Implementing Strategies to Enhance Public Health Surveillance of Physical Activity in the United States
Implementing Strategies to Enhance Public Health Surveillance of Physical Activity in the United States

Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2019-07-19

Total Pages: 197

ISBN-13: 0309492688

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Physical activity has far-reaching benefits for physical, mental, emotional, and social health and well-being for all segments of the population. Despite these documented health benefits and previous efforts to promote physical activity in the U.S. population, most Americans do not meet current public health guidelines for physical activity. Surveillance in public health is the ongoing systematic collection, analysis, and interpretation of outcome-specific data, which can then be used for planning, implementation and evaluation of public health practice. Surveillance of physical activity is a core public health function that is necessary for monitoring population engagement in physical activity, including participation in physical activity initiatives. Surveillance activities are guided by standard protocols and are used to establish baseline data and to track implementation and evaluation of interventions, programs, and policies that aim to increase physical activity. However, physical activity is challenging to assess because it is a complex and multidimensional behavior that varies by type, intensity, setting, motives, and environmental and social influences. The lack of surveillance systems to assess both physical activity behaviors (including walking) and physical activity environments (such as the walkability of communities) is a critical gap. Implementing Strategies to Enhance Public Health Surveillance of Physical Activity in the United States develops strategies that support the implementation of recommended actions to improve national physical activity surveillance. This report also examines and builds upon existing recommended actions.

Educating the Student Body
Educating the Student Body

Author: Committee on Physical Activity and Physical Education in the School Environment

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2013-11-13

Total Pages: 503

ISBN-13: 0309283140

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Physical inactivity is a key determinant of health across the lifespan. A lack of activity increases the risk of heart disease, colon and breast cancer, diabetes mellitus, hypertension, osteoporosis, anxiety and depression and others diseases. Emerging literature has suggested that in terms of mortality, the global population health burden of physical inactivity approaches that of cigarette smoking. The prevalence and substantial disease risk associated with physical inactivity has been described as a pandemic. The prevalence, health impact, and evidence of changeability all have resulted in calls for action to increase physical activity across the lifespan. In response to the need to find ways to make physical activity a health priority for youth, the Institute of Medicine's Committee on Physical Activity and Physical Education in the School Environment was formed. Its purpose was to review the current status of physical activity and physical education in the school environment, including before, during, and after school, and examine the influences of physical activity and physical education on the short and long term physical, cognitive and brain, and psychosocial health and development of children and adolescents. Educating the Student Body makes recommendations about approaches for strengthening and improving programs and policies for physical activity and physical education in the school environment. This report lays out a set of guiding principles to guide its work on these tasks. These included: recognizing the benefits of instilling life-long physical activity habits in children; the value of using systems thinking in improving physical activity and physical education in the school environment; the recognition of current disparities in opportunities and the need to achieve equity in physical activity and physical education; the importance of considering all types of school environments; the need to take into consideration the diversity of students as recommendations are developed. This report will be of interest to local and national policymakers, school officials, teachers, and the education community, researchers, professional organizations, and parents interested in physical activity, physical education, and health for school-aged children and adolescents.

Health Promotion in Children and Adolescents through Sport and Physical Activities
Health Promotion in Children and Adolescents through Sport and Physical Activities

Author: Antonino Bianco

Publisher: MDPI

Published: 2019-05-10

Total Pages: 158

ISBN-13: 3038978868

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I made the important decision to manage a Special Issue, because I believe it to be extremely important to focus on children’s and adolescents’ physiological and psychological development. I aimed to collect research that investigates the role of physical activity and sport on physical and mental well-being, with a particular focus on practical implications, innovation, tools, and technique. This Special Issue, “Health Promotion in Children and Adolescents through Sport and Physical Activities” addresses pediatric exercise science as a key scientific discipline able to help future generations live longer and better. It is already clear that sedentariness and a low level of muscular strength and power significantly affects cognitive functions and daily relations, but it is interesting to understand the key determinants and how we can help practitioners better manage these concerns in their patients. Authors were invited to submit letters, original research papers, case studies, meta-analyses, and systematic reviews.

