Be Active Your Way Blog - National Plan

Speaking Up for Physical Activity

rPate — Wed, 25 May 2011 09:50:00 -0400

In all likelihood, if you are reading this blog, you're already well aware of the myriad of benefits associated with being regularly physically active, and you likely meet or exceed federal physical activity guidelines. What you may be less aware of are the ways in which you can become a voice for physical activity promotion in your community, so that your neighbors, colleagues, and friends can also realize the benefits of being more active.

Maybe you've noticed that physical education is no longer required in your children's school, that there are unsafe sidewalks in your town, or no bike racks where you work, while others never give you thought to such issues. As an individual, what can you do? With May being National Physical Activity Month, you can use the National Physical Activity Plan (NPAP) to become a voice for change that echoes for months to come.

The NPAP is a document comprised of recommendations for changes in the environments in which we live, work, play, travel, and learn, such that they better support physical activity. Most of the recommendations made in the NPAP are written with policymakers in mind. Maybe as an employer, school board member, or parent, you are policymaker, with the ability to alter an environment so that it's easier for others to be more active. If so, the buck may start and stop with you. But maybe you're not a policymaker, what then? Then, you can become a voice for change, an informed advocate with the power to influence those in position to make change.

With recommendations from across a number of societal sectors - including Education; Parks, Recreation, Fitness and Sports; Business and Industry; and Transportation, Land Use, and Community Design - the NPAP is your roadmap for becoming an advocate at local, state, and even national levels.

For example, if you want to be a voice for more physical activity opportunities for youth in your community, approach the local school board or P.T.A. with the information from the Education sector, citing specific recommendations from the NPAP that call for community partnerships that will create such opportunities.

As another example, maybe you know that if there were just more bike lanes and sidewalks where you live, more people could safely walk to the store, or bike to work. Here, you can become an advocate for change at local and state levels by meeting with your elected officials or members of your state's Department of Transportation, armed with "real world" recommendations for change that have been proven effective.

There could not be a better way to celebrate National Physical Activity Month than to model healthy physical activity behavior, while also becoming an educated advocate for physical activity. So please use the Federal PA Guidelines to become or stay a model of healthy behavior, and use the NPAP to become a strong advocate for change to improve the lives of others.

How are you advocating for change?

Physical Activity in Healthy People 2020

SLier — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 11:58:00 -0400

Written by Janet Fulton, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

How were the physical activity objectives developed?

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in partnership with the President's Council on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition worked with a team of federal agency representatives to formulate the objectives for the physical activity topic area. The availability of recent and ongoing nationally-representative data were a necessary requirement for inclusion of an objective; public comments provided further guidance for the final objectives. The Healthy People 2020 default method (10% relative beneficial change) was most commonly used to set the target for each objective.

What's new for Healthy People 2020?

The 2008 Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans provided an evidence-based framework by which the Healthy People 2020 physical activity behavioral objectives were revised. For adults and youth, objectives PA-2 and PA-3 are now consistent with the Guidelines. Because aerobic and muscle-strengthening activities are BOTH required to fully meet the Guidelines, sub-objectives for youth and adults that combine aerobic and muscle-strenghtening activities are now included.

School-based physical activity is reflected in modified objectives for physical education (PA-4 and PA-5) and in two new objectives for elementary school recess (PA-6 and PA-7). More than 60% of pre-school

children attend child care. Therefore, enacting policies that require physical activity in the child care setting (PA-9) is a strategy to modify the physical activity environment for children. Given the ubiquitous role screen time plays in society, the modified objective for youth to reduce screen time through telelvision viewing and computer use (PA-8) is an increasingly important goal.

A new objective for Healthy People 2020 (PA-11) will monitor physician counseling about exercise. Given the recent emphasis on physician counseling about physical activity by the American College of Sports Medicine's Exercise is Medicine program, it is timely that physical activity guidance in the health care setting is tracked at the national level.

Where do we go from here?

With less than 20% of adults meeting the Guidelines for aerobic and muscle strengthening activities and a similarly low percentage of youth meeting the Guidelines for aerobic physical activities, a multidisciplinary approach is needed to facilitate improvements in recommended levels of physical activity.

