Inactivity tied to 5.3 million deaths worldwide, similar to smoking

July 18, 2012 12:01 PM

Inactivity tied to 5.3 million deaths worldwide, similar to smoking

(CBS News) Sitting around may be as deadly as smoking, a new study suggests.

New research in The Lancet finds about one in 10 deaths worldwide are caused by people not getting up and engaging in physical activity such as walking 30 minutes a day for five days a week.


A team of researchers led by Dr. I-Min Lee, a professor of epidemiology at Harvard Medical School in Boston, analyzed global data on deaths in 2008 to come up with estimates on how many cases of heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, and breast and colon cancers could theoretically be prevented if all the inactive people in the world suddenly became active.

he researchers concluded people's failure to spend a minimum of 150 minutes of moderate physical activity each week led to about 6 percent of cases of coronary heart disease, about 7 percent of Type 2 diabetes cases, and 10 percent of breast and colon cancers.

That adds up to 5.3 million deaths tied to physical inactivity. Smoking, meanwhile, is responsible for about 5 million deaths worldwide.