Global Action Plan on Physical Activity 2018-2030
Global Action Plan on Physical Activity 2018-2030

Author: World Health Organization

Publisher: World Health Organization

Published: 2019-01-21

Total Pages: 104

ISBN-13: 9241514183

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Regular physical activity is proven to help prevent and treat noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) such as heart disease stroke diabetes and breast and colon cancer. It also helps to prevent hypertension overweight and obesity and can improve mental health quality of life and well-being. In addition to the multiple health benefits of physical activity societies that are more active can generate additional returns on investment including a reduced use of fossil fuels cleaner air and less congested safer roads. These outcomes are interconnected with achieving the shared goals political priorities and ambition of the Sustainable Development Agenda 2030. The new WHO global action plan to promote physical activity responds to the requests by countries for updated guidance and a framework of effective and feasible policy actions to increase physical activity at all levels. It also responds to requests for global leadership and stronger regional and national coordination and the need for a whole-of-society response to achieve a paradigm shift in both supporting and valuing all people being regularly active according to ability and across the life course. The action plan was developed through a worldwide consultation process involving governments and key stakeholders across multiple sectors including health sports transport urban design civil society academia and the private sector.

Legal Strategies in Childhood Obesity Prevention
Legal Strategies in Childhood Obesity Prevention

Author: Institute of Medicine

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2011-08-08

Total Pages: 104

ISBN-13: 0309210224

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Since 1980, childhood obesity rates have more than tripled in the United States. Recent data show that almost one-third of children over 2 years of age are already overweight or obese. While the prevalence of childhood obesity appears to have plateaued in recent years, the magnitude of the problem remains unsustainably high and represents an enormous public health concern. All options for addressing the childhood obesity epidemic must therefore be explored. In the United States, legal approaches have successfully reduced other threats to public health, such as the lack of passive restraints in automobiles and the use of tobacco. The question then arises of whether laws, regulations, and litigation can likewise be used to change practices and policies that contribute to obesity. On October 21, 2010, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) held a workshop to bring together stakeholders to discuss the current and future legal strategies aimed at combating childhood obesity. Legal Strategies in Childhood Obesity Prevention summarizes the proceedings of that workshop. The report examines the challenges involved in implementing public health initiatives by using legal strategies to elicit change. It also discusses circumstances in which legal strategies are needed and effective. This workshop was created only to explore the boundaries of potential legal approaches to address childhood obesity, and therefore, does not contain recommendations for the use of such approaches.

Exercise and Diabetes
Exercise and Diabetes

Author: Sheri R. Colberg

Publisher: American Diabetes Association

Published: 2013-05-30

Total Pages: 554

ISBN-13: 158040507X

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Physical movement has a positive effect on physical fitness, morbidity, and mortality in individuals with diabetes. Although exercise has long been considered a cornerstone of diabetes management, many health care providers fail to prescribe it. In addition, many fitness professionals may be unaware of the complexities of including physical activity in the management of diabetes. Giving patients or clients a full exercise prescription that take other chronic conditions commonly accompanying diabetes into account may be too time-consuming for or beyond the expertise of many health care and fitness professionals. The purpose of this book is to cover the recommended types and quantities of physical activities that can and should be undertaken by all individuals with any type of diabetes, along with precautions related to medication use and diabetes-related health complications. Medications used to control diabetes should augment lifestyle improvements like increased daily physical activity rather than replace them. Up until now, professional books with exercise information and prescriptions were not timely or interactive enough to easily provide busy professionals with access to the latest recommendations for each unique patient. However, simply instructing patients to “exercise more” is frequently not motivating or informative enough to get them regularly or safely active. This book is changing all that with its up-to-date and easy-to-prescribe exercise and physical activity recommendations and relevant case studies. Read and learn to quickly prescribe effective and appropriate exercise to everyone.

Fitness Measures and Health Outcomes in Youth
Fitness Measures and Health Outcomes in Youth

Author: Institute of Medicine

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2012-12-10

Total Pages: 229

ISBN-13: 0309262879

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Physical fitness affects our ability to function and be active. At poor levels, it is associated with such health outcomes as diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Physical fitness testing in American youth was established on a large scale in the 1950s with an early focus on performance-related fitness that gradually gave way to an emphasis on health-related fitness. Using appropriately selected measures to collected fitness data in youth will advance our understanding of how fitness among youth translates into better health. In Fitness Measures and Health Outcomes in Youth, the IOM assesses the relationship between youth fitness test items and health outcomes, recommends the best fitness test items, provides guidance for interpreting fitness scores, and provides an agenda for needed research. The report concludes that selected cardiorespiratory endurance, musculoskeletal fitness, and body composition measures should be in fitness surveys and in schools. Collecting fitness data nationally and in schools helps with setting and achieving fitness goals and priorities for public health at an individual and national level.