Employing physical activity to prevent chronic disease

Project title: Harnessing the power of physical activity for improving the Australian prevention system

Start date: February 2018

Estimated end date: TBA

What is the issue?

Physical inactivity contributes nearly the same as obesity and smoking to the global burden of disease, particularly to morbidity and mortality from chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease and some cancers. But, compared to other risk factors, the role of physical inactivity is under-recognised in Australia’s chronic disease strategic planning and program implementation.

Australia has a relatively low rate of adults meeting the recommended minimum physical activity guidelines (43%) compared to other countries, and there is no national physical activity specific policy or plan. Further, adult rates of meeting physical activity guidelines in the National Health surveys have not improved for over 20 years. However, Australia ranks second in the world for physical activity research, indicating there is a mismatch between the research conducted and its translation into improving population health.

There is a need for a consistent systems approach to physical activity, and into interventions that influence population physical activity levels, including programs outside the health sector, for example through engagement with the Sport and Recreation, Education, Parks, Urban Planning and Transport sectors.

How is the project addressing the issue?

This project has five elements:

1. Mapping physical activity policies, interventions and prevalence nationally and across state and territory jurisdictions, through a series of meetings with stakeholders, and comparing these to best practice
2. Identifying physical activity components in the prevention system in Australia to develop an integrated cross-government framework for action
3. Testing the feasibility of innovative programs to promote physical activity at population level
4. Identifying how much physical activity we need and the required investments to produce health outcomes and potential returns on investment
5. Capacity building through online training for policymakers in prevention on physical activity interventions at scale.

What are the expected outcomes?

• Improved capacity to address physical activity
• Standardised approaches to population surveillance and monitoring
• A framework for action at the national and jurisdictional level that will improve physical activity levels across Australia, and contribute to improving health and chronic disease prevention.

Relevance for practice

This project will produce Australia’s first framework for national action to increase and monitor population level physical activity.

It will inform policy by testing innovative programs to promote physical activity, including their scalability to population level interventions.

This project is building on existing Prevention Centre projects including a national prevention system and scaling up preventive health interventions.