This document discusses physical activity promotion and behavioral change. It covers mediators and determinants of physical activity, self-efficacy, and strategies to promote physical activity at the individual and population levels. These include print/web materials, counseling, and addressing the social, physical, and policy environments using a socio-ecological model. Specific actions are outlined for individuals, parents, employers, community members, and leaders to support physical activity.

1. + Unit 3: Physical activity
participation
and physiological performance

2. +
Area of Study 1–
Monitoring and Promotion
of Physical Activity
Changing Physical Activity Behaviour

3. +
Physical Activity Behaviour Change
• Mediators – intervening variable that is necessary to complete a
cause and effect link between an intervention strategy and
physical activity.
• Determinants – casual factors (i.e. personal, environmental or
characteristics of exercise) that can affect physical activity
behaviour.
• Self-efficacy - deals with the strength of belief an individual has in his
or her capacity to successfully perform an activity. It forms the basis
of motivation, well being and personal achievement. Unless people
believe that their actions will produce desired outcomes, there is little
motivation to become involved and persevere with activities.

4. +
Physical Activity Promotion
• Effective physical activity interventions target changes at the following
levels:-
• individual
• social
• physical environment
• policy
• Strategies to Promote Physical Activity
Individual Level Population Level
Print and web based Environmental change
material
Counselling Policy
Process of change Mass media

5. +
Physical Activity Behavioural
Change
Cognitive Strategies Behavioural Strategies
Increasing knowledge Substituting alternatives
Awareness of risks Enlisting social support
Concern about impact to others Rewarding yourself
Understanding benefits Committing yourself
Awareness of opportunities to Reminding yourself
be active

6. +
Print and Web-based Media
•

7. +
Counseling
• Counseling strategies:-
• assessing motivational readiness
• matching process of change with motivational readiness
• contracting
• enlisting social support
• reminder systems
• gradual programming
• tailoring

8. +
Socio-ecological Model
•The socio-ecological model recognises the interwoven relationship
that exists between the individual and their environment. While
individuals are responsible for instituting and maintaining the
lifestyle changes necessary to improve health, individual behaviour
is determined to a large extent by social environment, e.g. community
norms and values, regulations and policies.
• In order to increase physical activity levels health promotion efforts
need to focus not only on the behaviour choices of each individual,
but also on factors that influence those choices. These factors
operate our of several spheres of influence including:-
• the individual
• social environment
• physical environment
• policy components

9. +
Socio - ecological Model
Recognizing that groups Developing and enforcing state and
provide social identity and local policies that can increase
support, interpersonal beneficial health behaviors.
interventions target groups, Developing media campaigns that
such as family members or promote public awareness of the
peers. health need and advocacy for
change.
Social Individual Policy
Motivating change in
individual behavior by
increasing knowledge, or
influencing attitudes or
challenging beliefs.
Environmenta
Changing the physical
environment or the
l
environment of an
organization (e.g.
workplace, school, or another
type of community
organization) to support
behavior change.

10. +
Socio-ecological Model Changing
Physical Behaviours
Barriers to healthy behaviors are shared among the community as a
whole. As these barriers are lowered or removed, behavior change
becomes more achievable and sustainable. It becomes easier to "push the
ball up the hill.
"The most effective approach leading to healthy behaviors is a
combination of the efforts at all levels--
individual, interpersonal, organizational, community, and public policy.
• Individuals
• Eat reasonable food and beverage portion sizes at home and
when eating out. Eat 5 to 9 fruits and vegetables each day, or more
• Walk or bicycle more often
• Be a better driver

11. +
• Parents
• Serve as good role models by practicing healthy eating
habits and by being physical active every day.
• Make sure tasty, attractive fruits and vegetables are available for
meals and snacks at home and when eating out.
• Set limits on television viewing.
• Limit access to sugar-sweetened drinks.
• Work with your children‟s schools to develop policies regarding:
vending machines, use of foods as rewards in classrooms,
adequate lunch and recess time, daily PE, safe walking and
bicycling routes to school.
• Organize Walk to School Day events in your children‟s schools.

