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All-island
conference highlights inactivity crisis
A
major two-day conference highlighting the urgent need to address
the major problem of physical inactivity begins this morning
at the Canal Court Hotel, Newry, with the aim of ensuring
public money is targeted at those who need it most.
The
conference, 'Getting
active together - promoting good practice in physical activity',
which will be attended by over 200 delegates from health,
education, environment, local authorities, voluntary and community
sectors all over Ireland, is a key cross border initiative
organised by the Health Promotion Agency for Northern Ireland
and the Health Promotion Unit, Department of Health and Children,
Dublin. The overall aim of the conference is to identify principles
of good practice in physical activity and to explore the role
of relevant bodies in working together to address the growing
levels of physical inactivity. The conference will also identify
what can be done on an all-island basis to get Ireland more
active.
Dr
Brian Gaffney, Chief Executive of the Health Promotion Agency,
said "Recent research
shows that one in four sedentary people in Northern Ireland
are not even interested in becoming regularly physically active.
The scale of physical inactivity makes it the most common
risk factor for coronary heart disease, more so than smoking
or obesity. Global trends indicate that the inactivity levels
of young people are rising rapidly which reinforces current
research claiming that parents will outlive their children
if they do not change their inactive lifestyles. This gives
us great cause for concern and shows there is much to be done
to get the message across that it only takes a little to gain
a lot."
The
conference includes presentations on the role of physical
activity in health, the benefits of a physically active population,
the current situation in the north and south of Ireland, as
well as a number of workshops highlighting what works well
for other organisations to get people moving. As well as being
an all-island event there will be a number of speakers at
the conference from Scotland and England.
Dr
Chris Fitzgerald, Principal Officer, Health Promotion Unit,
Department of Health and Children, Dublin said 'According
to a recent national survey conducted on behalf of the Department
of Health and Children the number of people engaged in no
physical activity has risen to 23% and nearly six in ten people
over 15 years of age are not active enough to benefit their
health. This trend is very worrying. Steps have been taken
to redress this situation including the all-island physical
activity health promotion campaign, 'get
a life, get active', which aims to promote awareness of
physical activity for good health and encourage people to
become more active in their daily lives but more work needs
to be done.'
The conference will be to provide recommendations for key
influencers to ensure physical activity is high on the agenda
of public health at European, national, regional and local
levels.
END
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