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Active every day

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Active every day

As the world’s top athletes compete for gold in the Olympic Games 2016, the Government is urging healthcare professionals to help get the nation moving. Charlotte Rixon reports

Public Health England (PHE) has published new guidance and resources for healthcare professionals on ‘getting every adult active every day’ – and with the UK gripped by Team GB’s success in Rio, now is the perfect time to put them into action.

Physical activity helps prevent and manage over 20 chronic conditions and diseases, including heart disease, depression and some cancers. Despite this, Britons are 20 per cent less active today than they were in the 1960s, with one in four adults in England classed as inactive, meaning they get less than 30 minutes exercise per week. However, research suggests that a quarter of patients would increase their activity levels if advised to do so by a healthcare professional.

Changing behaviour

PHE advises healthcare professionals to identify inactive adults opportunistically or when providing services such as NHS health checks. As many people equate exercise with sweaty gym sessions, the guidance recommends promoting everyday activities such as walking, gardening, and cycling, as well as encouraging people to spend less time sitting.

Kevin Fenton, PHE director of health and wellbeing, said: “Any activity is better than none. As little as 10 minutes of physical activity at a time provides us with physical and mental health benefits. Starting small and building up gradually seems to work best when encouraging behaviour change.”

The resources focus on targeting groups that are particularly likely to be sedentary, including the over-65s, those with a disability and people from certain minority ethnic groups.

Healthy living pharmacies

Pharmacy teams, especially those in healthy living pharmacies (HLPs), are well placed to help people of all ages and backgrounds to get more active – and thanks to a new set of Quality Criteria from PHE, any community pharmacy in England now has the opportunity to become an HLP by meeting the requirements.

RPS English Pharmacy Board member Deborah Evans said: “Commissioners are increasingly looking for reassurances that pharmacies are willing and able to deliver health promotional advice and health and wellbeing services, which can be achieved by becoming a healthy living pharmacy.”

The ‘getting every adult active every day’ resources are available via: publichealthmatters.blog.gov.uk

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