International Centre for Health & Society, UCL
2004 Seminar Series
You are invited to attend
Monday 1 November 5.00pm (followed by drinks at 6pm)
Mass participation in physical activity: reality or pipe dream?
Dr Melvyn Hillsdon
Department of Epidemiology & Public Health, UCL
RSVP attendance essential by 29/10/04
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
(indicating any special needs and for directions to
the seminar room)
Abstract
Regular physical activity has a beneficial effect on many chronic
diseases with the annual cost of physical inactivity in England
estimated at £8.2 billion. Despite the compelling evidence on the
health benefits of regular physical activity, few adults or children
are active at recommended levels. Physical activity shows marked
inequalities, with higher social positions associated with higher
levels of activity in adults and the inverse in children. Increases
in sedentary behaviours such as watching television and using
computers, plus greater car dependency and changes in the way we work
and play, have led to increases in the prevalence of inactivity.
Exercise promotion interventions have focused on modifying personal-
level variables and have commonly been based in primary care. There
is some evidence to suggest that such interventions can lead to
modest, short-term increases in physical activity. These modest
effects have stimulated research into broader influences on physical
activity such as transport and the social and built environment.
This seminar will provide an overview of the multiple influences on
physical activity and call for a move to tackle more upstream
influences to reduce the inequalities in physical activity and
achieve the government's target of 70% of the population to be
physically active by 2020.
In the last four years Dr Hillsdon's work has been related to
physical activity and public health covering three areas 1)
interventions 2) aetiology 3) measurement. Recent work on the
Whitehall II study has focused on the association between physical
activity in mid-life and physical and psychological function in early
old age. In addition, Dr Hillsdon and colleagues are near the
completion of a Cochrane review of the effectiveness of physical
activity interventions.
Ms Patricia Crowley
Dept of Epidemiology & Public Health, UCL
1 - 19 Torrington Place, London WC1E 6BT
T: (International code +44 20) or (Domestic code 020) 76791708
F: (International code +44 20) or (Domestic code 020) 7813 0280
New Masters course offered see: www.ucl.ac.uk/healthandsociety
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