Physical activity has been recognised as a key determinant in the health of individuals and communities by a range of leading public health and sports organisations. At national policy level, work has been underway to align strategic goals and key messages issued by these organisations to ensure that there can be a greater coordinated approach and a greater overall impact through collaboration.
Public Health England’s (PHE) physical activity framework, Everybody active, every day, identifies areas for local and national action, based on international evidence of what works.
Raising awareness of the benefits, changing behaviours and moving professionals are all challenges to be tackled in changing the current positon. For example, PHE has published research showing that the majority of GPs in England are not aware of the CMO guidelines and one in seven would not feel confident raising the subject of physical activity with their patients.”
In looking at the national and local position:
- Nationally 1 in 4 adults and 1 in 5 adolescents are inactive and do not meet the recommended activity levels
- Figures from the Active Lives show that nationally, 64% of men and 60% of women aged 16 and over are moderately active (Bouts of 10 minutes or more of moderate activity for at least 150 minutes each week.)
- In Bexley inactivity levels are higher than both the national and London average, with 25.9% of adults classed as inactive and a further 17.4% not being active enough.
As well as being physically active, all adults are advised to minimise the time spent being sedentary (sitting) for extended periods. Even among individuals who are active at the recommended levels, spending large amounts of time sedentary increases the risk of adverse health outcomes. Many adults spend in excess of 7 hours per day sedentary, and this typically increases with age. Everyone should be encouraged to reduce the amount of sedentary time by:
- reducing time spent watching TV, using a computer or playing video games
- taking regular time not sitting during work, or standing
- breaking up sedentary time, such as swapping a long bus or car journey for walking part of the way
Data from the Active Lives Survey (Sport-England, March 2018) shows that nationally there are significant differences in activity levels between groups:
- People who are long term unemployed or have never worked (NS-SEC 8) are the most inactive (38%) and the least likely to be active (49%), whereas people in managerial, administrative and professional occupations (NS-SEC 1-2) are least likely to be inactive (17%) and the most likely to be active (71%)
- Men are more likely to be active than women (64% or 14m men against 60% or 13.7m women)
- Inactivity is more common among people with a disability (43%) than those without (21%), furthermore it increases sharply as the number of impairments an individual has increases (51% of those with 3 or more impairments are inactive)
- Inactivity levels generally increase with age. Half of all inactive people are aged over 55 (but they account for just 36% of the population). People aged 75-84 are half as likely to be active as 16-24 year olds.