12. +
• Employers
• Offer walk/bike/transit incentives like bicycle parking
and transit passes.
• Provide exercise and changing facilities at work.
• Post signs near elevators encouraging people to take the stairs.
• Make the stairway a safe and inviting place.
• Support community-wide events that promote physical activity.
• Set standards for foods served at cafeterias, in vending
machines, and at meetings.
• Use price incentives in the cafeteria and in vending machines to
increase consumption of healthy foods.

13. +
• Community Member
• Participate in neighborhood, community, and
transportation planning groups.
• Support funding for sidewalks, bicycle paths, parks, recreation
centers, and swimming pools.
• Declare and organize an annual National “No-TV” Week.
• Join or start a walking or bicycling group in your neighborhood.
• Support policies to promote healthy eating such as disclosing the
calorie content of restaurant food and requiring calorie labeling
on menus and menu boards at chain restaurants.
• Join advocacy groups promoting community design supportive of
safe and accessible walking and bicycling.
• Let your community leaders and elected officials know that you
support healthy, active communities.

14. +
• Architects, Community and Transportation Planners
• Design buildings where stairs are visible, accessible and
safe.
• Adjacent to buildings, provide sidewalks, convenient bicycle
parking and safe connectivity to public transit.
• Consider public transit, sidewalks, bicycle lanes, and bicycle
paths for walking and bicycling to be as essential as streets and
roads for vehicles.
• Design frequent and safe street crossings.
• Design neighborhoods and communities where children and
adults can easily and safely travel between home, work, school,
retail establishments, parks and recreation facilities on foot and
bicycle.

15. + Community Leaders and Policy Makers
•
• Consider health consequences along with financial impact
when developing school policies such as offering daily PE,
promoting walking and bicycling to school, or district support
for school meal programs.
• Prioritize funding for increasing and improving pedestrian and
bicycle facilities in communities.
• Consider public health impacts in land-use planning decisions
such as siting of schools, development of mixed-use
neighborhoods.
• Consider zoning regulations.
• Assure access to full-service grocery stores in all
neighborhoods and limit density of fast food restaurants.
• Prioritize funding for effective public health interventions to
increase physical activity, promote healthy eating, and reduce
obesity and chronic diseases.

16. +
Top 10 Causes of Death Worldwide
Based on data from World Health
Organisation
Fact Sheet No 310: 2008
World Deaths in Millions % of Deaths
Coronary heart disease 7.2 12.2
Stroke and other 5.71 9.7
cerebrovascular diseases
Lower respiratory infections 4.18 7.1
Chronic obstructive 3.02 5.1
pulmonary disease
Diarrhoeal diseases 2.16 3.7
HIV/AIDS 2.04 3.5
Tuberculosis 1.46 2.5
Trachea, bronchus, lung 1.32 2.3
cancers
Road traffic accidents 1.27 2.2
Prematurity and low birth 1.18 2.0
weight

17. +
WHO Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
Global health risks: mortality and burden of disease attributable to
selected major risks.
2009

18. +
Lifestyle Diseases

19. +
Physical Activity Measurement
 Physical activity measurement has several important uses, in informing the overall
health promotion effort and is used in:
• research, to understand the relationship between physical activity and a
range of physical health and mental health outcomes.
• the monitoring and surveillance of physical activity levels in and among
populations.
• understanding the correlates and determinants of physical activity, and to
explain why some people or groups are more active than others.
• measuring the impact and effectiveness of health promotion programmes and
interventions designed to increase physical activity.
• providing a sound and strong evidence base for broader initiatives in health
promotion policy and practice.

