caring Communication

Lifestyle
Getting Ireland Active...
New website shows
appetite for exercise
ince going live in mid January,
the newly re-designed HSE
website www.getirelandactive.
S
ie has had over 60,000 page
views, which shows the
appetite among Irish people for a healthier
lifestyle.
With two out of three Irish adults and four
out of five children not sufficiently active for
health benefits, the new website promotes a
healthier lifestyle for the whole population.
The website is designed to encourage people
to become more active by providing expert
content, advice on how to get started, a full
listing of places to get active across Ireland,
tips on how to get more active and motivation
to keep them going. The content is streamed
from the early years right up to older adults
with expert advice from professionals such
as the HSE’s physical activity co-ordinators.
A special feature of the website is the
interactive sitting time calculator, which adds
up the number of house you spent sitting and
evaluates your risk of ‘sitting disease’. You
would be surprised how quickly it all adds up.
Our results also suggest tips on how to fight
‘sitting disease’ by building more activity into
your day. Prolonged sitting is as dangerous
to a person’s health as smoking, according to
researchers at Queen’s University in Belfast.
The study found that sitting for long periods
of time has been linked to increased risk of
heart disease, obesity, diabetes and even
early death.
Colm Casey, HSE Physical Activity Coordinator
said, “Researchers, scientists
and health professionals know that being
active on a regular basis can lead us to
healthier and even happier lives. Evidence
shows that people who are physically active
generally live longer, and have a lower risk of
suffering from diabetes, high blood pressure,
some cancers, cardiovascular disease and
depression.
However, sometimes people need a little bit
of encouragement to make positive changes
to their lives. We are hoping that by raising
awareness about the benefits of physical
activity that we will inspire more people to
become active in 2016, continuing on for the
entire year and beyond.
Log on to getirelandactive.ie to help you
get started.”
The 2015 Healthy Ireland survey found
that two thirds of the Irish population do not
engage in enough, regular physical activity,
particularly women of all ages, those at
home doing domestic duties, unemployed
people, and older people. According to Sarah
O’Brien, HSE National Lead for the Healthy
Eating and Active Living Programme,
“Studies show that few Irish people take
part in regular physical activity particularly
women, unemployed people and older adults.
“The HSE’s new website getirelandactive.
ie aims to get as many people as possible
to become aware of the appropriate level of
physical activity for their age. The website
offers bespoke content that is motivating,
inspiring and engaging, yet supportive of all
Irish age groups no matter how active or
inactive they are.
“It gives key information on the health
benefits of being physically active with
motivation tips and a database full of places
throughout Ireland where you can go to be
active. We know that in a perfect world, we
all would have lots of free time for being
active.
“However, sometimes life can be busy.
Our website aims to inspire you with top tips
for easy ways to squeeze in some physical
activity into your day.
“The website is also proving to be a
valuable resource for professionals, who are
interested in learning about and promoting
physical activity as part of their work.”
64 | health matters | spring 2015