People most often have time for exercise, scientists believe. And those who justify their sedentary lifestyle by being busy often simply don't see the potential free time.
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People most often have time to exercise, a study published in Preventing shows in the US. chronic disease. Those who justify their sedentary lifestyle by being busy often simply don't see the potential for free time.
On average, according to the study, Americans report 5 hours of free time per day. Most of this time they watch TV or use electronic devices such as smartphones or computers.
For the study, scientists used data from 32,000 people who took part in a national survey that collected information on American time use from 2014 to 2016 .
“There is a widespread belief among people, and even among medical professionals, that lack of free time is an important reason why Americans are not physically active enough. We found no evidence for these claims,” said study co-author Dr. Deborah Cohen of the RAND Corporation, a non-profit research organization for better health policy.
The authors defined free time strictly, excluding shopping, cleaning, cooking, self-care, and time spent with children. Even so, they claim that representatives of all ethnic groups and all ages had about 4.5 hours of free time.
Most of the free time of the people covered by the study was spent looking at the screen: from 175 to 211 minutes a day. Men were physically active just 6.6% and women 5% of their free time.
People with higher incomes tend to spend more time exercising, the study found.
“Increase making people aware of how they actually use their time, and creating a message to encourage less screen time can help people become more physically active,” suggests Cohen. The authors make the reservation that for successful competition of physical activity with electronic devices, comfortable conditions for exercise must be created.
Currently, WHO and many national recommendations indicate that a sufficient amount of physical activity is 150 minutes of moderate aerobic exercise. intensity.