Advocacy Campaign to Promote Physical Activity Among Adolescents in Fairfax County, Virginia

摘要

Physical inactivity is one of the leading causes of disease and premature death in the United States. The risk of all-cause mortality in physically inactive persons is twice that in persons who are physically active. Higher levels of physical activity are associated with a lower risk of mortality. Regular physical activity confers many health benefits including preventing cardiovascular disease, hypertension, diabetes, colon cancer and some mental illnesses. There have been a variety of types of physical activity shown to have these health benefits and it is believed that most Americans can achieve desirable levels of regular physical activity. Physical activity levels are unacceptably low among all age groups in America and the physical activity rates and trends among adolescents are disturbing. In 1997, less than two-thirds of high school students had any form of sustained physical activity on three or more of the past seven days. Also, regular physical activity levels decrease as adolescents get older. While 73 percent of ninth grade students reported regular physical activity in 1997, the proportion of twelfth grade students who exercised regularly was 58 percent. Physically inactive adolescents are more likely to remain inactive in adulthood. In Fairfax County, Virginia, adolescents have these same low rates and trends in physical activity.