UN health agency launches initiative to promote physical fitness

The United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) today launched Move for Health" – an annual global initiative to promote physical activity as a key element of health and well-being.

Addressing the first International Conference for Sport and Development in Magglingen, Switzerland, WHO Director General Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland said the effort reflects concern over the link between chronic disease and unhealthy diet as well as a lack of exercise.

"WHO has worked successfully with the sports industry for many years to remove a global 'bad' in tobacco, and is now engaging positively to address the wider problem of chronic diseases," she said.

The agency estimates that physical inactivity caused 1.9 million deaths in 2000, while being responsible for some 15 to 20 per cent of all cases of certain kinds of heart disease, diabetes and cancer. The risk of getting a cardiovascular disease increases by up to 1.5 times in people who do not follow minimum physical activity recommendations.

"Even as we continue to fight a rearguard action against the diseases of poverty, we are confronting the challenge of the increasing global burden of chronic disease," Dr. Brundtland observed. "This is a result of changes in physical activity, diet and in the environment following rapid globalization and urbanization." She added that largely preventable chronic diseases like stroke, diabetes, some cancers and respiratory diseases – as well as obesity and overweight problems – are now the major causes of death and disability worldwide.