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 Adding an extra 15 minutes of daily walking, or jogging a steady one
kilometer each day, would improve productivity and extend life
expectancy - leading to more economic growth, the study by the
health insurance group Vitality and the think tank RAND Europe
found.
The economic boost would come from lower mortality rates - in other
words keeping more people alive, working and contributing to the
economy for longer, the study's authors said, and from employees
taking fewer days off sick.
Hans Pung, RAND Europe's president, said the study highlighted "a
significant relationship between inactivity and productivity loss"
and should give policymakers and employers "new perspectives on how
to enhance the productivity of their populations".
The WHO recommends that all adults should take at least 150 minutes
of moderate exercise, or 75 minutes of vigorous exercise, a week. In
a study last year it found that around 40 percent of adults in the
United States, 36 percent in Britain and 14 percent in China did too
little exercise to stay healthy.
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The RAND/Vitality study was based in part on data from about 120,000
people across seven countries. It then modeled and projected the
potential economic benefits of increased physical activity globally
and for 23 individual countries.
It found that if all adults aged between 18 and 64 walked 15 more
minutes a day, it could increase world economic output by some $100
billion (£77 billion) year on year.
It also found that physically inactive 40-year-olds could increase
their life expectancy, on average, by 3.2 years, by introducing 20
minutes of jogging a day.
(Reporting by Kate Kelland, Editing by William Maclean)
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