Picture used for representational purpose only

BHUBANESWAR: More than 59 per cent of the residents of Bhubaneswar, Odisha ’s capital with a population of more than one million, are not physically active while only 16 per cent of the population practiced yoga. This was revealed by a study conducted by the Community Medicine department of the Institute of Medical Sciences and SUM Hospital— the faculty of medical sciences of SOA Deemed to be University here.

“This is a first of its kind study conducted to know the physical activity patterns of city denizens. The study also throws light on how lack of fitness activities and physical fitness has been leading to a significant rise in non-communicable diseases (NCD) like diabetes , cancer , brain and heart strokes,” said head of Community Medicine department professor E Venkata Rao.

According to the study, the physical activity pattern among the city residents has been found to be very poor with 59.2 per cent of the population reporting that they were not active physically.

Even walking for ten minutes or more was reported by less than one-third of the studied population. The study was conducted among 1,217 persons randomly selected from different wards of the city.

“Around 10 per cent of the people interviewed said that they suffered from non-communicable diseases like diabetes, high blood pressure or cardio vascular disease. These NCDs account for nearly 50 per cent of all deaths in India though largely non-communicable diseases are preventable if the risk factors involved in it are reigned in. In this context, physical activity is a very important factor for the prevention of NCDs,” he said.

However, the study could not find the exact reason for lack of physical activity among the people of the city unlike in other western countries where most people believe in ‘exercise is medicine’, Rao said.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) said physical inactivity was one of the major risk factors for the rapidly escalating non-communicable diseases (NCDs) with an increase in healthcare costs.

The NCDs such as diabetes, high blood pressure, heart diseases and cancer accounted for more than 36 million deaths globally each year.

The study gave emphasis on some major issues like the need for formulation of an appropriate national or state physical activity plan to address physical activity promotion.

Secondly, the doctors needed to be trained more on physical activity prescription and third, the most important, is to create awareness among the general public about healthy practices and develop public infrastructure.

“Every individual must try to accumulate at least 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous exercise in a week with not more than two successive days of exercise holiday. We have discussed the matter with city planners and suggested them to have provisions of pathways for walkers and cyclists, joggers’ tracks and more open gyms in parks,” Rao said.

The other members of the study funded by Odisha Mining Corporation (OMC) included Dr. Satyajit Mohanty, Dr. Sandeep Kumar Panigrahi and Dr. Jyoti Ranjan Sahoo, all from the department of Community Medicine of IMS and SUM Hospital.