The importance of having reliable, nationally-representative data sources to track the metrics associated with physical activity cannot be overstated. Important and novel topics were discussed by the Work Group, only to learn that a suitable data source was unavailable. For example, improving the environment for physical activity is a recommended strategy, although there is no acceptable national data source that tracks individual access to green spaces or parks. The same is true for physical activity in the work place. It is imperative to continue support of current Healthy People 2020 data sources and to support future collection of strategic priority topic areas for physical activity promotion.

It is our hope that as these Healthy People objectives disseminate across states and into the schools, businesses, and organizations that make up our communities, there will be an interest in working across sectors to affect real change in physical activity behaviors. The National Physical Activity Plan provides an excellent multi-sectoral framework along with strategies and specific tactics for action. Time and again the health benefits of physical activity have been well documented. Let's work together to move the dial on physical activity this decade!

Achieving Population Changes in Physical Activity through Targeting Specific Settings

rPate — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 12:04:00 -0400

“One day, all Americans will be physically active and then will live, work, and play in environments that facilitate regular physical activity.” This is the stated vision of the US National Physical Activity Plan (NPAP), and it speaks to the importance of targeting specific settings. Success of the NPAP will come, in large part, as the result of local actions that target specific settings such as schools, workplaces, community streets, and parks. The NPAP is chock-full of Strategies and Tactics aimed at specific settings. Here are just a few examples of Strategies and Tactics taken directly from the NPAP that target such settings.

In targeting the workplace, the first strategy from the Business and Industry Sector aims to identify, summarize, and disseminate best practices, models, and evidence-based physical activity interventions in the workplace. Within this strategy are several, more specific tactics including: Recognize organizations that are examples of best practices; Recruit key business and industry leaders to play central roles in influencing their peers. Are there businesses that you are aware of that can serve as models of an active workplace for other employers?

Within the first strategy from the Parks, Recreation, Fitness and Sports sector there is an emphasis on local facilities providing access for all members of the population. One specific tactic is: Provide programs in parks, recreation, fitness, and sports that are appropriate for individuals of both genders, diverse cultures, abilities, developmental stages and needs and that have demonstrated positive physical activity outcomes. Do you know of programs that have demonstrated positive outcomes, meeting the needs of a diverse community?

Increasing physical activity through active transportation is a very attractive option on many levels. The NPAP has a sector devoted to this which includes the following tactic: Support and increase incentives for community projects to create safe and accessible active transportation networks, including not just roadways with pedestrian, bicycle, and transit accommodation, but also networks of greenways, trails, and multi-use pathways. How would you go about rallying support for such initiatives in your community?

Because of their broad reach, schools represent an ideal target environment for increasing physical activity in youth. Within the NPAP’s Education sector, there are many specific recommendations for doing just that. One such recommendation includes working with teachers through requiring pre-service and continuing education for physical education and elementary classroom teachers to deliver high-quality physical education and physical activity programs. As a concerned parent, school board member, or citizen, what steps are you taking to ensure regular physical activity for all students in your area?

Part of the process of evaluating the NPAP is documenting actions targeting specific settings. Based on the examples you see above, or any other of the NPAP’s strategies and tactics, please tell us what is happening in your area by going to http://www.physicalactivityplan.org/contact.php.

Can We Catch "Healthy Lifestyles" from Our Co-Workers?

TRichards — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 11:49:00 -0400

We know from research that obesity can spread through social networks like an infectious disease.

In fact, one model suggests that the rate of transmission has been steadily increasing and may result in an obesity rate that stabilizes at 42% of the population. Of course, research predicting a 42% obesity rate is troubling and alarming, but it also begs a very hopeful question for policymakers: can we start an epidemic of infectious healthy living?

The question has profound implications for wellness programming, particularly in the area of workplace wellness, where an individual can have long exposure to a static social network. For example, the Partnership for Prevention, in it's publication Leading by Example: The Value of Worksite Health Promotion to Small- and Medium-Sized Employers, challenges organizations to "[d]efine, create, and sustain a culture of health that supports your health promotion goals and values." By changing the culture of health, it is presumed, an organization can change the behavior of its social networks.

The Worksite Sector of the National Physical Activity Plan takes the idea one step further. The sector promotes the importance of creating not just a culture of health at the workplace, but also a supportive environment for physically active lifestyles. It's a somewhat novel argument, but one rapidly gaining acceptance in light of the health and economic benefits of exercise.