20. +
Measurable Components of
Physical Activity
 Physical activity is a set of complex physical behaviours, with possible measurements
made of its duration, frequency, intensity or setting.
• How often activity is undertaken: measures of frequency
• Duration of physical activity per session: expressed as total time per day
• Intensity of activity: activities may be classified as light, moderate or
vigorous based on their assigned energy expenditure values („MET‟ values or
Multiples of Basal Resting Energy)
• Type: specific physical activity or sport performed
• Domains or settings where the physical activity is performed: leisure time
(organised – non organised), occupational, domestic, active commuting,
incidental and sedentary.

21. +
Metabolic Equivalent (METS)
Intensity METS Energy % Max HR Examples of
Classification Expended Activities
(kJ/min
Low Intensity <3 <15 <50 Walking slowly,
golf, gardening,
household
chores, sitting
Moderate 3-6 15-30 50-70 Surfing,
Intensity performing
massage, social
badminton
Vigorous 7+ 30+ 70+ Australian rules
intensity football,
shovelling
ditches, squash

22. +
National Activity Guidelines
0 – 5 Years
• 0 – 1 floor based play should be encouraged
• 1 – 3 – should be physically active for at least three hours
each day
• 2 – 5 – sitting using electronic media should be limited to less
than one hour per day

23. +
National Activity Guidelines
5 – 12 Years
• At least 60 minutes (and up to several hours) of moderate to
vigorous intensity activity should be completed every day
• no more than 2 hours per day should be spent using
electronic media for entertainment

24. +
National Activity Guidelines
 12 – 18 Years
• At least 60 minutes (and up to several hours) of moderate to
vigorous intensity activity should be completed every day
• no more than 2 hours per day should be spent using
electronic media for entertainment

25. +
National Activity Guidelines
 Adults 18 - 65
• Think of movement as an opportunity, not an inconvenience
• Be active in as many ways as possible
• Put together at least 30 mins of moderate intensity activity on
most, preferably all, days
• If possible enjoy some regular vigorous activity

26. +
National Activity Guidelines
 Older Adults 65+
• Continue to be active no matter what your age
• Be active every day in as many ways as possible
• Accumulate at least 30 mins of moderate intensity activity on
most, preferably all, days
• If commencing exercise for the first time begin gradually
• If maintained activity levels continue to exercise at a safe
level which you are capable of maintaining

27. +
Measuring Physical Activity
 Accurate assessment of physical activity is influenced by “behavioural reactivity” – in
which the use of measurement tools can change physical activity behaviours.
• Objective methods of data collection do not need the participant to process
information and exists independently of what the participant thinks.
Objective measures include:-
- Direct observation
- Pedometers
- Accelerometers
- Heart rate monitors
• Subjective measures of data collection require some level of cognitive or
perceptual processing by the participant to create the data. These measures
require participants to think about, and record, information about their
physical activity levels.
Subjective measure include:-
• Self Report include assessment methods such as interviews, diaries, logs
and questionnaires and rely on people to estimate or recall their own
activity level

28. + • Accelerometers are electronic motion
sensors that detect movement in a vertical
plane as a combined function of the
frequency and intensity of the movement.
Movement counts are averaged over
defined time frames, which are stored in
memory and
subsequently
downloaded to a
computer.
Accelerometer

29. +
• Involves watching subjects behave in a
particular environment such as homes,
workplaces, parks or school yards.
Direct Observation

30. + • Heart rate monitors measures heart rate
response to exercise which provides an
indicator of activity that reflects
physiological stress on the body.
Heart Rate
Monitors

31. + • Pedometers assess the total number of
steps taken and some models can
estimate total distance travelled, time of
total movement and energy expenditure.
• The benchmark number of steps for
achieving health benefits is 10,000 steps.
Pedometers

32. + • Self Report can be divided into two basic
categories:-
i. Recall based approaches - obtain actual
information on activity on specific days.
ii. General measures - focus on typical
activity behaviour and often involve a
series of questions about general activity
patterns.
• Global Physical Activity Questionnaire
(CPAQ)
• International Physical Activity
Questionnaires (IPAQ)
Self Report