Get up! Sitting long hours can be very dangerous, warns ThaiHealth

The Thai Health Promotion Foundation (ThaiHealth) held a press conference on Tuesday to share the “12 Years of Physical Activity Promotion for a Healthy Lifestyle in Thailand” report.

The event reviewed the progress made in promoting physical activity and exploring strategies for designing inclusive and equitable initiatives to support active lifestyles.

Key objects included developing mechanisms to encourage movement, reduce sedentary behaviour and enhance policies addressing insufficient physical activity among children.

Assoc Prof Piyawat Katewongsa, director of the Thailand Physical Activity Knowledge Development Centre, said that five population groups face significant disparities in physical activity levels:

Older adults: 60% engage in adequate physical activity
Low-income individuals: 59% are sufficiently active
Unemployed or non-working individuals: 46.5% are active
Women: 40% engage in adequate physical activity
Children: Only 20% are active enough meaning four in five children lack sufficient activity, impacting their long-term learning

As per the 2022 World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines, physical activity that increases the heart rate and induces fatigue should be age-appropriate. For children, it means they should be active for at least 60 minutes daily. However, studies show that Thai children are not active enough, spending long periods in school or on screens at home.

Research shows that engaging in physical activity encourages development across all age groups. For children, it promotes social intelligence, emotional resilience, age-appropriate skills, learning capacity and obesity prevention.

Piyawat shared findings from the “Smart Play School” project, which tracked students in grades 4 to 6. It found that physical activity promotes development in five key areas:

Physical: Improves muscle strength, bone health, joint flexibility and movement
Emotional/Social: Boosts adaptability, self-esteem, and happiness
Communication/Life Skills: Collaboration, problem-solving abilities and self-confidence
Cognitive: Aids systematic thinking and cognitive growth
Academic: Improves learning outcomes and academic achievement

“To parents who worry that playtime could affect academic performance, research shows that children who engage in 60 minutes of daily physical activity perform better academically,” Piyawat said.

Sedentary behaviour has steadily increased in Thailand, with the average daily sitting time rising from 13.29 hours in 2012 to 14.33 hours in 2023.

“If you compare this to a journey on Google Maps, it’s like sitting in a car from Bangkok to Yala’s Raman district daily,” he said.

Prolonged sitting has a very serious impact on health. Sitting more than seven hours daily raises the risk of depression by 47%, while sitting for over two hours consecutively raises the risk for certain cancers:

Uterine cancer by 10%
Colon cancer by 8%
Lung cancer by 6%

Chronic sedentary behaviour also doubles the risk of diabetes and increases cardiovascular disease risk by 147% for those sitting over 10 hours daily. Sitting for more than 90 minutes at a time can double the risk of mortality.