FYSISK AKTIVITET - Sundhedsstyrelsen

Summary
Physical activity – manual on disease prevention and treatment presents evidence
on using physical activity in preventing and treating disease. In addition,
the manual presents some new recommendations for physical activity in
Denmark. The manual is a revised version of the 2004 edition.
Physical activity in preventing disease
There is a consensus that physical activity promotes health and prevents many
diseases. Children who have relatively high levels of various risk factors for
cardiovascular disease and who engage in increased physical activity reduce
these levels (including overweight). This mostly applies to aerobic activity,
but strength-training activity also has an independent effect. The quartile of
children who have the poorest physical fitness have a 15-fold greater risk of
elevated cardiovascular risk factors. Strength-training activities positively affect
bone development in addition to cardiovascular risk factors.
Children’s physical activity has received increased attention in recent years because
many of the health conditions physical activity prevents, such as obesity,
are easier to prevent than to treat. No precise data indicate whether the
level of physical activity among children in Denmark has changed in recent
decades. Studies of children’s physical fitness show an increasing gap between
the children with the best and worst fitness. From a health perspective, it is
not a priority that the children with the best physical fitness improve, but it is
a serious problem that the children with the worst physical fitness are getting
worse. This observation probably results from reduced daily physical activity
and physical play among part of the population.
The greatest challenge is activating the least physically active people. Recent
research shows that interventions targeting children with obesity are effective,
and more physical education classes in the school curriculum are effective at
improving the health status of the most vulnerable children.
Epidemiological studies among adults consistently show that physically active
people have lower morbidity and mortality. The risk is nearly halved among
the most physically active people. Increasing physical activity is associated
with reduced morbidity and mortality even among middle-aged and older
people. Epidemiological cohort studies generally underestimate the effects of
physical activity because they normally analyse everyone based on the level of
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Fysisk aktivitet – håndbog om forebyggelse og behandling