Top Things to Know: Routine Assessment and Promotion of Physical Activity in Healthcare Settings
Published: April 04, 2018
- Physical inactivity is a major health risk factor with 8 in 10 US adults not meeting aerobic and muscle-strengthening guidelines.
- Improving and maintaining recommended levels of physical activity leads to reductions in metabolic, hemodynamic, functional, body composition and epigenetic risk factors for non-communicable chronic diseases NCDs.
- Inadequate physical activity has a substantial economic burden, recently quantified as 11% of the aggregated health care expenditures in the US or about $129 billion per year.
- Improving and maintaining recommended levels of PA leads to reductions in the metabolic, hemodynamic, body composition, epigenetic and functional status risk factors, which contribute heavily to the development of many leading NCDs.
- This paper discusses how physical inactivity is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease, and the economic burden of physical inactivity and how physical activity promotion can be cost-effective.
- This statement elucidates the evidence in support of routine PA assessment and promotion in health care settings.
- Recommendations for adding methods to capture PA information includes electronic medical records. This paper discusses two ways of capturing this information: via self-reports (example: questionnaires about PA) or via wearable devices (pedometers or accelerometers).
- This statement discusses the role of healthcare systems and providers in implementing PA promotion. Included in the list of providers is: physicians, physical therapists, nurses, and fitness professionals.
- It also discusses the barriers for routine integration of PA assessment and promotion in US clinical practice.
- This paper strongly encourages the routine assessment and then promotion of physical activity by health care settings and health care providers in an effort to decrease the epidemic of physical inactivity and to reduce the risk factors for NCDs.
Citation
Lobelo F, Young DR, Sallis R, Garber MD, Billinger SA, Duperly J, Hutber A, Pate RR, Thomas RJ, Widlansky ME, McConnell MV, Joy EA; on behalf of the American Heart Association Physical Activity Committee of the Council on Lifestyle and Cardiometabolic Health; Council on Epidemiology and Prevention; Council on Clinical Cardiology; Council on Functional Genomics and Translational Biology; Council on Cardiovascular Surgery and Anesthesia; and Stroke Council. Routine assessment and promotion of physical activity in healthcare settings: a scientific statement from the American Heart Association [published online ahead of print April 4, 2018]. Circulation. doi: 10.1161/CIR.0000000000000559.