Latest Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans Stories

HARRISBURG, Pa., Sept. 22 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Pennsylvania Department of Health joins 33 other states in celebrating "Falls Prevention Awareness Day" on Sept. 23, the first full day of fall. The department's Violence and Injury Prevention Program joins the Falls Free(TM) Coalition, which includes 70 organizations nationwide, to reduce fall-related injury and death among older adults. "In 2008, more than 1,000 older Pennsylvanians died from injuries related to a fall. In...

New public health research by a Purdue University professor could help shed light on how the environment can influence physical activity, especially when it comes to where people live."We are not just measuring physical activity, but we are linking it to a location using small activity monitors and global positioning system devices," said Philip J. Troped, an assistant professor of health and kinesiology. "A better understanding of how neighborhood environments influence...

Indiana U. research at the American College of Sports Medicine annual meetingAn Indiana University study that examined the relationship between physical activity and a range of variables involving urban residents' homes and neighborhoods found that the inside of study subjects' homes had more to do with higher physical activity levels than the sidewalks, lighting and other elements considered."At the end of the day, the interior condition of their house seemed to be the only thing...

HARRISBURG, Pa., May 28 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Secretary of Health Everette James today visited the Avonworth and Mt. Royal middle schools in Allegheny County to commend students and teachers for their yearlong commitment to exercising for 30 minutes every school day. "It is great to see the improvement these students have made in their levels of fitness and to hear how it has benefitted them," said James. "These schools are demonstrating that when the health of students is made a top...

Head to head: Should health policy focus on physical activity rather than obesity?Experts disagree on bmj.com May 25 about the best way to tackle the obesity crisis. While Professor Louise Baur and colleagues from the Children's Hospital at Westmead and the University of Sydney in Australia acknowledge that "physical inactivity is a major contributor to the global burden of disease," they says that it would be wrong to only focus on this and ignore the problem of obesity.Baur and...

ATLANTA, May 25 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Many states do not have the policy or environmental measures in place to help their residents meet the recommended levels of physical activity to promote health, according to a report released today by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The State Indicator Report on Physical Activity 2010 includes data about individual behaviors related to physical activity, as well as the presence or absence of physical features and policies that can...

Children are more likely to watch high levels of television if their parents do, but parents do not need to be physically active to help their children to be active, a new study has found.The paper, Parent and child physical activity and sedentary time: Do active parents foster active children? by Dr Russell Jago and colleagues in the Department of Exercise, Nutrition and Health Sciences at the University of Bristol is published online in BMC Public Health. The study has been funded by a...

It may seem intuitive that greater amounts of exercise lead to less obesity, but an Indiana University study has found that this conventional wisdom applies primarily to white women. The findings draw attention not only to racial, ethnic and gender differences regarding exercise but also to the role work can play.In his study involving more than 12,000 people in a nationally representative sample of U.S 20- to 64-year-olds, obesity expert Dong-Chul Seo found that obesity rates in general...

New state and district policies requiring schools to report on the quantity and quality of the student's physical education programs and the classification of physical inactivity as a preventable and treatable health condition are two of the provisions of a new national fitness agenda announced Monday.The U.S. National Physical Activity Plan was launched by Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, representatives of the National Coalition for Promoting Physical Activity, U.S....

WASHINGTON, May 3 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Americans need a motivational push from all sectors of society to get on their feet and reverse a growing trend of physical inactivity. That's why the American Heart Association is pleased to become a key strategic partner in the National Physical Activity Plan, co-leading the Business and Industry Sector of the eight sectors identified for specific calls to action. The association also looks forward to collaborating with all of the national...