A new study by University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill researchers finds a global decline in activity levels and predicts a continuing rise in inactivity in countries around the world. When viewed in the context of physical activity levels throughout human evolution, the global decline in physical activity in just the past few decades is particularly abrupt.

The study, conducted by Barry Popkin, Ph.D., W.R. Kenan Jr. Distinguished Professor of nutrition, and Shu Wen Ng, Ph.D., research assistant professor of nutrition, both at UNC’s Gillings School of Global Public Health, used extensive data from the 1960s onward to determine how people around the world spend their time and how they move in the course of their daily lives. The resulting publication, “Time use and physical activity: a shift away from movement across the globe,” appeared online in Obesity Reviews (www.obesityreviews.net) Early View Section today and will be published in the August issue (Obesity Reviews Volume 13 Issue 8 August 2012). Obesity Reviews is an official journal of the International Association for the Study of Obesity (IASO; www.iaso.org)