The Turkish Health Ministry has launched a nationwide initiative aimed at tackling rising obesity rates and sedentary lifestyles by introducing a “movement age” assessment for citizens.
The campaign, titled “Know Your Movement Age, Live Healthy,” offers free physical fitness screenings across the country to evaluate how old the body performs in terms of strength, balance, and functional capacity.
The program determines an individual’s movement age through a set of standardized tests conducted mainly by physiotherapists.
These include a hand grip dynamometer test to measure overall muscle strength, a 30-second sit-to-stand test to assess lower body function and endurance and balance evaluations designed to gauge stability and coordination.
Together, the results provide an estimate of a person’s physical condition compared to age-based norms.
Health Minister Kemal Memişoğlu launched the initiative in the capital Ankara on June 11, emphasizing that excess weight, physical inactivity and addiction are among the most serious public health risks facing the country.
As part of the campaign’s outreach, temporary “Health Streets” and mobile testing stations have been set up by provincial health directorates in public spaces, allowing public to undergo the assessments free of charge.
During the launch event, Memişoğlu himself participated in the screenings. He later joined a bicycle ride and played basketball with citizens to highlight the importance of regular physical activity.
Participants who complete the assessments are informed of their movement age and, if necessary, are referred to Healthy Life Centers for personalized physical activity counseling and exercise programs.
Recent data from the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK), released on June 2, underscored the urgency of the initiative. The findings showed that 86.6 percent of the population remains physically inactive, while obesity rates continue to climb. The share of obese individuals aged 15 and over rose from 20.2 percent in 2022 to 21.8 percent in 2025.
A similar large-scale public health screening campaign conducted last year measured the height and weight of more than 10 million people across all 81 provinces.
