“The fight against a sedentary lifestyle must become a common thread in public health”

2023-10-06 14:36:24

“In terms of public health, a sedentary lifestyle is the tobacco of the 21st century,” tells us Paquito Bernard, professor in the department of physical activity sciences at the University of Quebec in Montreal. The fight against a sedentary lifestyle and physical inactivity requires awareness from public authorities, as was the case with tobacco. We need an electric shock! For the National Observatory of Physical Activities and Sedentary Life (Onaps), we are sedentary for more than seven hours spent sitting or lying awake in a day.

A sedentary lifestyle affects nearly 40% of adults for whom there are proven health risks in terms of general mortality, chronic and cardiovascular diseases, depression, effects on the quality of sleep, eating disorders, etc. More women than men combine a sedentary lifestyle with physical inactivity.

And yet, we are programmed to move. The human body is designed to be in motion and expend energy. Our muscles, our ligaments, our bones are made to allow us to walk, run, swim, cycle, etc., not to remain seated, screwed into our chairs or in front of our screens.

Prevalence of obesity in children

The cardiologist and sports doctor François Carré observes cases of diabetes among younger generations before the age of 14, while this type of chronic disease generally occurs in adulthood, with rising blood pressure as well as cholesterol levels and increase in the number of cases of diabetes for adolescents aged 16 to 18, by 2% per year.

Even more worrying, the prevalence of overweight and obesity affects 34% of children aged 2 to 7, of whom 18% are obese. In the case of childhood obesity, the risk of obesity in adulthood varies between 50% and 70%: this means that an obese child at six years old has a very high probability of having to fight against his or her obesity throughout his or her life. overweight, but also to lose several years of healthy life expectancy.

Office workers spend an average of 75-77% of their working time sitting. Repeated sitting in front of a screen over time can cause eye fatigue, back pain and musculoskeletal disorders (MSD).

MSDs represent the leading cause of work stoppages and 88% of occupational illnesses, or 45,000 people affected each year in France. Our mental health is also at stake: a sedentary lifestyle promotes the occurrence of sleep disorders, but also depression or anxiety.

Spectacular progress in PE

The “Reversing the Curves” study made it possible to evaluate at the end of 2022 the level of initial physical capacity (respiratory, cardiovascular and skeletal muscular) of 8,500 French middle school students in sixth grade. The good news is that a personalized physical and sporting activity program in the form of split-type running training for six weeks with two fifteen-minute sessions as part of classic PE classes allows for spectacular progress in the initial physical condition of the middle school students tested.

This study demonstrates that we can “reverse the curves” of physical capacity and therefore of health capital, on condition of generalizing this program to all colleges in France, of developing physical fitness tests from school to nursing homes in order to anchor good physical activity habits in the lifestyles from a very young age.

Beyond a healthy and balanced diet, the fight against a sedentary lifestyle and the promotion of regular physical activity throughout life must become a common theme in public health prevention. All activities outside of our chairs, no matter how light, are beneficial and count in the prevention of chronic diseases: climbing the stairs rather than taking the elevator, ironing, cooking, washing the dishes, vacuuming, tidying up, tinkering, walking from one room to another, walking your dog, gardening…

Building on the legacy of the Olympic Games

Fighting against a sedentary lifestyle also means thinking about our spaces differently, by promoting new forms of mobility at the heart of our territories, the development of active mobility (walking, cycling, etc.), active campuses that promote health, but also last five hundred meters or the last kilometer near schools to encourage physical activity among French people near their homes.

Active design which allows the development of public spaces and buildings: walking paths, safe cycle paths, parks and play areas, but also playgrounds and school buildings (you have to move in class!) is an excellent tool – inexpensive – which must be deployed everywhere in urban or rural areas.

Finally, the prescription and sessions of adapted physical activity must gradually be covered financially by health insurance in conjunction with complementary health insurance to be accessible to all.

The dynamic of the sporting, territorial and societal legacy of the Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games is being built before the Games, if we want it to have lasting effects after 2024. The deployment of an ambitious plan to fight against a sedentary lifestyle can – still – be a fundamental pillar.