The National Association ‘Densaulyk’ and the Center for Social and Political Research ‘Strategiya’ surveyed the population about their lifestyle and came to surprising conclusions.

Kazakhstan has been implementing a health harm reduction strategy on its territory for several years, adopted by the WHO, as part of the prevention of non-infectious diseases.

The main principle is not to restrict or prohibit the consumption of unhealthy products but to help reduce their consumption to safe levels. There are various non-governmental organizations and even structures affiliated with the Ministry of Health, such as centers for the formation of the healthy lifestyle, which spend millions of budget funds on promoting the said healthy lifestyle. We have requested precise figures from the Ministry of Health and will tell you more later, comparing them with the data from the non-governmental research.

Give Money for Health

So, of course, sociologists are interested to know: how effective are the efforts of the state and various non-governmental structures in the fight for healthy habits among the population? This summer, the association headed by the well-known public figure and doctor Bakhyt Tumenova ‘Densaulyk’ and the NGO ‘Strategiya’ led by Gulmira Ileuova conducted a survey of 2.5 thousand adult Kazakhstanis from different ethnic, social, and age groups across all regions of the country, asking what people eat and consume in general, how they relate to sports, and the state policy in the field of forming a healthy lifestyle.

— The average monthly income per capita and employment are very important indicators to understand whether a person can afford to maintain a healthy lifestyle, which includes, among other things, a balanced, and in our conditions, expensive diet. 52.7% of the respondents have an average income per family member of up to 70 and from 70 to 150 thousand tenge. These are very low-income groups. Most often, these people only have enough money for buying food, clothes, and shoes, — commented Gulmira Ileuova on the results of the study.

According to the head of the «Strategiya» center, two-thirds of the respondents they surveyed were fully or partially employed, while 30.6% identified themselves as not working.

«Not working includes not only the unemployed, who make up 10%, but also retirees, students, and housewives. By the way, the number of housewives is increasing year by year. According to some surveys, their number has already reached 11-12%. This is a lot, considering that we started with figures three times lower than the current ones in 2004,» the expert noted.

These are very symbolic data, given that healthy eating and lifestyle in general imply serious expenses for buying food and engaging in active sports. As we can see, at least a third of Kazakhstan’s population cannot afford this due to lack of funds.

«At the same time, 75% of the respondents said that they consider their lifestyle to be relatively healthy, 24% — relatively unhealthy. In the age group from 18 to 21 years, 89% of those surveyed consider their lifestyle to be relatively healthy, while people over 60 — only just over half. But I think this is more not about the lifestyle, but about the health itself, because with age people have more expenses to maintain their health. Obviously, the younger a person is, the less attention they pay to their ailments,» said Gulmira Ileuova.

Oh, Sport, Where Are Thee?

Why don’t Kazakhstani people lead a healthy lifestyle? The answer is surprising — more than half of the people named the lack of time for sports as the main obstacle.

«In 2012, we conducted a survey on a similar topic. True, then we surveyed 10,000 people. So, 60% at that time said that it was difficult to find time for sports. But, perhaps, some other reason, including the lack of funds, is hidden behind this answer. Only respondents in the youngest age group from 18 to 21 years named the true reasons — the lack of access to social sports infrastructure and in the group of respondents over 61 years old — almost a complete lack of access to inexpensive and healthy food products. I think that in these two reasons lies the truth of the inability to maintain a healthy lifestyle,» the expert noted.

The study showed that 70% of those surveyed by «Strategiya» have never gone swimming, 70% have never visited fitness centers, 56% do not engage in active sports involving running. Only 44% confirmed that they walk in the fresh air once a week or more often. «I looked at the 2012 study. If then 11% of our respondents were engaged in fitness, then in 2023 — also 11%. Surprisingly, the figure has not moved. However, now only 4% are involved in swimming, whereas in 2012 there were twice as many, that is, the accessibility of swimming pools for people is extremely low,» commented Ileuova on the data.

The More Harmful, The Tastier

The consumption of unhealthy food, which has long prevailed in the nutritional preferences of Kazakhstanis who cannot imagine life without meat, sweet tea, and bakery products, the survey only confirms — people are not yet ready to change their lifestyle.

«48% of respondents consume fatty food several times a week. Among Kazakh respondents, this percentage exceeds 70%. Sweet baked goods and confectionery products are consumed daily by 14% of people, and several times a week by 31%. As a result, almost 50% consume sweet products,» says the head of “Strategiya”.

As for unhealthy habits, the situation in Kazakhstan is not as good as one would like. Only half of the respondents admitted that they do not consume alcohol. The data fully coincide with the 2012 study. Over 10 years, one generation has already changed, but the number of people who consume alcohol quite intensively remains high. Men smoke more often than women — 48% against 10%. Every fifth Kazakhstani man and every tenth Kazakhstani woman has experience with smoking cigarettes. 32% of men and 80% of women have no experience of smoking.

«As for the consumption of fast food, there are also interesting conclusions. 27% of respondents consume it at least once a week. Not such a high prevalence, to be honest. We had a hypothesis that this figure would be higher. 26% do not have fast food in their diet at all, but we know that about 42% of our sample are rural residents, where there is simply no access to such types of products. Interest in fast food is higher in the city.»

The Center’s study is comprehensive, containing several scopes of research, including tasks for the government and the most acceptable methods of promoting a healthy lifestyle for respondents. The figures above indicate that, despite various state programs, the trends towards a healthy lifestyle among Kazakhstanis are not changing. Therefore, we will soon present data on how much money has been spent so that the state continues to mark time on this issue.