Daily HealthBeat Tip - September 05, 2008

Hardly working; working hard

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I’m Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

On any given day, about one quarter of adults are physically active in a sport, exercise or recreational activity. That’s nothing to brag about. It means 75 percent are not active.

At the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Sandra Ham found that in two massive survey databases.

``Participation in specific leisure-time activities is generally low among U.S. adults. On any given day, 3 percent of adults participated in sports, about one in eight adults participated in exercise, and about the same percentage participated in leisure activities or recreational activities.’’  (15 seconds)

But people who were being active usually got at least the 30 minutes of physical activity that they need for health. The survey data say many of them were working hard and got much more.

The study was in the Journal of Physical Activity and Health.

Learn more at hhs.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I’m Ira Dreyfuss

Last revised: September, 05 2008