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ScienceDaily— As many as 50 million Americans are living sedentary lives, putting them at increased risk of health problems and even early death, a leading expert in exercise science told the American psychological Association.
Speaking at APA's 117th Annual Convention, Steven Blair, PED, called Americans' physical inactivity "the biggest public health problem of the 21st century."
Blair is a professor of exercise science and epidemiology at the University of South Carolina's Arnold School of Public Health. He is one of the world's premier experts on exercise and its health benefits and was the senior scientific editor of the 1996 U.S. Surgeon General's Report on Physical Activity and Health.
Research has shown approximately
25 percent to 35 percent of
American adults are inactive,
Blair said, meaning that they have
sedentary jobs, no regular physical
activity program and are generally
inactive around the house or yard. "This amounts to 40 million to 50
million people exposed to the hazard
of inactivity," Blair said in an
interview. "Given that these
individuals are doubling their risk of
developing numerous health
conditions compared with those who
are even moderately active and fit,
we're looking at a major public
health problem."
Blair's extensive research comes primarily from the Aerobics Center Longitudinal Study, in which he found that fitness level was a significant predictor of mortality. The ongoing study began in 1970 and includes more than 80,000 patients.
The researchers periodically measured the participants' body composition and body mass index, and each patient underwent a stress test. Researchers also looked at numerous other factors including the participants' medical histories.
One follow-up study of 40,842 longitudinal study participants showed poor fitness level accounted for about 16 percent of all deaths in both men and women.
The percentage was calculated by estimating the number of deaths that would have been avoided if people had spent 30 minutes a day walking.
This percentage was
significantly higher than when other
risk factors were considered,
including obesity, smoking, high
cholesterol and diabetes. The
Aerobics Center Longitudinal Study
also found that moderately fit men
lived six years longer than unfit men.
More examination of 14,811
female patients in the ACLS showed
that women who were very fit were
55 percent less likely to die from
breast cancer than women who
were not in good shape. This was
after the researchers had controlled
for BMI, smoking, family history of
breast cancer and other possible
risk factors.
Blair also highlighted the
benefits of exercise on the mind,
referring to recent emerging
evidence that activity delays the
mind's decline and is good for brain
health overall. Blair said he thinks
psychologists can be integral in
helping patients understand the
health hazards of being inactive and
encouraging people to look for more
ways to get moving. "Over the past
few decades, we have largely
engineered the need for physical
activity out of the daily lives of most
people in industrialized societies," said Blair.
The message should be
simple, he said: Doing something is
better than doing nothing, and doing
more is better than doing less, at
least up to a point. "We need
numerous changes to promote more
physical activity for all, including
public policies, changes in the health
care system, promoting activity in
educational settings and worksites,
and social and physical
environmental changes. We need
more communities where people
feel comfortable walking. I believe
psychologists can help develop
better lifestyle change interventions
to help people be more active via
the Internet and other technological methods."