Nearly 50% Indian adults insufficiently physically active: Lancet study

Study reveals high levels of physical inactivity in India, especially among women, contributing to rising non-communicable diseases.

Almost 50% of adults in India engaged in insufficient levels of physical activity in 2022, according to a study published in The Lancet Global Health journal.

Far more women in India (57%) were found to be insufficiently physically active, compared to men (42%), in line with trends across the South Asian region, the study found.

The insufficient levels of physical activity in women in the region were, on average, 14% higher than those in men, it said.

The South Asian region also ranked the second highest in terms of adults being insufficiently physically active after high-income Asia Pacific region, an international team of researchers, including those from the World Health Organization (WHO), said.

Globally, the authors found that about a third of the adults (31.3%) were insufficiently physically active — defined as not performing at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity per week or 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity physical activity per week.

This was up by 5% from 26.4% of the adults worldwide insufficiently engaging in physical activity in 2010, they found, and if the 2010-2022 trends continued, the authors said that the global target of improving physical activity engagement by 15% would not be met.

In India, a little over 22% of the adults engaged in insufficient physical activity in the year 2000, while in 2010, close to 34% of the adults were insufficiently physically active, the researchers found.