Physical activity and health promotion: who are the experts?

Atwongyeire Night, Casey Peiris, Osamu Watanabe, Haneul Lee, Eva Ekvall Hansson, Ashokan Arumugam
Session outline:

The role of physiotherapists as exercise and physical activity experts varies around the world. Are we doing enough to strengthen our role in this important field to reduce non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and improve health and wellbeing? Are other professionals better equipped to advocate for more physical activity? Or should physiotherapy be seen as one of the many actors in the wide field of health promotion and engage in more interprofessional practice? This session will explore different aspects of this complex topic and how to integrate physiotherapy into broader health promotion efforts.

Learning objective 1:
Explore how physiotherapists' contributions to effective physical activity promotion vary worldwide and identify lessons that can be applied in different healthcare settings
Learning objective 2:
Discuss whether physiotherapists should take a leading or collaborating role with other stakeholders in prescribing physical activity and driving change in different populations with and without health conditions and/or disabilities across the life span
Learning objective 3:
Identify opportunities to overcome barriers physiotherapists face in prescribing and monitoring physical activity across diverse populations in both low- and high-resource settings
Primary topic:
Health promotion and wellbeing/healthy ageing/physical activity
References/resources:

Please right click on the resources below to open them in a new tab in your browser.

https://aspactivity.org/

https://ispah.org/

Albert, F. A., Crowe, M. J., Malau-Aduli, A. E. O., & Malau-Aduli, B. S. (2020). Physical Activity Promotion: A Systematic Review of The Perceptions of Healthcare Professionals. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(12), 4358.

World Physiotherapy policy statement on physiotherapists as exercise and physical activity experts across the life span

Barton CJ, King MG, Dascombe B, Taylor NF, de Oliveira Silva D, Holden S, Goff AJ, Takarangi K, Shields N. Many physiotherapists lack preparedness to prescribe physical activity and exercise to people with musculoskeletal pain: a multi-national survey. Physical Therapy in Sport. 2021 May 1;49:98-105.

Kunstler B, Fuller R, Pervan S, Merolli M. Australian adults expect physiotherapists to provide physical activity advice: a survey. J Physiother. 2019;65(4):230-236. doi:10.1016/j.jphys.2019.08.002

Back to the listing