Every step counts for health

YESTERDAY was World Physical Activity Day, a global movement to get people to be more physically active. Physical inactivity has become a global public health problem and is the fourth leading risk factor in global mortality.

The statistics of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) in Malaysia are worrying. The 2019 National Health and Morbidity Survey reported that 50.1% of our adult population were overweight or obese, 30.0% had hypertension and 18.3% had diabetes. Meanwhile, 25.1% of adults were physically inactive, a reduction compared with 2015’s figure of 33.5%.