Greetings from the Director General of the World Health Organization
Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland
During the last World Health Assembly, I proposed the theme for this year's World Health Day to be physical activity. WHO estimates that lack of physical activity leads to more than 2 million deaths per year and combined with improper diet and tobacco use, causes most premature coronary heart diseases and also increases the risk of several cancers, diabetes, high blood pressure, blood lipid disorders, osteoporosis, depression and anxiety.
The World Health Day 2002 should strengthen the global debate for prevention and health promotion. Physical activity can be a practical means to also achieve other numerous health gains, both directly and indirectly. It can bring down rates of violence among young people, promote tobacco-free lifestyles and decrease other risky behaviours, such as unsafe sex or illicit drug use. It can also reduce feelings of isolation and loneliness among the elderly and improve their physical and mental agility.
The World Health Day 2002 campaign will give particular visibility to ways in which individuals and communities can influence their own health and well being. It will also point out the way for policy-makers and health practitioners towards investing more in prevention, as the future of public health. Physical activity is a powerful and affordable means to improve health and well being, prevent diseases, reduce the need for drugs and save health cure costs!
This year the main venue for the World Health Day will be Sao Paulo, Brazil, highlighting the successful model of AGITA SAO PAULO. This model has also inspired the slogan for WHD 2002: "MOVE FOR HEALTH". Cities, towns and municipalities are encouraged to join in this World Health Day movement towards healthy living by organizing their own events. I wish all of you success at the campaign in the American Region.
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Greetings from the Director of the
Pan American Health Organization
Dr. George A.O. Alleyne
On April 7th, we will celebrate World Health Day 2002, under the slogan "Move for Health!" Living an active lifestyle today is inarguably imperative. Over the last quarter century, strong scientific evidence has clearly and repetitively shown us that exercising regularly and practicing sports open the doors to a healthy life and prevent or delay the onset of diseases that increasingly dominate the panorama of health in the Region.
The epidemic onset of obesity, diabetes and other cardiovascular diseases affect the poor and rich alike as well as persons of diverse cultural and ethnic origins. Along with the problems of excess caloric intake and high fat consumption in our contemporary diet, the sedentary lifestyle of urban life is the most serious problem confronting us today. In North America, the Caribbean and Latin America, nearly three fourth of the population, including children and adults, perform very little physical activity, and more than a third are victims of sedentary lives. This is the silent epidemic concealed behind the prevalent chronic diseases previously mentioned, and it is also the new challenge of public health.
The challenge is formidable, as it fights against the habit of inactivity. However, there is some encouraging data. Recent evaluations on the effects of exercise on health suggest that is not necessary for us to become superior athletes or skilled aerobic exercise trainers. Moderate physical activity, if practiced 30 minutes daily or during most of the days of the week, is equally beneficial for health. This should now be the focus of our efforts in health promotion. Even everyday activities such as walking, climbing the stairs, performing household chores of relative intensity, or riding a bicycle, among many others, help to counteract the harmful effects of a sedentary life.
Health professionals have a new battlefront in the promotion of physical activity. We rely on a powerful weapon: the great credibility of our professionals. However, our counseling and advises will serve little if we do not call upon new alliances in this crusade. In order to design a new health paradigm that emphasizes the need for physical activity, it is necessary to change our environment and promote policies and spaces that encourage us to be active. The lack of safety in our cities, the lack of recreational places, the lack of respect to pedestrians, and the absence of health promotion activities in schools and workplaces are all among the factors that discourage physical activity. All health promotion programs should be directed to combat these obstacles to physical activity.
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