| By Nancy Hellmich, USA TODAY
More people in this country say they're walking regularly, a new government survey shows. But less than half of people say they are meeting the federal government's physical activity guidelines.
About 62% of adults in 2010 said they walked at least once for 10 minutes or more in the past seven days, up from 56% in 2005. That means about 145 million people walk at least a little either for fun, relaxation, exercise or to get to places, an increase of 15 million people from 2005.
The findings are based on interviews with almost 45,500 people in the National Health Interview Surveys. Activity levels are self-reported.
"The basic news today is that physical activity is the wonder drug, and more Americans are making a great first step in getting more physical activity," says Thomas Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "Walking is the easiest, most accessible way" to be more active, he says.
The South, which has the highest obesity rate, also had the highest percentage increase the number of people who report walking, Frieden says.
"We hypothesize that new walkers appear to be starting with short bouts of walking, so overall the average time people spent walking has gone down slightly," says Joan Dorn, chief of CDC's Physical Activity and Health Branch. The average amount of time people reported that they spent walking decreased from 15 minutes a day, or roughly 105.5 minutes a week in 2005, to 13 minutes a day or roughly 91 minutes a week in 2010.
This study is "good news but there's still a lot of room for improvement because half of adults aren't getting enough physical activity to get the health benefits," Dorn says. "We need better spaces and more places to make physical activity the easy choice."
The overall increase in the number of people walking is "encouraging," says Tim Church, director of preventive medicine research at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge. "At least it's a move in the right direction."
About 48% of people in 2010 said they were meeting the government's physical activity guidelines, up from 42% in 2005. About a third of people report being inactive.
The current government recommendation is adults should get at least 2½ hours (150 minutes) of moderate-intensity aerobic physical activity each week, such as brisk walking (fast enough that you get a little winded), or 1¼ hours (75 minutes) of a vigorous-intensity aerobic activity, such as jogging or swimming laps, or a combination of the two types, to get the most health benefits from exercise. This activity should be done in at least 10-minute bouts.
Walking is the most popular form of physical activity among adults in the USA, and the most frequently reported activity among adults who meet the physical activity guidelines, the CDC report says.
"Walkers were nearly three times more likely to meet the (physical activity) guidelines than non-walkers," Frieden says. "Walking is possible for just about everyone.
"There is no single drug that can do anything like what regular physical activity does. That's why it is the wonder drug," he says.
Physical activity "makes you healthier and happier. It makes you live longer," he says.
It also helps control weight and reduces the risk of heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, depression and some types of cancer and a host of other conditions. It lowers the risk of cognitive decline and hip fractures, Frieden says.
Exactly how many people actually meet the government's physical activity guidelines varies depending on the research method used.
Researchers with the National Cancer Institute found that less than 5% of adults in the USA met the recommendation to get at least 30 minutes a day of moderate-intensity physical activity in bouts of at least 10 minutes.
For the NCI study, activity was measured with accelerometry, the use of motion sensors to objectively measure overall body movement.
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