Women urged to get active

Women need to do more exercise to benefit their health, campaigners claimed today after a survey revealed worrying trends in attitudes to health and exercise.

Commissioned by the Women’s Sport and Fitness Foundation (WSFF), the poll found that more than 80 per cent of women are not doing enough exercise.

Instead the emphasis was on being thin rather than being healthy, participants claimed.

Females were found to be half as active as men in the 16 to 24 age group and the lack of exercise was most prominent in women with low incomes and from minority ethnic groups.

The WSFF claims the findings show that government targets of getting two million more people active by 2012 are in jeopardy.

If current trends continue, it adds, there will be 1.25 million fewer women exercising in five years time when London hosts the 2012 Olympics.

“There has been almost no change in the level of women’s physical activity in the UK for the past 20 years and the forecasts show that the situation is getting worse,” said WSFF chief executive Sue Tibballs.

“We are facing a real crisis in women’s sport and fitness which will result in increasing obesity levels, physical and mental health issues and crime and social problems.”