Health Care – STRATEGY 3

Use a health care systems approach to promote physical activity and to prevent and treat physical inactivity.

TACTICS

• Encourage health care systems and payors to prioritize physical activity and develop comprehensive approaches to physical activity promotion.
• Build upon successful programs already in place to create a central role for physical activity.
• Evaluate and promote effective practices and programs that encourage physical activity in partnership with insurers. For example, create patient incentives for demonstrating increased physical activity and fitness, such as co-payment waivers during chronic disease management visits.
• Expand research that identifies and evaluates best practices for physical activity in health care, particularly those effective in population segments at high risk of physical inactivity.
• Establish a national network of programs, providers and advocates for physical activity as a key component of the U.S. health system.
• Make low-cost, evidence-based cognitive and behavioral interventions widely available for referral by health care providers to patients. These interventions can include high-tech approaches, such as Web resources and “smart phone” applications.
• Disseminate current best-practice guidelines for promoting physical activity in high risk subpopulations. Include approaches relevant to primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention.

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