Six out of 10 Filipinos do not engage in any regular physical activity, yet most of them remain optimistic about their overall health, a Sun Life report has shown.
The Philippines tops the list of countries in the region where people don’t exercise regularly, with the country tied with Thailand and Malaysia in the first spot, as 61 percent of the population in each of the three countries are not involved in any kind of regular exercise, Malaya quoted this year’s Sun Life Financial Asia Health Index, a study of health trends in Asia.
More than half of Filipinos who failed to exercise regularly, or 57 percent, blamed it on their lack of time due to work. Forty-seven percent also cited lack of personal motivation, while the same share of respondents likewise identified “distractions of modern life,” the report said.
Other key barriers to living a healthy life were cost and the lack of accessible venues to engage in sports and recreation.
The research is based on the findings of an Ipsos survey conducted in August 2016, with a sample size of around 4,000 Asians from 25 to 60 years of age.
The survey respondents from Mainland China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam, were from the middle class and were interviewed online, said the news portal.
The report however showed that Filipinos are still very positive about the state of their health, with the Philippines scoring the highest of all markets surveyed on the overall Health Index, garnering a score of 89.
Respondents from the Philippines were the most positive in Asia about their emotional health, with Filipinos the most likely in the region to say that their emotional health is good or extremely good, while the country is the second most positive, just behind Indonesia, when it comes to physical health, reported Malaya.
