With the Healthy Nutrition and Active Life Program published and carried out by the Ministry of Health Public Health Institution, it is aimed to raise awareness of the importance of physical activity in the country's population through family physicians and physical education teachers within the scope of the fight against obesity carried out throughout the country. It is aimed to draw attention to physical activity, to enable family physicians to share their recommendations on physical activity with their patients, and to improve the knowledge, attitudes and behaviors of the new generation from childhood onwards through physical education teachers, as well as the knowledge, attitudes and behaviors of parents on the subject by delivering physical activity report cards to parents.
The aim is to position family physicians and physical education teachers as physical activity leaders and make them the spokespersons of physical activity.
The Promoting Active Life Project aims to reduce physical inactivity in Turkey by raising awareness of the importance of physical activity among two important target groups (family physicians and teachers) who are in one-to-one contact with the public.
The program involves family physicians and physical education teachers who participate on a voluntary basis. Participating leaders receive in-depth training on physical activity, materials and resources to share with their patients and students in face-to-face trainings modeled after a developed society. In addition, all leaders participating in the program are included as researchers in a coordinated study to measure the impact of physical activity and perception on the subject. Necessary trainings on research techniques and research to be conducted are also provided within the scope of this program. In addition, they have the opportunity to interact with each other in order to use their knowledge power in their leadership potential.
Why physical activity is important;
Physical inactivity is responsible for the death of 55000 people in our country every year!
Living a sedentary life is one of the most important problems for modern society, where even the daily shopping is done at the computer in virtual markets.
Physical inactivity, a common risk factor for chronic diseases, ranks fourth among risk factors for death worldwide (6% of all deaths worldwide).
It is estimated that physical inactivity is the main cause of approximately 21-25% of breast and colon cancers, 27% of diabetes and 30% of ischemic heart disease. The spread of sedentary lifestyles is one of the major factors contributing to the increase in obesity.
Physical inactivity is a serious health risk not only for adults but also for children and young people. Apart from genetic, environmental and biological factors, inactivity and malnutrition are the most important factors in the development of chronic diseases. Many chronic diseases that we are accustomed to seeing in older ages are now observed to occur in childhood due to the adoption of a sedentary lifestyle. For this reason, it is of particular importance to increase movement in children from infancy and to reduce the time spent sedentary during the day.
Physical inactivity directly shortens life span!
Lack of physical activity accelerates the physiological changes that occur with the aging process, increases the frequency of many chronic diseases, causes these diseases to be seen at an earlier age and shortens life span.
All these studies show that physical activity is a vital necessity for all ages and groups and is an indispensable part of daily life.
Physical activity serves numerous positive factors in our physical health, mental and social health and future life.
Regular physical activity provides significant reductions in ischemic heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, breast and colon cancer, as well as preventing and treating obesity, delaying osteoporosis and aging, preventing falls in the elderly, preventing and treating depression, reducing stress, increasing brain function, increasing muscle and strength endurance. It also regulates sleep, promotes socialization, increases resistance to fatigue and improves self-confidence.
If there was a drug that could achieve all the positive effects of exercise, doctors would recommend it to all their patients and our health system would find a way to ensure that every patient had access to this "wonder drug".
What is Physical Activity?"
Physical activity: Any movement that requires energy expenditure using skeletal muscles in daily life is defined as physical activity.
Exercise (Regular Physical Activity): Regular, planned and repetitive physical activities that aim to maintain or improve one or more components of physical fitness.
Sports: It is a type of activity performed by licensed amateur and professional athletes within certain rules, usually for the purpose of competition. On the other hand, activities such as basketball and football played in neighborhood fields have also become established as sports in our daily lives.
In this context, exercise and sports are also physical activities as well as activities to maintain our daily lives such as playing games, housework, gardening, walking, climbing up and down stairs, eating, bathing.
What should be the duration and frequency of physical activity?
Protective and health-promoting effects of physical activity can be seen with planned, repetitive and regular physical activity along with daily activities.
Moderate exercise of 150 minutes per week (30 minutes 5 days a week) is sufficient for adults to protect and improve health.
