are physically active in the United States, 10.8 percent of all deaths are due to physical inactivity. “In other words, if everyone in the U.S. became physically active, nearly 11 percent of deaths due to chronic diseases such as diabetes and diseases of the heart might be prevented,” Kohl said.
“The GoPA! cards are a great start to monitor these trends and to continue a push for policy and action on inactivity. We plan to release new cards every two years because we hope what is measured changes. For example, knowing that your country is 50th in research productivity might help motivate processes of change to increase that effort and ranking,” said Kohl, who holds a joint appointment as professor of kinesiology at The University of Texas at Austin.
The Observatory assessed scientific productivity in countries around the world using several standard research metrics. Six countries - the United States, Australia, Canada, Netherlands, Spain and the United Kingdom, - accounted for 51 percent of scientific publications on physical activity and public health in 2013. Brazil and China are the only low- and middle-income countries among the leading 20 countries for scientific publications in the field.
Although 90 percent of the 131 countries have conducted at least one survey on physical activity, less than one third maintain continuous surveillance systems. The continuous surveillance of physical inactivity and other risk factors for nonkohcommunicable diseases is essential for the assessment of time trends and for the evaluation of the impact of interventions, according to GoPA!.
As for the development of public policies, 37 countries have specific national plans for the promotion of physical activity and another 65 include physical activity in their plans for preventing noncommunicable diseases.
GoPA! hopes to engage experts and policymakers, as well as national and international physical activity societies, to work side by side with them to combat inactivity.
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