Promoting physical activity - a lifestyle approach

Delivering positive healthy living outcomes throughout communities is a key task for many sport and recreation professionals. And, vital as traditional facility based schemes are, encouraging activity as part of day-to-day life is equally important.

One recent and highly successful scheme in Kingston-upon-Hull has taken just this approach - encouraging day to day routine activity such as walking and gardening. The scheme has been followed up by a research project to assess its impact on the participants. Importantly, this research isn't a dull statistical survey, but instead allows the voices of those taking part to be heard. If you are involved in outreach work in your community aimed at encouraging healthier lifestyles then this is a must-read, particularly the one-page summary of recommendations at the end of the report.

The provisional research (full version) is available to download from the BMC Public Health Journal here.