Children between the ages of 1-4 should do a total of 180 minutes of physical activity of different intensities during the day. For children and adolescents between 5 and 18 years of age, 60 minutes a day of moderate to vigorous activity of varying intensity is recommended.
During moderate-intensity activity, a person can talk but cannot sing. Walking fast, jogging at a slow pace, dancing, jumping rope, swimming, playing table tennis, cycling at a slow pace, etc.
During high intensity activities, the person cannot speak more than a few words without gasping for breath during the activity. This includes brisk jogging, playing basketball, soccer, volleyball, handball, tennis, step-aerobics classes, brisk dancing, etc.
The importance of physical activity in chronic non-communicable diseases
An average of 3.2 million people die each year in our country due to physical inactivity.
Non-communicable diseases are the biggest problem threatening public health all over the world and in Turkey. Common, preventable risk factors underlie non-communicable diseases. These factors include tobacco addiction, physical inactivity, unhealthy diet and harmful alcohol use. Among the effects of these behavioral risk factors and other metabolic/physiological causes on the global NCD epidemic are overweight and obesity.
Children need at least 1 hour of vigorous activity!
Chronic diseases are the leading cause of death and burden of disease in Turkey. Studies show that the prevalence of overweight and obesity is increasing in our country as well as in the world and that obesity has started to affect especially our children and young people. The prevalence of obesity in children aged 0-5 years was found to be 8.5% and overweight 17.9%. The prevalence of obesity is 30.3% and the prevalence of mild obesity is 34.6% in all adults aged 19 years and over in Turkey. The main goal of national health policies is to reach a healthy society consisting of healthy individuals.
In the scope of the movement to control and prevent obesity, increasing the physical activity levels of citizens is an important success parameter. Studies show that on average 3.2 million people die each year due to physical inactivity. This shows that physical inactivity takes almost as many lives each year as traffic accidents. In Turkey, 72% of the population is physically inactive, while regular exercisers make up only 3.5% of the total population.
The Importance of Family Physicians
Turkey introduced family medicine throughout the country in 2011. Currently, approximately 21,500 family physicians work in 6,500 family health centers. An average of 3,500 people are registered to each family physician.
The family medicine system is a population-based system. The registered population principle of family medicine makes it possible to promote healthy living and effective chronic disease management.
The family medicine system is one of the most effective ways to promote physical activity in Turkey. Each of 77 million citizens is registered with a family physician. Reducing the prevalence of obesity within the scope of preventive medicine is within the areas of responsibility of family physicians. For this reason, the Promoting Active Life project is important in terms of raising the awareness of family physicians on the importance of physical activity and its role in the prevention of diseases, and their direct and effective touch on the society.
The Importance of Physical Education Teachers
In Turkey, it is compulsory for every citizen to receive 12 years of primary and secondary education before university. For this reason, another important group that is in active contact with the whole society, especially at a young age, is teachers. Increasing the level of awareness of all teachers, primarily physical education teachers, on physical activity and its importance at the level of the Ministry of National Education will be an important step in raising the awareness of our children and their families about obesity and non-communicable diseases in the short term, and in the medium and long term, in making the society more physically active.
The training kit for family physicians is available here,
the training kit for physical education teachers is available is available
- Molarius A. Seidel JC, Sans S, Toumilehto J, Kuulasmaa K. Varying sensitivity of waist action levels to identify subjects with overweight or obesity in 19 populations of the WHO MONICA Project. J Clin Epidemiol. 52: 1213-1224, 1999.
- The challenge of obesity in the WHO European Region and the strategies for response, Ed. Francesco Branca, Haik Nikogosian and Tim Lobstein, WHO, Denmark, 2007.
- Inequalities in young People's Health, HBSC International Report from the 2005/2006 survey. WHO Regional Office for Europe, Denmark, 2008. https://hbsc.org/publications/reports/inequalities-in-young-peoples-health/ (Access: 12.07.2013).
- Satman İ, Yılmaz T, Şengül A, Salman S, Salman F et al. Population-based study of diabetes and risk characteritics in Turkey. Diabetes Care; 25(9):1551-1556, 2002.
- T.C. Ministry of Health Public Health Institution of Turkey Family Medicine, General Information., http://ailehekimligi.gov.tr/ (Date of Access: October 17, 2013).
