What Is the National Physical Activity Plan?

Question: What Is the National Physical Activity Plan?

Answer:

The U.S. National Physical Activity Plan was released on May 3, 2010, by a panel of experts representing several major health organizations and universities. Member groups include the American Cancer Society, the American Heart Association, the American College of Sports Medicine, the American Medical Association, the AARP, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Russell Pate, an exercise researcher at the Arnold School of Public Health at the University of South Carolina-Columbia, chaired the panel. Its vision: "One day, all Americans will be physically active and they will live, work, and play in environments that facilitate regular physical activity."

National Physical Activity Plan Strategies

The Plan is a "national and multi-pronged effort ... to increase physical activity in the U.S." It is a "living document" that will be updated regularly. The National Activity Plan encompasses eight societal sectors:

• Health care
• Public health
• Education
• Business and industry
• Mass media
• Parks, recreation, fitness, and sports
• Transportation, land use, and community design
• Volunteers and non-profits

Each sector has a set of strategies, and each strategy has a group of tactics supporting it. For example, one Education strategy is: "Ensure that early childhood education settings for children ages 0 to 5 years promote and facilitate physical activity." The tactics for this strategy include "Work with community college systems to include physical activity training as part of childcare certification and early childhood training programs." You can see all the strategies and tactics at the National Activity Plan website.

Across all of these sectors, the National Activity Plan has five overarching priorities:

• Launch a grassroots advocacy effort to mobilize support for the Plan
• Educate Americans about effective behavioral strategies for increasing physical activity via a national program (integrated with existing public health campaigns)
• Learn about the best physical activity models, programs, and policies and share them
• Create a national resource center on physical activity
• Conduct research and develop policies on physical activity

The National Coalition for Promoting Physical Activity will lead the implementation of the plan. The first phase (May to September, 2010) will be to develop a national policy agenda based on the plan. At the same time (May 2010 to May 2011), the NCPPA will work on raising awareness about the plan.