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‘33 pct. of adults didn’t engage in physical activity for a month
The newly formed Physical Activity Council emphasized Tuesday the importance of physical activity during a presentation to the Rotary Club of Saipan by noting that a chunk of adults didn’t engage in any physical activity in over a month.
Council chair Samantha Birmingham-Babauta noted in her presentation that, according to the CNMI non-communicable diseases and risk factor hybrid survey report of 2016, 33 percent of adults self-reported not having participated in physical activity or exercise during the past month.
Babauta said the council wants to increase participation in exercise from 67 percent to 77 percent by 2021.
The council hopes to achieve this through two ways: Using a logo that will market physical activity as a fun event and creating an internship program for high school or middle school students that will teach students to lead elementary school kids in physical activities.
“Engaging in physical activity, especially if you [live] a sedentary lifestyle has…benefits [such as] lowering your blood pressure; cholesterol levels; reducing body fat percentages all while increasing lean muscle mass,” Birmingham-Babauta noted. “We have high obesity rates in the islands and we have high rates of type II diabetes, which is…linked to poor diet and the lack of exercise.”
