RESEARCH ARTICLE
Increasing Physical Activity of High Intensity to Reduce the Prevalence of Chronic Diseases and Improve Public Health
Tommy Aune Rehn*, a, Richard A Winett b, Ulrik Wisløff a, Øivind Rognmo a
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2013Volume: 7
First Page: 1
Last Page: 8
Publisher ID: TOCMJ-7-1
DOI: 10.2174/1874192401307010001
Article History:
Received Date: 2/11/2012Revision Received Date: 2/12/2012
Acceptance Date: 12/12/2012
Electronic publication date: 31/1/2013
Collection year: 2013
open-access license: This is an open access article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted, non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the work is properly cited.
Abstract
High incidence and prevalence of chronic diseases, increasing obesity and inactivity as well as rising health expenditure represent a set of developments that cannot be considered sustainable, and will have dire long-term consequences given the increasing proportion of elderly people in our society. Based on a review of the experiences from previous large scale population-based prevention programs and the documented effects of increased physical activity and cardiorespiratory fitness on chronic diseases and its risk factors, we argue that increased physical activity, especially vigorous physical activity, is a major way to reduce the prevalence of chronic diseases and improve public health. We conclude that a coordinated population-based intervention program for improved health through increased physical activity in the entire population, with a special focus on high intensity exercise, urgently needs to be implemented nationally and internationally.
