Levels of physical activity in Singapore fell during the COVID-19 pandemic, but more people were willing to seek help for mental health, the Ministry of Health’s (MOH) latest survey showed. The National Population Health Survey 2021 findings released on Tuesday (Dec 20) tracks the health and risk factors of Singapore residents aged 18 to 74, using self-reported data from household interviews.
The survey period was from July 2020 to June 2021, which spanned the country’s Phase 2 and Phase 3 reopening from the “circuit breaker”, with some COVID-19 safe management measures still in place. The most recent comparable data is from the 2019 edition of the survey. The 2020 survey incorporates additional data from health examinations, which is only included every two years.
The latest survey found that 71.1 per cent of residents had sufficient physical activity, defined as at least 150 minutes of moderate intensity physical activity in a week. This was a significant decrease from 80.1 per cent in 2019, said MOH.
Commuting was the largest contributor to total physical activity, at 47 per cent. The remainder was split almost evenly between work-related physical activity, including household chores, and leisure-time activity such as sports, exercise and recreation.
The survey found that 32.5 per cent of residents engaged in regular exercise during their leisure time in 2021, which was a slight decline of 2.7 percentage points from 2019.
