The Pandemic of Physical Inactivity: Do Physicians Prescribe Physical Activity to Their Patients?

Hanan El-Sayed Badr

Professor of Public Health, Department of Community Medicine & Behavioral Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Kuwait University

Dr. Hanan El-Sayed Badr, Professor of Public Health, Department of Community Medicine & Behavioral Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Kuwait University.

Keywords: Physical Activity; Public Health; NCDs

Abstract

Physical inactivity is a growing pandemic over the last two decades. It is well evidenced that physical activity can reduce all-cause mortality by at least 30%. Moreover, literature shows the independent magnificent role of physical activity in reducing the prevalence of cardiovascular diseases, colon cancer, breast cancer, osteoarthritis, osteoporosis, and even falls among elderly people. Moreover, physical activity has a fundamental effect in improving mental health -one of the modern life public health problems- and brain functionality in terms of decreasing rates of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.
With this evidence-based published and known information, the question is: how many physicians are prescribing physical activity to their patients as part of the management plan? Physical activity is a free medication that can make wonderful improvements in the health status of patients. Walking particularly brisk walking for at least 10 minutes a day can improve the health status of patients significantly and can also help not only in decreasing the dose of the prescribed medication but also in increasing medication effectiveness. This is well established in hypertension and diabetes prescribed medications.

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. (CC BY 4.0).