Abstract
BackgroundThe World Health Organization (WHO) considers physical inactivity (PIA) as a critical noncommunicable factor for disease and mortality, affecting more women than men. In 2013, the WHO set a 10% reduction of the PIA prevalence, with the goal to be reached by 2025. Changes in the 2013–2017 period of physical inactivity prevalence in the 28 European Union (EU) countries were evaluated to track the progress in achieving WHO 2025 target.MethodsIn 2013 and 2017 EU Special Eurobarometers, the physical activity levels reported by the International Physical Activity Questionnaire of 53,607 adults were analyzed. Data were considered as a whole sample and country-by-country. A χ2 test was used to analyze the physical inactivity prevalence (%) between countries, analyzing women and men together and separately. Additionally, PIA prevalence was analyzed between years (2013–2017) for the overall EU sample and within-country using a Z-Score for two population proportions.ResultsThe PIA prevalence increased between 2013 and 2017 for the overall EU sample (p < 0.001), and for women (p = 0.04) and men (p < 0.001) separately. Data showed a higher PIA prevalence in women versus men during both years (p < 0.001). When separately considering changes in PIA by gender, only Belgium’s women and Luxembourg’s men showed a reduction in PIA prevalence. Increases in PIA prevalence over time were observed in women from Austria, Croatia, Germany, Lithuania, Malta, Portugal, Romania, and Slovakia and in men from Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, Germany, Italy, Lithuania, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, and Spain.ConclusionsPIA prevalence showed an overall increase across the EU and for both women and men between 2013 and 2017, with higher rates of PIA reported for women versus men during both years. PIA prevalence was reduced in only Belgium’s women and Luxembourg’s men. Our data indicate a limited gender-sensible approach while tacking PIA prevalence with no progress reaching global voluntary reductions of PIA for 2025.
Highlights
The World Health Organization (WHO) considers physical inactivity (PIA) as a critical noncommunicable factor for disease and mortality, affecting more women than men
The main findings of this study were: (a) the PIA prevalence increased between 2013 and 2017 for the overall European Union (EU) sample and both women and men separately; (b) a higher prevalence of PIA was observed in women for both 2013 and 2017 in comparison with men; (c) reductions in PIA prevalence were only observed in Belgian women and Luxembourg men; and (d) increases in PIA prevalence were observed for women in Austria, Croatia, Germany, Lithuania, Malta, Portugal, Romania, and Slovakia, and for men in Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, Germany, Italy, Lithuania, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, and Spain
The PIA prevalence increased in the overall EU sample between 2013 and 2017 and for both women and men separately
Summary
The World Health Organization (WHO) considers physical inactivity (PIA) as a critical noncommunicable factor for disease and mortality, affecting more women than men. In the World Health Organization (WHO) European region, PIA is the attributable risk factor for 12.% of the type 2 diabetes, 8% of the colon cancers, and 9.7% of all-cause mortality anually. This burden represents a lifetime disease of 2.270 disability-adjusted lifeyears [2]. The Global Action Plan (2013) positioned PIA as one of the critical noncommunicable diseases factors, and set for all countries a PIA reduction of 10% by 2025, relative to each country’s baseline [3] For this mandate, member states were expected to develop national targets and indicators based on the global monitoring framework [3]. There is limited availability of objectively measured physical activity data (i.e., obtained by accelerometry) at present, monitoring is possible based on sex-disaggregated self-report data [7]
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