June 28 — 29, 2007 Advisory Committee Meeting
Minutes
Recap of Institute of Medicine Adequacy of Evidence to Develop
Physical Activity Guidelines Workshop
Prior to introducing Linda Meyers from the Institute of Medicine (IOM), Dr.
Haskell summarized the need to provide the Secretary adequate evidence linking
physical activity to health before federal funds could be allocated to produce
recommendations and guidelines for physical activity. To research the evidence,
HHS requested the IOM, as part of the National Academy of Sciences, produce a
report addressing whether there is adequate evidence to proceed. Subsequently,
IOM convened a workshop, under the leadership of Dr. Meyers, to address this
issue.
Dr. Meyers reiterated the purpose of the workshop was to bring together expert
research scientists and physical activity practitioners from academia and
government to explore whether there was sufficient scientific evidence for HHS
to proceed. The workshop was sponsored by several agencies within HHS and
coordinated by two IOM Boards, the Nutrition Board and the Board on Population,
Health and Public Health Practice. She stated part of the reason IOM was asked
to coordinate the workshop was to provide a neutral venue for discussion since
IOM is not a government agency.
The focus throughout the workshop centered around the question, "Is there enough
data to move forward?" The workshop itself was set-up to enable presenters and
discussants to describe and discuss the nature and strengths of scientific data
and areas where additional research is needed. Several discussion sessions were
specifically set-up to enable different views and interpretations to be
expressed. The summary report of the workshop was organized around the following
themes: physical activity and health promotion and disease prevention, physical
activity and obesity and weight management, physical activity and risk, and
physical activity and special considerations for children and adolescents,
pregnant and post-partum women, older persons, and persons with disabilities.
The final report from the workshop is not a conclusion or consensus on physical
activity and health but rather an illustration that there is considerable, and
some strong, evidence linking physical activity and health. The following remark
from the report is supportive of the adequacy of evidence for HHS to move
forward:
"Physical activity has become a major public health problem. Physical
activity that contributes to good health can be delivered at the community
level. The U.S. lacks up-to-date, comprehensive physical activity guidelines for
promoting health. Scientific data strongly support numerous health benefits of a
physically active lifestyle. Dose response data that were presented suggest that
the development of newer, comprehensive guidelines based on new evidence would
be feasible."
RADM Royall indicated that quickly after the IOM produced a report from the
workshop Secretary Leavitt announced that HHS would move forward to produce
Physical Activity Guidelines. From that point on the process has been fast
tracked in order to produce the first edition of Guidelines in October, 2008.
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