20% of Pune suffers from diabetes and cholesterol, yet don’t walk reveals Max Bupa Walk for Health Survey/
Long office hours and exposure to pollution stops Pune from walking, reveals Max Bupa Walk for Health Survey
Key highlights of the survey:
- Most of Pune spends time sitting (35%)
- Shortage of time is the key barrier to exercise among most respondent groups (29%)
- Among those who exercise regularly, most are inclined towards natural forms of exercise like walking (65%) yoga (55%) and jogging (22%)
- 85% of Pune respondents agree that walking helps in lifestyle related diseases
Pune, February 11th, 2016: 35% of Pune doesn’t walk and spends time sitting reveals Max Bupa Walk for Health survey, a first of its kind study of over 1300 walkers across 4 cities, Delhi, Mumbai, Pune and Jaipur.
The survey revealed that long daily commute (23%) has emerged as the biggest barrier for Puneites to walk regularly. Other barriers which stops them from walking are – long office hours (20%), exposure to pollution (19%),no company to walk (16%) and busy with household chores – 13%. Interestingly, 13% of the respondents preferred dieting over a simple activity like walking.24% of males stated long office hours as the biggest deterrent to walking while 26% of females cited increasing level of pollution as the main reason to not walk.
It is evident from the survey that how Pune leads a very sedentary lifestyle as 35% spend their time sitting. Health profile reveals how the residents are suffering from multiple ailments like blood pressure 15%, diabetes 10%, cholesterol 10%, obesity 11%, back problems 11% and weak eye sight 16%.
The survey reiterates the multiple health benefits of a simple exercise like walking that Max Bupa has taken upon itself to drive across the country through its first of its kind health initiative, Max Bupa Walk for Health. The initiative aims to encourage people to integrate walking into their daily schedule. Buoyed by the participation of more than 60,000 people in the three editions of Max Bupa Walk for Health, the fourth edition of Max Bupa Walk for Health is a first of its kind four-city walk. Joining the cause and leading the walking movement are noted Indian Olympic Walkers, namely, Manish Rawat, Sandeep Kumar, Gurpreet Singh and Khushbir Kaur. With the support of these noted Olympians, Max Bupa aims to successfully mobilized 30,000 families across various cities, towns and villages to walk more, and drive awareness about the innumerable health benefits of walking among Indians.
Ashish Mehrotra, MD and Chief Executive Officer, Max Bupa said, “Max Bupa Walk for Health Survey 2016 has revealed that Pune leads a very sedentary lifestyle and people spend 35% of their time sitting. It is a proven fact that Indians are genetically more prone to lifestyle and critical ailments like diabetes, heart diseases and cancer. Surprisingly, 78% of non-walkers agree that walking helps in lifestyle related illness but still don’t walk. Through this Max Bupa Walk for Health, we aim to create awareness among people that there is an impending need to take control of your health, given the increasing scourge of diseases, and include walking into their daily lives for better living.”
The survey highlighted multiple triggers which makes 65% of the Puneites walk for a healthy self. 38% of the respondent feel that walking is good for heart while 36% feel that walking helps in controlling weight. 28% feel that walking is good for lungs while 20% walk to feel good about themselves. Gender wise split revealed that 39% of females agree that walking helps lose weight as compared to 29% males. 30% of the females walk to stay young while 30% of males walk to stay energetic.
Going to the convenience store is a prominent reason among females to walk (58%), while 52% males walk while talking over phone. The survey also shows that Pune is quite tech savvy as 45% of the respondents use gadgets / applications while walking withrelatively higher usage of gadgets seen among menthan women.
About Max Bupa Health Insurance
Max Bupa is a joint venture between Max India Limited, a multi-business corporate with expertise in life insurance and health care and Bupa, a leading global health and care company with 65 years of healthcare knowledge. Max Bupa brings together a combination of Bupa’s health insurance and customer service expertise with Max India’s understanding and experience of the Indian health and insurance sectors. Max Bupa offers quality health insurance services through a dedicated team of over 1400 people and its network of 26 offices across 16 cities – Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai, Bangalore, Pune, Ludhiana, Chandigarh, Jaipur, Surat, Kochi, Kolkata, Patna, Goa and Jodhpur. Max Bupa offers individual and family oriented health insurance policies for Indians across all age groups. Max Bupa has a direct working relationship with a network of over 3500 top quality hospitals and healthcare providers, with plans to extend its network of hospitals to other parts of the country. Max Bupa services customers directly without third party involvement. For more details about the company and a list of all our network hospitals please visit www.maxbupa.com.
About Max Group
Max Group is a leading Indian multi-business corporate with a commanding presence in the Life Insurance, Healthcare and Health Insurance sectors. In the financial year 2015, the Group recorded a consolidated turnover of Rs 14,877 Cr. It has a total customer base of over 7.5 million, nearly 300 offices spread across India and people strength of around 17,000 as on 31st March 2015. Max India Limited is a widely held company, listed on the BSE and the NSE. Its founder sponsor Analjit Singh holds 40.5% stake in the company. Other shareholders include some of the world’s best Institutional Investors such as Goldman Sachs, Temasek, IFC (Washington), Fidelity and New York Life.
About Bupa
Bupa’s purpose is longer, healthier, happier lives.
As a leading global health and care company, we offer health insurance, medical subscription and other health and care funding products; we run care homes, retirement and care villages, primary care, diagnostic and wellness centres, hospitals and dental clinics. We also provide workplace health services, home healthcare, health assessments and long-term condition management services.
We have 29m customers in 190 countries. With no shareholders, we reinvest our profits to provide more and better healthcare and fulfil our purpose. We employ almost 80,000 people, principally in the UK, Australia, Spain, Poland, New Zealand and Chile, as well as Saudi Arabia, Hong Kong, India, Thailand and the USA.
