Dec. 21 marked the winter solstice (Northern Hemisphere), signaling the long-awaited return of longer days and the warmth of spring. The solstice, coinciding with traditional holiday celebrations, has always given hope to people struggling with the challenges of cold weather and long, dark nights.

The month of January offers more reason for hope in the form of Healthy People 2020, a collaborative process by which the CDC provides science-based, 10-year national objectives for improving the health of all Americans. The proposed objectives for physical activity and fitness show the influence of ACSM and its members, including in-person testimony by Past President Angela Smith, M.D., FACSM and online comments by numerous members/experts.

ACSM was not a lone voice crying in the wilderness, however. Many experts, speaking alone or on behalf of professional societies and other organizations, cited the demonstrated importance of physical activity for health. Their consensus informs the plan, which includes baseline measures, 10-year targets and data sources.

A few observations:

• Healthy People 2020 will serve as a companion to the National Physical Activity Plan (a frequent topic on this blog). The Plan provides a roadmap for achieving the changes needed to reach the targets spelled out in HP2020. Taken together—and taken seriously—the two can be transformative.
• The baseline measures document the need. For example, 36.2 percent of adults engaged in no leisure-time physical activity in 2008, according to the CDC’s National Health Interview Survey.
• The targets are modest, calling for a 10-percent improvement across the board. Surely, our nation can move the needle in 10 years so that, for instance, 8.7 percent of physician office visits include counseling about exercise.

The latter (part of Objective 11) was proposed by ACSM, expanding the original objective which called for counseling about exercise for patients with chronic diseases. Both embody the essence of Exercise is Medicine®. Acting on them would profoundly affect the well-being of millions of people and vastly reduce health care costs.

As we prepare for the chills of January, physical activity advocates will be warmed by the prospect of other objectives we have long supported. HP2020 also calls for the following, to choose a few:

• Increasing the proportion of adults and adolescents who meet physical activity guidelines (Objectives 2 and 3, respectively).
• More trips by walking (13) and bicycling (14).
• Changes to the built environment to expand opportunities for physical activity (15). Sound familiar? This is a bedrock principle of the National Physical Activity Plan.
• More physical education (4, 5) and recess (6, 7) in schools; less screen time for kids (8).
• Opening public and private school facilities outside of school hours to provide opportunities for physical activity for the community (10).

Healthy People 2020 is comprehensive, measurable and laden with the potential for positive change—the fruit of a well-managed public/private collaboration. Implementing it falls to all of us: states, cities, communities, organizations of all types, and individuals. I propose we each seek our role, using the MAP-IT framework familiar to those involved with implementing public health interventions. Let’s insist on success and get to work on a decade of change.

Which objectives of Healthy People 2020 relate most directly to your work?
Which could have the greatest impact on your community?

Dear Physical Activity Colleagues,

For thirty years, the Healthy People initiative has put forth a comprehensive set of health promotion and disease prevention objectives to track, monitor, and motivate action to improve the health of all people in the United States.  As we prepare for the next decade, the Healthy People 2020 initiative aims to unify the national dialogue about health, motivate actions, and encourage new directions in health promotion, providing a public health roadmap and compass for the country.  More than ever, the Healthy People vision of a society in which all people live long, healthy lives speaks to the challenges and opportunities we face each day, calling on us to improve population health by developing collaborative solutions that reach beyond health care.

It is with great excitement that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services invites you to be a part of the launch of Healthy People 2020.  The event will take place on December 2, 2010, from 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM EST at the Jack Morton Auditorium of The George Washington University, 805 21st Street NW, Washington, DC 20052.

This event will mark the beginning of Healthy People 2020 and the official release of the next decade’s national health promotion and disease prevention objectives.  The program will include remarks from the HHS Assistant Secretary for Health Dr. Howard K. Koh and members of the Secretary’s Advisory Committee on National Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Objectives for 2020.  There will be an introduction and orientation to the Healthy People 2020 Web site and objectives, followed by a panel discussion about the uses of Healthy People 2020.  You can ask live questions via Webcast and Twitter. 

You have played an important role in developing Healthy People 2020.  Now the real work begins!   Similar to the past two decades, Healthy People 2020 will include Physical Activity as a topic area. As a key stakeholder, your work to implement Healthy People 2020 Physical Activity objectives throughout the decade will be critical to improving the health of the nation.   Please consider following Healthy People on Twitter at: www.twitter.com/gohealthypeople.  Registration for the event is strongly encouraged.  Live Web streaming will also be available.  Any questions regarding the event can be sent to healthypeople2020@air.org.  To attend the launch or participate via Web streaming, register by visiting www.healthypeople.gov/2020_reg/register.aspx

Please join us and be part of making Healthy People come alive for all Americans.

Sincerely,

RADM Penelope Slade-Sawyer, P.T., M.S.W.

Deputy Assistant Secretary for Health

(Disease Prevention and Health Promotion)

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

Obesity is an American crisis. It’s official. We know this, not because of any proclamations from the arbiters of such titles, but because of the attention the issue is receiving from the most influential sectors in the country. 

We are, as a nation, unequivocally, in crisis. And a crisis requires a change.

But what will drive the systemic change required to reverse thirty years of rising obesity rates? 

Our most influential sectors have an enormous capacity to create widespread awareness and share ideas, but their abilities to drive change, especially for a problem rooted at the individual level, is limited.

Those sectors of lesser national influence, however - families, neighbors, friends, co-workers, communities – are fantastic at driving change on an individual level. 

In fact, we believe the solution to the obesity crisis will not be revealed as a silver bullet, but as the sum of millions of acts of compassion; people caring enough about the folks around them and/or themselves to seek a change. 

But, of course, compassion can only do so much. People need resources to change. They need direction.

IHRSA’s Get Active America! program is designed to provide that direction at the community level.

The annual, week long program is a health initiative that enables IHRSA health clubs to increase their roles in improving the health of their neighborhoods. The goal is to educate community members to take control of their health by integrating regular exercise into their lives. Each year, the program attracts tens of thousands of individuals to hundreds of health clubs nationwide, many for the first time.

The program is simple. Each participating health club agrees to allow members to “bring a friend” of their choosing – a child, spouse, parent, grandparent, friend, co-worker or neighbor – from May 3-6th. In addition, each club must hold an “open house” for the community from May 7-9th.

This year’s theme is “Take Back Your Health,” which is supported by three program tracks: Feel Better, Look Better, and Live Better.

The Feel Better track includes offerings such as nutrition counseling, stress management seminars, and specific disease programming (such as diabetes or arthritis).

The Look Better track highlights activities like core-training classes, weight-loss counseling, and toning exercises.

The Live Better track stresses events including family physical activities, free screenings, and exercise-related seminars from local medical professionals.

We know that it will take more than just Get Active America! to solve the obesity crisis, but we are confident, or, at least, as hopeful as possible, that the program’s emphasis on local community outreach, and its reliance on the compelling power of compassionate camaraderie (i.e. “Bring a Friend”), will prove to be key underpinnings of the nation’s successful effort to combat obesity. 

We know there are hundreds of other wonderful community programs around the nation.  We’d love to know - what is your organization doing?