Sleep beats healthy eating and exercise in people’s health routines

GfK asked consumers around the world what activities they regularly engage in to maintain their physical health – and getting enough sleep topped eating healthy food, exercising or taking vitamins.

GfK surveyed 23 countries and found that two-thirds of global consumers (66 percent) say that they regularly get enough sleep in order to maintain their physical health. This is more popular among global women (at 69 percent), compared to 63 percent of global men.

The next most popular activity is eating healthy, nutritious foods, with 59 percent of global consumers regularly doing this to maintain their physical health. In this case, women are even more strongly in the lead at 63 percent, compared to 56 percent of men.

Countries where top 3 activities are most popular

Looking at how prevalent these healthy behaviors are in individual countries, GfK’s survey indicates that Indonesia (85 percent), India (77 percent) and China (73 percent) are the top three countries where consumers habitually get enough sleep in order to maintain physical health.

India and Indonesia are also the two top markets where consumers regularly eat healthily to maintain their physical wellbeing, with 79 percent and 74 percent respectively – and they are followed by Mexico with 69 percent.

Differences between women and men

Other interesting findings revealed by GfK’s survey include the fact that global women are over two times more likely than global men to regularly use sunscreen in order to maintain physical health (42 percent vs.18 percent). Brazilian consumers are in the lead on sunscreen use at a national level (at 46 percent), followed by Canada and South Korea (both at 43 percent). Australia and Spain both trail at 42 percent.

Differences between parents and non-parents

The survey also revealed that there are differences between parents and non-parents in the top three activities for maintaining physical health. There is a slight difference in getting enough sleep (where parents lead by 2 percent) and exercise (where non-parents lead by 3 percent). But we see a more significant difference when it comes to eating healthy, nutritious foods. Here, parents lead over non-parents by 8 percent, presumably since this healthy measure can benefit the child as well as the parent.

Ranking: activities people around the world do regularly to maintain their physical health

Source: GfK survey among more than 28,000 consumers aged 15 or older in 23 countries – averages across all countries, multiple selections possible, figures are rounded.

For the survey, GfK interviewed more than 28,000 consumers aged 15 or older in 23 countries either online or face-to-face in summer 2014. The countries included are Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Poland, Russia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, UK, Ukraine and USA.