istat | MY SPECIAL DOCTOR

Doing sports is very good for your health, yet in Italy the attitude to practice a ‘sporting activity has decreased. According to Istat data, only 1 in 4 Italians play sports; in fact, 38 percent of people said they had no time or desire to engage in physical activity. According to the Ministry of Health, this decline is due to the development of automation and disdain for manual labor, but probably also to the lack of green areas and safety spaces for cyclists.

Children and the elderly play more sports

They are the young between the ages of 6 and 17 those to practice more sports, while as for the later age groups, 16 percent of 20-24 year olds and 13.2 percent of 25-34 year olds do so occasionally. Then there is a large segment of the Italian population, the age group between 40 and 60 years old, that does not want to go to the gym at all. It may sound strange, but the older you get the more you tend to play a sport, in fact from what the Istat analysis reveals, it is between the ages of 60 and 74 that people play a sport the most, and then it decreases significantly from the age of 75.

Lack of physical activity goes a long way in affecting people’s health, as our bodies need movement so as to decrease the risk of certain diseases.

What are the benefits of sports?

Playing sports has some health benefits:

Prevents hypercholesterolemia and hypertension;
Reduces the risk of developing heart disease: with daily physical activity, the heart becomes more robust and resistant to fatigue;
Reduces symptoms of anxiety and depression;
Prevents and reduces osteoporosis;
It reduces the risk of premature death;
Improves glucose tolerance;
It reduces the risk of obesity.

If you don’t have time to go to the gym, just moving for 30 minutes a day will be enough to prevent our body from being affected. The sedentariness, in fact, is the worst enemy to health. According to the World Health Organization Physical activity is defined as. “any exertion exerted by the musculoskeletal system that results in energy consumption greater than that under resting conditions.”.

So there are many ways to get moving without even realizing it: preferring the stairs to the ‘elevator, taking a walk in the park, walking home from work, or moving by bicycle are all ways to get physical activity and reduce the risks of disease, obesity, and anxiety.

According to a study by Istat, depression is the most prevalent mental disorder in Italy, where it affects 2.8 million people. The disease is increasingly on the rise, especially among the
elderly
given that among the over-65s this figure soars (11.6 percent versus the European average of 8.8 percent). Despite this, Italy still remains one of the EU countries with fewer depressed people (5.5 percent Italian average vs. 7.1 percent European average).

Depression affects women and the unemployed more : when looking at the data by gender, the percentage of female depression is almost double that of men (9.1 percent versus 4.8 percent). Regarding work, among people aged 35 to 64, those who report suffering from anxiety and depressive disorders are 8.9 percent of the unemployed, while the rate increases among the inactive (10.8 percent) and plummets with the employed (3.5 percent). The analysis was carried out by Istat in the report “Mental health at various stages of life – years 2015-2017” where, however, another very disturbing fact is highlighted: pupils with disabilities in Italian schools are steadily increasing, especially those with mental health disorders who have now exceeded the 170,000 mark. In the 2016-2017 school year alone, the analysis states that “pupils with disabilities account for about 3 percent of pupils in schools of all grades, and those with intellectual disabilities account for 2 out of every 3 pupils with disabilities.” Out of 100 pupils who are granted support, 8.8 percent have various sensory disabilities, 11.6 percent have motor disabilities, and 19.4 percent have language disorders, although the dominant share are intellectual disabilities: 23.9 percent have a global psychological developmental disorder, 45.4 percent have an intellectual disability, and 17.3 percent suffer from behavior and attention disorders, and finally 16.5 percent have affective-relational disorders.

Another factor that Istat has paid attention to is drug addiction, which is reported as a “major manifestation of mental sphere disorder.” In 2016 alone, “hospitalizations for drug-related diagnoses are 108 per million residents, 10 percent higher than in 2015, and increasing in the last three years especially among 15-34 year olds.”