The influence of physical activity on health of the population

Physical activity is essential for maintaining a satisfactory level of health. It is an integral and complex part of human behavior. The human body is built for activity, and it needs physical activity to function properly. The essential objective of this paper is to study the correlative connection of physical activity and the health of the nation, namely the forms and intensity of physical activity of the population of Serbia. The research was conducted by the method of an inquiry, where the results of an extensive research, conducted by the Public Health Institute of Serbia in the years 2000 and 2006 and including the territories of the Province of Vojvodina and central Serbia, were used. The results have shown that the subjects spend their spare time working in and around the house (26.1%), watching television (23.2%), occupying themselves with children (16.5%), etc. A very small percentage goes in for sport and recreation (less than 1%) or walking. Only 46% of employees walk to and back from work, their work itself being mainly light, or hard or semi-hard in 42.4% of the workers tested. The physical activity of Serbia's population is very poor. The subjects themselves rated their physical activity as poor or very poor in 31.4% of cases. Significantly, only 15.2% of the subjects believe that physical activity is good for the preservation of health. This type of physical activity reflects itself in the nation's morbidity rate. Some kind of a chronic disease was diagnosed in 16.3% of the subjects in the past year. The most common con­ditions found were high blood pressure (19.9%), rheumatism of joints (15.4%), heart failure (10.8%) and angina pectoris - in other words, the diseases the occurrence of which is significantly affected by physical inactivity. A general conclusion presents itself from the above, that the physical activity of the population of Serbia is inadequate, and the awareness of its importance for the health is very low.