World Physical Activity Day, celebrated every year on April 6, brings to mind the consequences of a sedentary lifestyle on physical and mental health.

As reported by the Athenian-Macedonian News Agency, the professor emeritus and former president of the National Center “Exercise is Medicine-Greece” Dr. Yiannis Koutentakis, “the anarchic urbanization of the Greek population and the improvement of technology have contributed decisively to the increase of physical impulsivity. The percentage of the country’s population that falls into this category has reached 68% (2018), with ominous predictions for the future. But this lack of physical activity is connected -among many others- to the incidence of almost all non-communicable diseases”.

“Therefore, the question arises as to whether the high levels of immobility translate into economic costs for the country” says Dr. Andreas Flouris, who is an associate professor of the Department of Physical Education and Sports Science at the University of Thessaly and director of the Environmental Laboratory, to APE-MPE Physiology FAMELab at the same university. As he explains, “a nationwide analysis carried out in our laboratory showed that the cost in question for the years 2000-2010 was 1.02 billion euros, while in the period 2011-2019 it increased to 1.17 billion euros.”

“Calculating the economic effects of underactivity was a complex and complicated process,” explains Sotiris Harbas, one of the authors of the study, speaking to APE-MPE.

As he explains, “we followed an internationally recognized methodology, which links hypoactivity with the five most important non-communicable diseases, namely heart disease, stroke, diabetes, as well as breast and colon cancer. In the year 1990, a total of 859,000 Greeks had the above diseases, while this number increased to approximately 1.5 million people in 2019.”

Dr. Flouris also emphasizes that “while the annual cost of immobility in the Greek economy for the five non-communicable diseases we studied was 90 million euros in the year 2000, it gradually increased reaching 131 million euros in the year 2019.”

“The creation of a Motivation Observatory is deemed necessary. The observatory in question will collect data on an annual basis on the economic effects of lack of mobility and implement actions aimed at eliminating it,” explains Dr. Koutentakis. He emphasizes that “the Hypoactivity Observatory will have a significant benefit in Greek society, achieving a reduction in sedentary behavior which, in turn, will reduce the incidence of the leading non-communicable diseases.”

Dr. Flouris points out that “if in the year 2019 the undermobility had been eliminated, the Greek economy would have additional financial resources to cover many of its needs in the fields of education, health, social solidarity and national defense. For example, every year it could cover the costs of 39 new schools, or a new hospital, or 180 new ICU beds, or 202 fire trucks.”