DOCTORS are calling for the physical inactivity "pandemic" to be given equal priority to smoking and alcohol abuse in Scotland.

 

Patients need to be pressed on exercising when they visit their GPs or attend a hospital consultation in the same way people are quizzed about how much they smoke or drink.

A leading medical body representing 11,000 doctors and surgeons argues the change is necessary to cut the 2,500 deaths every year in Scotland linked to people simply not exercising enough.

The new report from the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow says patients should be advised on how and why they might want to become more active.

After the success of the smoking ban and with alcohol consumption falling, RCPSG says healthcare professionals should now make sedentary Scots aware that their behaviour places them at greater risk of illness.

Meanwhile, health boards should encourage staff to be more active themselves, by providing doctors and nurses with running and walking routes, challenging them to exercise and offering showers.

One leading medical journal has estimated that physical inactivity is a pandemic accounting for more than five million deaths around the world every year, equivalent to the number of deaths caused by smoking.

The report on global deaths through inactivity was published in the Lancet in 2012. But in Scotland alone Scotland's Chief Medical Officer says over 2,500 deaths per year are directly due to people being too sedentary, with an estimated cost to the economy of £660 million.

Dr Andrew Murray, clinical leadership fellow at the RCPSG, said: "The evidence of the benefits of regular physical activity is becoming stronger every year. Our clear message to patients is that regular physical activity is one of the best things you can do for your health.

"Any form of physical activity for example walking or cycling as part of the commute, or walking or sport in leisure time gets the happy hormones going, and helps prevent over 40 major diseases like type 2 diabetes, heart attacks and some types of cancer."

He said doctors needed to press patients more about their habits and encourage them to exercise more. "This is not happening routinely in our hospitals or GP surgeries and we are calling for that to change," he said.

While worldwide levels of exercise and physical activity are falling, data from the recent Scottish Health Survey suggests Scotland is one of very few countries worldwide where physical activity levels are increasing in adults and children.

But Dr Frank Dunn CBE, president of the College, said more could be done to promote healthy exercise, with such messages currently falling far below the support giving to people who try to give up cigarettes.

"Increasing physical activity must be given equal priority to smoking cessation and addressing harmful use of alcohol," he said. "Small changes in a person's level of activity can significantly impact on their health - for example, we know that just 30 minutes of exercise daily can reduce early death by 30 per cent."

Since 2003, under the old Scottish Executive, GPs have been told it is a 'priority' for all adults attending surgeries to be offered an assessment of the health risks associated with their level of inactivity. However there are no official guidelines, such as the SIGN guidelines on introducing alcohol consumption to any discussions with patients.

The RCPSG is calling for doctors to be encourage to do this more formally with exercise, for example by making it equal in value to smoking in the Scottish and UK Quality and Outcomes Framework.

Professor Hazel Scott, honorary secretary of the College, added: "All health professionals are busy, but just as we would help patients with high cholesterol, it is the right thing to do to help increase physical activity and it is cost-effective."

The report coincided with the publication of new research showing that avoiding physical inactivity was twice as effective as avoiding obesity in cutting premature mortality.

The study, which covered the effects of obesity and exercise on 334,161 European men and women over 12 years, found that those who avoided inactivity appeared to reduce their risk of death from any cause by 7.35 per cent and those who kept their BMI below obesity levels lowered their risk of death by 3.66 per cent.

The team from the MRC Epidemiology Unit at Cambridge University, whose work is published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, also showed that moderate daily exercise such as a 20-minute walk made someone 16-30 per cent less likely to die than an equivalent inactive person.