Healthy Caribbean Coalition - Putting physical
activity into public health: A historical perspective from
the CDC
As we approach the end of the first decade of the 21st century, physical activity (PA) has taken its rightful place in the mainstream of
public health. Fifty years of epidemiologic and clinical studies have
clearly documented a broad range of important health benefits
associated with regular PA (USDHHS 1996).
Over the last decade this
science base has coalesced into public health recommendations
(USDHHS 2008) and policy for physical activity as an integral part of
chronic disease prevention and health promotion. The Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has played a central role in
almost every major step along this path — moving science, policy and
practice from exercise and fitness to PA and health. When this process
began, exercise was the purview of a handful of enthusiasts
(marathoners and epidemiologists alike).
Today PA is central to good
public health practice globally, nationally and ever so gradually at the
state and local levels. However, much remains to be done to ensure that
attention and resource allocation within public health systems match
the health and economic burdens of PA (Pratt et al., 2000).
Pratt, M., et al., Putting physical activity into public health: A historical perspective from the CDC, Prev. Med. (2009), doi:10.1016/j.ypmed.2009.06.011
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