WHO determined the price of physical education – Newspaper Kommersant No. 197 (7398) of 10/22/2022

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), until 2030, spending on medicine in the world could increase by an additional $300 billion due to insufficient physical activity of the population. It, in turn, will lead to the emergence of half a billion new cases of non-communicable diseases – caused mainly by hypertension and depression. To prevent them, WHO is advancing the action plan proposed to countries in 2017 to create opportunities for the population to become more active. However, according to the organization’s analysis, less than half of the countries have so far achieved most of the plan’s 29 targets.

Until 2030, global spending on national health systems could increase by $300 billion if the physical activity of the population remains at current levels. This conclusion was reached by WHO experts after evaluating the interim results of the implementation of the activities of the WHO Global Plan of Action to increase physical activity for 2018–2030 (GPAFA) in 194 countries of the world.

WHO developed this document in 2017, which provides governments with recommendations in four areas: an active society, an active environment, active people and active systems. There are 29 targets in total in the plan. By implementing the proposed measures, states by 2030 could reduce the lack of physical activity of the population by 15%. However, as the results of the current WHO interim report show, although individual countries have been addressing these issues, the overall pace of program implementation remains very slow. Only two out of 29 indicators are achieved by more than three-quarters of the countries. These include conducting national physical activity surveys and implementing national road safety standards (to create safe intersections for pedestrians and cyclists). Between half and two-thirds of the countries have achieved nine additional indicators. Among them is the creation of national plans to promote physical activity standards for different population groups, including mothers with children, office workers and the elderly. Most (18 out of 29 targets), according to WHO, were able to achieve less than half of the countries. The main factor in the slow implementation of WHO recommendations is the pandemic – it has negatively affected both the actual level of physical activity of the population, and the ability of governments to pay attention to norm-setting in this area.

Continued lag in the implementation of GPAFA activities by 2030, according to WHO forecast, will lead to the emergence of half a billion “additional” cases of noncommunicable diseases. Almost half of them (47%) will be caused by hypertension, 43% by depression. Three-quarters of these diseases will occur in lower- and upper-middle-income countries. At the same time, high-income countries will bear the greatest economic costs, since they will account for 70% of additional medical costs.

In Russia, since 2018, within the framework of the national project “Demography”, a specialized federal project “Sport is the norm of life” has been implemented. Its goal is to increase the proportion of Russians who systematically go in for sports from 43% to 70% by 2030. At the end of 2021, according to the Ministry of Labor, the program indicator was overfulfilled: the share of athletes increased to 49% instead of the planned 45.2%. Note, however, that the Accounts Chamber criticized the formula for calculating this indicator, calling it “manipulative.”

Anastasia Manuylova