‘Sitting’ still making you ill
Sedentary behaviours such as sitting for hours at work, watching too much TV and whiling away hours on the internet are increasingly undermining efforts to combat heart disease, a key health survey funded by the Heart Foundation reveals.
Sedentary behaviours such as sitting for hours at work, watching too much TV and whiling away hours on the internet are increasingly undermining efforts to combat heart disease, a key health survey funded by the Heart Foundation reveals.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics’ Australian Health Survey: Physical Activity paints a poor picture of the health of the nation with the average adult only just meeting the recommended minimum of 30 minutes of daily physical activity.
Other findings include:
• One fifth of adults – 3.5 million Australians – did not even do one minute of deliberate physical activity;
• Adults racked up an average of 39 hours sedentary activity per week; and
• Australians in more sedentary occupations such as clerical and administrative roles spent on average 22 hours a week sitting for work.
Dr Robert Grenfell, national director of Cardiovascular Health at the Heart Foundation, said the survey showed there was still much work to do to hammer home the physical activity and healthy heart messages.
For more information about physical activity, visit www.heartfoundation.org.au or phone the Heart Foundation’s Health Information Service on 1300 36 27 87.
