Hyderabad: Around 30% of Indians aged between 18-47 years do not have any form of physical exercise, a survey by insurance firm Future Generali India found. The survey of the 1,082 people, which comes on the eve of World Health Day on 7 April, also found walking was the preferred form of exercise, while a small portion hit the gym daily.

In the age group of 18-25 years, 33% did not exercise at all, while in the 26-46 years age group, around 40% of the people were not involved in any form of exercise. The number of people who do not exercise declined with age, and people took up light walking again at 47 onwards, the survey found.

Among people who were keen to exercise, 30-50% chose to walk for 30 minutes a day at least for five days a week. Only around 11-16% of the all the people surveyed took a one-hour brisk walk daily. The survey says that the concept of regular health check-up has not yet caught up and people visit doctors only when they are unwell.

“Customers do understand that healthcare costs have risen; however, they don’t go for regular health check-ups and prefer to visit the doctor only when they are unwell. Also, most of them feel the treatment and hospitalisation expenses are too high at the time of treatment of any critical illness; however they don’t consider buying health insurance," said the survey.

Also, almost half of the people in the age group of 18-25 do not buy health insurance policies because of the belief premiums are high and insurance companies do not pay claims, the survey said.

Of all the people involved in the survey, 27% of the respondents had at least one family member with a critical illness. Cancer, heart attack, kidney failure, liver failure, multiple sclerosis and tuberculosis were considered as critical illness by the respondents.

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