NCD Watch

Walking for Good Health

31 Dec 2018 (Mon)

In Hong Kong, the hectic modern lifestyle very often encourages us to be sedentary or deprives our chance to participate in exercises or sports. Insufficient physical activity is a major risk factor for ill health and premature death. Compared to people who are sufficiently active, those who are insufficiently active would have 20% to 30% increased risk of death.

Physical activity is defined as any bodily movement produced by skeletal muscles that requires energy expenditure − including activities undertaken when travelling, working, playing, carrying out household chores and engaging in recreational pursuits. For optimal health, the World Health Organization recommends adults in general to do at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity, or 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity physical activity, or equivalent amount throughout the week. Children and adolescents aged 5−17 years should do at least 60 minutes of moderate- to vigorous-intensity physical activity daily.

The Population Health Survey 2014/15 showed that 87.0% of non-institutionalised persons aged 18 and above had sufficient physical activity and active travel by walking or cycling contributing considerably (56.4%) to the overall physical activity levels. Overall, about three out of four (74.0%) persons reported walking or riding a bicycle for at least 30 minutes to get to and from places per day. The 2016 Hong Kong Report Card on Physical Activity for Children and Youth reported that 80% of the boys and 77% of the girls travelled to school on foot or by bicycle at least once per week. However, less than half of the children and youth met the international recommended level.

While any type of physical activity would offer health benefits, walking is an inexpensive and all-round mode of aerobic activity that can be done just about anytime and anywhere. For most of the adult population, walking cadence of 100 steps per minute is sufficient to reach moderate intensity. Epidemiological studies show that having a sufficient ‘daily dose’ of walking can reduce the risk of non-communicable diseases (NCD) that include cardiovascular diseases (such as hypertension, heart disease and stroke), type 2 diabetes, some cancers (such as colon cancer and breast cancer) and depression.

In May 2018, the Government launched “Towards 2025: Strategy and Action Plan to Prevent and Control Non-communicable Diseases in Hong Kong” with 9 local NCD targets to be achieved by 2025, including Target 3: A 10% relative reduction in the prevalence of insufficient physical activity among adolescents and adults. As walking is one of the easiest forms of physical activity to incorporate into everyday life, promotion of walking is a practical and sustainable strategy to increase population’s level of physical activity.

All members of the public are encouraged to walk more whenever possible, such as walk to work or school, or get off a few stops and walk the rest of the way to the destination when taking public transit; take the stairs instead of the elevators or lift; go for a walk after lunch or dinner. Weekends are great for family walks in a park or hill-walking with friends.

Furthermore, increasing levels of walking, in place of taking the car or other forms of motorised transport, can also benefit the environment with reduced greenhouse gas emission and air pollution! To enable people to travel on foot and walk more, the Government will continue to promote ‘Fitness Walking’, intensify the concept of walkability in urban planning and foster a pedestrian-friendly environment.

To motivate the public include physical activities as part of their daily lives, the Department of Health (DH) launched the “HEALTHY HONG KONG 2025 | Move For Health” Campaign on 8 December 2018. For this Campaign, DH created the mascot “Lazy Lion”. The name Lazy Lion refers to the mascot’s laziness, which has stopped him from going outdoors and doing exercise - echoing some Hong Kong people’s reasons and excuses for not doing any exercise. Lazy Lion will encourage the public to develop an active lifestyle by various means. Please follow his Facebook ( https://www.facebook.com/lazylionhk ) and Instagram ( https://www.instagram.com/lazylionhk ) pages for the latest “moves”.