The Worksite Sector - co-chaired by the American Council on Exercise, the American Heart Association, and the International Health Racquet & Sportsclub Association - is currently working on three strategies for promoting physical activity in the workplace:

Identify best practices and model interventions;
Develop a multi-communication and outreach plan designed to engage, inform and inspire leaders to promote active lifestyles in organizations, industries and local communities; and
Develop legislation and policy agendas that promote employer-sponsored physical activity, while protecting individual employees' and dependents' rights.

IHRSA is thrilled by the progress of the sector, some of which was chronicled in the first edition of the National Physical Activity Plan e-newsletter. Driven by remarkable group of strategy leaders and advisors, the sector has begun to lay the groundwork for a fundamental and sustainable transformation of the workplace environment. If work is truly a second home for many Americans, we look forward to the day when the second home is as wonderfully active as the first.

In many ways, the sector approach of the National Physical Activity Plan resembles a grand experiment into whether we can create an epidemic of healthy living. It will be a study of whether the inspiration to live a more active life may be introduced and subsequently thrive in a particular community. Inspiration alone, however, will surely not be enough; it will take thousands of champions from every sector to push the experiment ahead, and I'm looking forward to compelling America's worksite leaders to start pushing.

Do you know a worksite or business leader who would support the goals of the National Physical Activity Plan?

Healthy People 2020 Hits the Trifecta!

sFranklin — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 21:01:00 -0400

Healthy People 2020's Physical Activity Objectives completes a trifecta of physical activity publications for physical activity professionals, advocates and enthusiasts. The first ever publication of a set of science based, government issued Physical Activity Guidelines were released in October of 2008 and May 2010 brought the launch of the nation's first health plan for physical activity, the National Physical Activity Plan.

The National Coalition for Promoting Physical Activity is providing the leadership for implementation of the Physical Activity Plan. NCPPA recognized the importance of working to insure that the objectives listed in HP2020 be complementary to those included in the NPAP. Many NCPPA member organizations offered comments on the proposed HP2020 physical activity objectives as did the Coalition itself.

NCPPA recently published our first implementation report; Make The Move, 2010-2011 Implementation of the National Physical Activity Plan. Make the Move details the priorities identified in each of the sectors, states their goals and objectives and how they plan to achieve them and lists a variety of success stores as well.

Many of the physical activity objectives included in HP2020 physical parallel those identified as priorities by the NPAP sector implementation teams. A few examples are included below:

NPAP: Ensure that early childhood education settings for children ages 0 to 5 years promote and facilitate physical activity.

HP2020: Increase the number of States with licensing regulations for physical activity provided in child care.

NPAP: Encourage business and industry to interact with all other sectors to identify opportunities to promote physical activity within the workplace and throughout society

HP2020: Increase the proportion of employed adults who have access to and participate in employer-based exercise facilities and exercise programs.

NPAP: Prioritize resources and provide incentives to increase active transportation and other physical activity through community design, infrastructure projects, systems, policies, and initiatives.

HP2020: Increase legislative policies for the built environment that enhance access to and availability of physical activity opportunities.

The examples listed above are great ideas…but now the time has come to walk the walk rather than simply talk the talk…in other words, work together to make these things happen! Please visit the NCPPA website to sign your organization up to get involved with the implementation of the Nation's first Physical Activity Plan.

What is your organization doing in the areas listed above to increase the number of Americans achieving the PAG?

National Physical Activity Plan Calls for Policy Changes

rPate — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 12:00:00 -0400

As was written in NCPPA’s recent blog, public policy is a complex process, involving participation from individuals and organizations working to influence those in position to make policy change. Evident in the NPAP’s guiding principles (see below), the NPAP is a policy document at heart. If acted upon, the policy changes called for in the NPAP will create environments that weave physical activity back into the fabric of American’s daily lives. Being more active will not just be an easier choice to make, but will be a more organic feature of daily living.

Now that the NPAP has been launched, and the NCPPA is spearheading its implementation, the Coordinating Committee that developed the NPAP is poised to oversee evaluation and regular revision of the NPAP. So what does success of an NPAP look like, and how is it evaluated? Evaluation of an NPAP will ideally include surveillance of and regular reporting on a myriad of proximal and distal outcomes of interest. Naturally, observing more Americans meeting and surpassing physical activity guidelines is the outcome of greatest interest, and we’re fortunate to already have some surveillance systems in place to measure this. However, this is a distal variable in which change may not be observable for many years to come.

