Physical Activity and Health Innovation Collaborative
The Physical Activity and Health Innovation Collaborative promotes information sharing and collaboration to improve physical activity surveillance and opportunities, especially for students.
Funder: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Due Dates: No specific deadlines (ad hoc activity)
Funding Amounts: Not specified; collaborative and convening activity without direct grant awards
Summary: Supports information sharing and collaboration to enhance physical activity surveillance and promote physical activity opportunities, especially in schools, to improve public health and obesity prevention.
Key Information: Associated with the Roundtable on Obesity Solutions; outputs do not represent official National Academies reports; focuses on surveillance gaps and exemplary school district programs.
Description
The Physical Activity and Health Innovation Collaborative (PA IC) is an ad hoc convening activity linked to the Roundtable on Obesity Solutions at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. It aims to foster information sharing and collaboration to advance the Roundtable’s goals and build on findings from prior National Academies reports related to physical activity and health.
Physical activity is recognized as a critical factor for overall health, extending beyond obesity prevention to benefits in cardiovascular, metabolic, brain, mental, and musculoskeletal health across the lifespan. National guidelines recommend adults engage in 150 minutes of moderate-intensity or 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity physical activity weekly, and children engage in at least 60 minutes daily of combined aerobic, muscle-strengthening, and bone-strengthening activities. Despite this, many Americans do not meet these recommendations.
The Collaborative focuses on enhancing physical activity surveillance in the U.S., a need highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic and expert panels. The 2019 National Academies consensus report, Implementing Strategies to Enhance Public Health Surveillance of Physical Activity in the United States, recommended improvements in surveillance across four key areas: children, health care, workplaces, and community supports.
In partnership with the National Physical Activity Plan (NPAP) and the Physical Activity Alliance, the Collaborative has developed products addressing gaps in these areas, summarized in the report Advancing Key Actions to Enhance Physical Activity Surveillance in the United States.
A notable research focus within the Collaborative is on school districts that have demonstrated exemplary efforts to provide physical activity opportunities for students. Through interviews and mixed-methods research, factors facilitating successful programs—including policies, engagement, funding, and activities—were identified. These findings offer actionable evidence for other districts aiming to improve student physical activity.
