Fit for Fall: New Online Program Promotes Physical Activity in English or Spanish

Know someone who wants to get fit for fall?

A new program from NHLBI, entitled "Physical Activity: Your Heart Your LifeA Lay Health Educator's Program" has just gone live on the NHLBI Web site.

The effort is an outgrowth of the popular "Salud para su Corazon" program, an exciting comprehensive community-based heart-health promotion initiative from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. It targets Latinos living in the United States, but the information in English is also suitable for a wide audience. The project raises awareness of the risk factors and promotes lifestyle changes to reduce the chances of developing heart disease.

Members of the public can now interact with Angela - a virtual lay health educator - to learn how making some simple changes in their lives can signficantly reduce their risk of heart disease. The program is at http://hin.nhlbi.nih.gov/salud/pa/learning.htm.

Angela teaches by using interactive quizzes, offering visitors a downloadable set of stretching excercises, and even suggesting a sample walking program. She also addresses common barriers to starting a moderate physical activity program. A Spanish language version of this program is also available at http://hin.nhlbi.nih.gov/salud/pa/indexsp.htm

For lay health educators a virtual trainer of trainers, named Doña Fela, will help educators learn how to personally and confidently approach members of the Latino community with the same information contained in the online program for the public. The program is at http://hin.nhlbi.nih.gov/salud/pa/teaching.htm.

The online program includes a number of free downloadable teaching aids, such as handouts, picture cards, session outlines, and more to help educators prepare and conduct a session on the importance of physical activity to heart health. A Spanish language version of this program is also available at http://hin.nhlbi.nih.gov/salud/pa/indexsp.htm.

More online program modules are in the planning stages, and will be announced through the NHLBI Health Information Network. 

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