The challenge is to focus efforts on more short term outcomes that will add up to changes in physical activity at the population level. The NPAP is chock full of strategies and tactics aimed at policies that will lead to changes in these short term outcomes. Is there a strategy or tactic in the NPAP that you feel is of paramount importance in creating short term change? If so, what metrics might you use to evaluate and report on that strategy or tactic?

As the field of physical activity and public health evolves, and as the NPAP meets success in implementation, the NPAP will need to remain current. Policies will be acted upon, bills will be passed, and environments changed. As a web-based document, many small revisions can be regularly made to the NPAP. However, the NPAP will need to undergo substantial revision every two to four years. Looking into your crystal ball, which strategies and tactics do you envision will have been successfully implemented four years from now? How would you revise the NPAP to reflect such change?

NPAP’s Seven Guiding Principles:

Use evidence to inform the Plan’s actions to promote physical activity.
Include initiatives for all socio-demographic groups.
Aim actions at local, state, federal, and institutional levels.
Encourage the involvement of diverse stakeholders to guide the content of the Plan.
Ground the Plan in the ecological model of health behavior.
Ensure that the Plan’s initiatives reduce health disparities across socio-demographic groups.
Present the Plan as a “living document” that is updated on a regular basis

If you are interested in contributing to the evaluation of and/or the regular revision of the NPAP, please visit our Web site and find out more about how to get involved.

Policy is Not Just for Wonks!

sFranklin — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 08:18:00 -0400

Photo credit: D Sharon Pruitt

Policy...isn't that something that only the “wonks” of the world think about? You know the type...they run around quoting combos of letters and numbers like HB123 or SB567...or preaching that ABC policy will mean XYZ to the local community. The reality is that, according to Wikipedia, “shaping public policy is a complex and multifaceted process that involves the interplay of numerous individuals and interest groups competing and collaborating to influence policymakers to act in a particular way.”

Many individuals never give much thought to how ideas become laws or policies nor do they think that they can help affect change in areas that they are passionate about. The truth of the matter is that while the “wonks” are an integral part of turning ideas into policy, in most cases, it really does take a whole cast of characters to affect change including both organized groups and individual citizens.

The nations' first Physical Activity Plan that was introduced in May has been described as “policy based” but what does that really mean? Under the leadership of the, National Coalition for Promoting Physical Activity a broad array of groups have formed an NPAP implementation team to work on converting the strategies and tactics included in the NPAP into local, state and federal policies that help Americans to meet the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans.

Let's look at an example....take Safe Routes to School. According to the Safe Routes to School National Partnership, SRTS programs work to insure that communities put policies into place that make it safe for children to walk or bicycle to school thus increasing the amount of physical activity in their day. The NPAP consists of eight different sectors including Education and Transportation/Active Living. Under the tactics listed for one of the education strategies is: “Support SRTS efforts to increase active transportation to and from school and support accommodations for children with disabilities.” Under the Transportation and Active Living Sector there are tactics related to SRTS such as, “support annual reporting by all schools of their transportation mode split” and “expand safe routes” initiatives at national, state, county and local levels to enable safe walking and biking routes to a variety of destinations especially to schools.”

My personal hope is that the concept of “Safe Routes” can be expanded to include community places such as parks, Y's, libraries, retail areas, etc. Imagine being able to have your children or yourselves be able to safely ride their bike or walk to the library....the benefits are endless to such a concept reaching beyond the obvious of increasing physical activity to include such things as reducing the amount of emissions in the air.

Would you like to see “Safe Routes” expanded to include other community places? What do you see the as the benefits and the challenges of this type of expansion?

Professionals and Citizens to Implement the National Physical Activity Plan

JPivarnik — Wed, 26 May 2010 09:42:00 -0400

Antronette Yancey, MD-Creator of Instant Recess™, Meb Keflezighi-American marathon champion, Robert Sallis, MD, FACSM-Chair of Exercise is Medicine™

This is my last post as president of the American College of Sports Medicine (Tom Best, M.D., Ph.D., takes office at the conclusion of our 57^th Annual Meeting, June 2-5 in Baltimore). One special satisfaction of this remarkable year has been the opportunity for the College to play a role in the development and launch of the National Physical Activity Plan.

ACSM has contributed in several ways, all in keeping with our mission. Many of our member/experts served on the working groups that identified strategies and tactics for each of the Plan's eight sectors. Robert Sallis, M.D., led the Health Care working group. What could be more appropriate for the chair of the Exercise is Medicine^TM initiative than helping all Americans enjoy optimum health by ensuring they have opportunities for physical activity?

