Exercise Specialists and the Health Priorities of the 21st Century: A New Perspective on Knowledge Translation for the Physical Therapist

• Authors: Elizabeth Dean
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

Although authorities advocate a ‘call to action’ to improve health and reduce illness and disability through increased physical activity, people are becoming less rather than more active. This trend is inversely related to economic development, thus, pervades middle- and low-income countries as well as high-income countries. Given that the health benefits of physical activity and the negative effects of inactivity are unequivocal, the translation of this well-established body of knowledge has lagged with respect to being implemented and reversing the high prevalence of lifestyle conditions. This article examines this 21st century phenomenon and identifies the simple evidence-based means of reversing this lethal trend through social and health policy and individual approaches. Through healthy and active living, the threshold for lifestyle conditions including ischemic heart disease, hypertension and stroke, cancer, diabetes, obesity, and osteoporosis could be increased, and their rate of progression and end-of-life morbidity decreased. Physical activity in conjunction with smoking abstinence and optimal nutrition has a primary role in the prevention of these deadly conditions and in some cases ‘cure’ as well as management. Further, the severity of the symptoms of other chronic conditions such as arthritis and depression may be decreased with active living resulting in superior health outcomes. In addition to managing the needs of people one-to-one, physical therapists (the fifth largest group of health care professionals and the only one committed to non invasive care) are uniquely positioned to serve as consultants in designing healthy communities, neighborhoods, schools, businesses, factories and health facilities. As exercise specialists in the 21st century, physical therapists can minimize the enormous social and economic burdens of lifestyle risk factors and conditions and enhance people's quality of life.

• Publisher: Versita
• Journal: Physiotherapy
• Year: 2008
• Volume: 16
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 3-7

Dates

published

1 - 7 - 2008

online

13 - 3 - 2010

Contributors

author

Elizabeth Dean

• Department of Physical Therapy, Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada

References

• Dean E. Physical therapy in the 21st century. Physiother. Theory Practice. Special Issue, 2009.
• Dean E. Physical therapy in the 21st century (Part I): Toward practice informed by epidemiology and the crisis of lifestyle conditions. Physiother. Theory Practice, 2009 (In press).
• Dean E. Physical therapy in the 21st century (Part II): Evidence-based practice within the context of evidence-informed practice. Physiother. Theory Practice, 2009 (In press).
• Global strategy on diet, physical activity and health. World Health Organization
• Obesity: Preventing and managing the global epidemic. Report of a WHO Consultation on Obesity.[PubMed]
• Childhood overweight and Obesity. World Health Organization.
• Rhodes R. E., Viala B. Building motivation and sustainability into the prescription and recommendations for physical activity and exercise therapy: The evidence. Physiother. Theory Practice, 2009 (In press).
• World Health Organization. Definition of Health.
• World Health Organization. International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health. (2002).
• Guidelines for Exercise Testing and Prescription (7th ed.). American College of Sports Medicine. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, Philadelphia 2006.[WoS]
• Wannamathee S. G., Shaper A. G. Physical activity in the prevention of cardiovascular disease. Sports Medicine, 2001, 31, 101-114.
• Astrand P-O Why exercise? Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 1992, 24, 153-162.
• Katzmarzyk P. T., Gledhill N., Shephard R. J. The economic burden of physical inactivity in Canada. CMAJ, 2000, 163, 1435-1440.
• Gunnarsson O. T., Judge J. O. Exercise in midlife: how and why to prescribe it for sedentary patients. Geriatrics, 1997, 52, 71-72, 77-80.
• Physical Activity and Health. A Report of the Surgeon General.
• Sato Y. Diabetes and life-styles: role of physical exercise for primary prevention. Brit. J. Nutr., 2000, 84, suppl., 187-190.[Crossref]
• Orozco-Valero M. Large therapeutic studies in elderly patients with hypertension. Journal of Hum Hypertension, 2002, 16, suppl. 1, 38-43
• Messinger-Rapport B. J., Sprecher D. Prevention of cardiovascular diseases. Coronary artery disease, congestive heart failure, and stroke. Clin. Geriatr. Med., 2002, 18, 463-483.
• Tudor-Locke C., Bassett D. R. Jr. How many steps/day are enough? Preliminary pedometer indices for public health. Sports Med., 2004, 34, 1-8.[Crossref]
• Luedemann J., Schminke U., Berger K., Piek M., Willich S. N., Döring A., John U., Kessler C. Association between behavior-dependent cardiovascular risk factors and asymptomatic carotid atherosclerosis in a general population. Stroke, 2002, 33, 2929-2935.
• Blair S. N., Cheng Y., Holder J. S. Is physical activity or physical fitness more important in defining health benefit? Med. Sci. Sports Exerc., 2002, 33, suppl. 6, 379-399.
• Hu F. B., Stampfer M. J., Solomon C., Liu S., Colditz G. A., Speizer F. E., Willett W. C., Manson J. E. Physical activity and risk for cardiovascular events in diabetic women. Ann. Int. Med., 2001, 134, 96-105.
• Lee C. D., Blair S. N. Cardiopulmonary fitness and stroke mortality in men. Med. Sci. Sports Exerc., 2002, 34, 592-595.[Crossref]
• Costa F. V. Non-pharmacological treatment of hypertension in women. J. Hypertension, 2002, 20, suppl. 2, 57-61
• Tudor-Locke C. New pedometer steps recommendations.
• Engel G. L. How much longer must medicine's science be bound by a seventeenth century world view? Psychother. Psychosom., 1992, 57, 3-16.
• Engel G. L. From biomedical to biopsychosocial: being scientific in the human domain. Psychosomatics, 1997, 38, 521-528.
• Mortality Country Fact Sheets 2006.
• World Health Report 2006 Working together for health. World Health Organization. Geneve: Switzerland, 2006.
• Bodner M., Dean E. Brief advice as a smoking cessation strategy: A systematic review and implications for physical therapists. Physiother. Theory Pract., 2009 (In press).

Identifiers

DOI

10.2478/v10109-009-0023-x