Walking 15 minutes gives the world 100 billion dollars
Walking daily for a quarter of an hour or light jogging enhances productivity and increases life expectancy. Archives
$ 100 billion would be earned by the global economy annually, if employers succeeded in encouraging workers to follow the guidelines of the World Health Organization with regard to practicing sports, according to a recent scientific study.
The study, which deals with the impact of physical activity on economic performance, conducted by the "Vitality" medical insurance group and the "Rand Europe" Research Center, found that walking daily for an additional quarter of an hour, or light jogging a kilometer continuously every day, will enhance productivity and increase life expectancy. Ultimately, this leads to improved economic growth.
The study authors said that the improvement in the economy will result from a decrease in the death rate, meaning that more workers will be alive and their contributions to the economy for a longer period, as well as a decrease in the number of sick leave days.
The head of the European Rand Center, Hans Bong, said the study highlighted a “strong relationship between immobility and reduced productivity,” and that it should give policymakers and employers a “new perspective on how to boost productivity.”
The WHO recommends that all adults get at least 150 minutes of moderate exercise, or 75 minutes of vigorous exercise, a week.
Part of the RAND study and the Vitality Group are based on data from about 120,000 people from seven countries. The study envisaged the economic benefits of increased physical activity globally and in 23 individual countries.
And it has found that if all workers, between the ages of 18 and 64, walk an extra quarter of an hour a day, that could boost global economic output by about $ 100 billion on an annual basis.