Habitual Physical Activity and Health

Physical fitness is of paramount importance in maintaining a satisfactory level of health. The human body was built for activity ad it needs activity to function properly. For this reason, it is important to investigate in depth the role of habitual physical activity in human health. Large population studies are needed to establish whether a relationship exists between the degree and pattern of habitual physical activity and given health or disease criteria, such as the incidence of cardiovascular disease. Since the existing approaches have serious shortcomings that limit their applicability or their validity, a new approach must be sought. This should be reliable, informative, socially acceptable, easy to follow, and relatively cheap. As a first step, the authors of the present manual have set out to consolidate in summary form the information available on patterns of habitual physical activity and physical fitness in relation to age, sex, and socio-cultural and ethnic factors, both at work and during leisure, and on ways in which the intensity of physical activity can be graded and how it can be assessed. This information is dispersed in a great many technical articles and books; its retrieval is difficult and unlikely to be attempted except by specialized work or sports physiologists. This book is now however, addressed to such readers - for whom it would probably be too elementary and limited in scope - but is intended rather to provide useful guidance to cardiologists, epidemiologists, public health workers and administrators, physical training instructors, and others who, while not specialists in work physiology, may have responsibility for planning, supervising, or coordinating health-oriented research on habitual physical activity of individuals or populations. The manual is divided into two parts Part I (chapter 1-10) deals in a general way with the physiological principles of physical activity and with the relationship between habitual physical activity and age, ethnic group occupation and leisure, climate and altitude, degree of industrialization, and health status. Part II (chapters 11-16) describes various methods of quantifying habitual physical activity patters in individual and in population groups.