This Series on physical activity is not about sport and it is about more than just exercise. It is about the relationship between human beings and their environment, and about improving human wellbeing by strengthening that relationship. It is not about running on a treadmill, whilst staring at a mirror and listening to your iPod. It is about using the body that we have in the way it was designed, which is to walk often, run sometimes, and move in ways where we physically exert ourselves regularly whether that is at work, at home, in transport to and from places, or during leisure time in our daily lives. Chariots of friesIn The Lancet today, we are publishing a five-paper Series about physical inactivity. The publication comes a week before the 2012 Olympic Games begin in London. The Games should encourage physical activity, promote healthy living, and inspire the next generation to exercise. However, marring this healthy vision has been the choice of junk food and drink giants—McDonald's, Coca-Cola, and Cadbury's—as major sponsors of the event. Full-Text PDF Effect of physical inactivity on major non-communicable diseases worldwide: an analysis of burden of disease and life expectancyPhysical inactivity has a major health effect worldwide. Decrease in or removal of this unhealthy behaviour could improve health substantially. Full-Text PDF Global physical activity levels: surveillance progress, pitfalls, and prospectsTo implement effective non-communicable disease prevention programmes, policy makers need data for physical activity levels and trends. In this report, we describe physical activity levels worldwide with data for adults (15 years or older) from 122 countries and for adolescents (13–15-years-old) from 105 countries. Worldwide, 31·1% (95% CI 30·9–31·2) of adults are physically inactive, with proportions ranging from 17·0% (16·8–17·2) in southeast Asia to about 43% in the Americas and the eastern Mediterranean. Full-Text PDF Correlates of physical activity: why are some people physically active and others not?Physical inactivity is an important contributor to non-communicable diseases in countries of high income, and increasingly so in those of low and middle income. Understanding why people are physically active or inactive contributes to evidence-based planning of public health interventions, because effective programmes will target factors known to cause inactivity. Research into correlates (factors associated with activity) or determinants (those with a causal relationship) has burgeoned in the past two decades, but has mostly focused on individual-level factors in high-income countries. Full-Text PDF Evidence-based intervention in physical activity: lessons from around the worldPromotion of physical activity is a priority for health agencies. We searched for reviews of physical activity interventions, published between 2000 and 2011, and identified effective, promising, or emerging interventions from around the world. The informational approaches of community-wide and mass media campaigns, and short physical activity messages targeting key community sites are recommended. Behavioural and social approaches are effective, introducing social support for physical activity within communities and worksites, and school-based strategies that encompass physical education, classroom activities, after-school sports, and active transport. Full-Text PDF The implications of megatrends in information and communication technology and transportation for changes in global physical activityPhysical inactivity accounts for more than 3 million deaths per year, most from non-communicable diseases in low-income and middle-income countries. We used reviews of physical activity interventions and a simulation model to examine how megatrends in information and communication technology and transportation directly and indirectly affect levels of physical activity across countries of low, middle, and high income. The model suggested that the direct and potentiating effects of information and communication technology, especially mobile phones, are nearly equal in magnitude to the mean effects of planned physical activity interventions. Full-Text PDF The pandemic of physical inactivity: global action for public healthPhysical inactivity is the fourth leading cause of death worldwide. We summarise present global efforts to counteract this problem and point the way forward to address the pandemic of physical inactivity. Although evidence for the benefits of physical activity for health has been available since the 1950s, promotion to improve the health of populations has lagged in relation to the available evidence and has only recently developed an identifiable infrastructure, including efforts in planning, policy, leadership and advocacy, workforce training and development, and monitoring and surveillance. Full-Text PDF
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Jan 1, 2013
Toshio Yamazaki + 4
Open Access