As the Plan now moves into implementation, I urge all ACSM members to become involved. As experts in an array of disciplines from education and research to clinical medicine and health/fitness, ACSM members have the skills and connections to carry the Plan's strategies to policy makers and others who can make them a reality.

We each have a personal stake in bringing about the kinds of changes called for in the Plan. Our children need to be more active at school. Our neighborhoods need sidewalks and pocket parks. Our roads need bike lanes. Our employers need to encourage workplace wellness, and so on.

The National Physical Activity Plan, like ACSM, is comprehensive, diverse and rich with opportunities. Helping implement the Plan embodies our role of translating knowledge into practice. Nothing could be more appropriate—and nothing could have a more profound impact on so many individuals and communities.

What opportunities does your professional role offer to help implement the National Physical Activity Plan?

What can you do as a member of your community to help bring opportunities for appropriate physical activity to each of your fellow citizens?

Giving the National Physical Activity Plan a Leg Up

sFranklin — Wed, 19 May 2010 09:21:00 -0400

One of my favorite quotes from the movie Sea Biscuit is, “This is not the finish line, my friends. This is the start of the race.” I consider May 3, 2010 – the day that the Nation’s first Physical Activity Plan was launched – as the start of the race to increase the number of American’s striving to achieve the amount of physical activity recommended for their demographic in the National Physical Activity Guidelines. It is a race that my organization, the National Coalition for Promoting Physical Activity (NCPPA) believes is critical to improving the health of our Nation and reducing the cost of healthcare.

NCPPA is off and running ourselves, providing the leadership for implementation of the Plan. We have been working for several months to build a network of organizations dedicated to ensuring that the strategies and tactics included in each of the eight sectors in the Plan becomes a reality.

Never before has the urgency of physical inactivity and its complications been so widely reported. The rise in awareness – along with a better understanding of what interventions work and how to apply them has provided the momentum for The Plan and is what is fueling organizations throughout the country to ask “How can we help?”

The National Implementation Team is a tiered collaborative effort with organizations serving as sector leaders, strategy leaders and strategy supporters. NCPPA has built a team of 15 organizations that have agreed to serve as leaders across the sectors. These leaders will coordinate the efforts of the strategy leaders in their sector and the strategy leaders will in turn coordinate the strategy supporters. In many cases, these organizations are going to continue efforts on initiatives that they have previously been working on; however there is now more opportunity for collaboration and visibility. In other cases, they may choose to work on a brand new initiative but one that is very much in alignment with their established goals and visions.

The National Physical Activity Plan will have unprecedented reach and this is just one of the reasons, that the Plan is a unique effort. In the aggregate, the reach among the fifteen organizations serving as Sector Leaders represent:

315 public health officials at every level of government
48 state boards of education providing oversight to almost 46 million children
1,000,000 certified professionals working in health, education, transportation, fitness, business, and the nonprofit world
Over 2.8 billion media impressions
More than 390,000,000 consumers

The ability to reach such a diverse and distributed network with a prescription for change and simple strategies to achieve it is one of the most powerful components of the National Plan.

If your organization is interested in becoming involved with the NPAP, please let us know by visiting the NCPPA website and clicking on the Get Involved! button.

What sector, strategy and/or tactics do you see your organization becoming involved with? What do you think is the “low hanging fruit” in your sector(s) of interest?

National Physical Activity Plan Launched

rPate — Wed, 12 May 2010 12:00:00 -0400

I’m very pleased to announce the first National Physical Activity Plan for the United States. The launch on May 3rd represents the culmination of a two-year effort to develop the Plan and the beginning of the long-term effort to implement it.

Through implementation, government, private industry, non-profits, communities and individuals can now work together under a common set of strategies aimed at one thing; getting more Americans to be more physically active. The Plan’s strategies and tactics provide a framework through which individuals and agencies can rally support for new physical activity-related initiatives and initiatives they may already be pursuing.

As a “living document,” available to the public at www.physicalactivityplan.org, the Plan will be evaluated and updated regularly to accurately reflect its successes and a fluid landscape of physical activity and public health policy. As such, we welcome on-going feedback on the Plan’s Strategies and Tactics and encourage you and your colleagues to help keep the Plan fresh. Is there one strategy or tactic of the plan that you endorse? If so, please say which one and why you believe in its importance.