You are here

  • Home
  • Online First
  • Contemporary national and international guidelines on physical activity and sedentary behaviour for people living with chronic conditions, disability and advanced age: a scoping review

Article Text

Article menu
Download PDFPDF
Systematic review
Contemporary national and international guidelines on physical activity and sedentary behaviour for people living with chronic conditions, disability and advanced age: a scoping review
  1. Mark P Ranasinghe1,2,
  2. Harrison Andersen3,
  3. Ruby K Dempsey3,
  4. Noah Wexler4,
  5. Rochelle Davis5,
  6. Monique Francois6,
  7. Stephen Gilbert7,8,
  8. Anthony David Okely9,
  9. Catherine Sherrington10,
  10. Paddy C Dempsey11,12,13,14
  1. 1Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
  2. 2Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
  3. 3School of Medicine, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
  4. 4Department of Cardiology, Western Health, Footscray, Victoria, Australia
  5. 5School of Medical, Indigenous and Health Sciences, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia
  6. 6Faculty of Science Medicine and Health, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia
  7. 7Sydney Local Health District, Camperdown, New South Wales, Australia
  8. 8The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
  9. 9School of Health and Society, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia
  10. 10Institute for Musculoskeletal Health, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
  11. 11Institute for Physical Activity and Nutrition, School of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences, Deakin University, Burwood, Victoria, Australia
  12. 12Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
  13. 13Diabetes Research Centre, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK
  14. 14MRC Epidemiology Unit, Institute of Metabolic Science, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
  1. Correspondence to Dr Mark P Ranasinghe; pimalr{at}gmail.com

Abstract

Objectives Physical activity guidelines inform policy and practice in promoting healthier lifestyles. The WHO advocates for distinct recommendations for each country to address variation in needs, resources and context. Specific regional recommendations for three underactive populations facing unique barriers to movement are lacking—people with chronic conditions, disability and advanced age. We review which countries/regions provide specific physical activity guidelines for these populations to identify deficiencies in meeting WHO recommendations and inform future directions for guideline development.

Design Scoping review.

Data sources OVID Medline, PubMed, Scopus, Embase, Web of Science, Google Scholar, ProQuest, CINAHL, Google searches, targeted websites.

Eligibility criteria Data sources were searched from database inception to September 2023 to identify community-facing physical activity guidelines at the national/international level for these populations. We recorded, summarised and analysed physical activity guideline recommendations extracted from published guideline documents, organised by population and country/region.

Results 66 articles were identified, addressing 28 distinct countries/regions, including four international guidelines, published from 2009 to 2023. The WHO guidelines were adopted by 19 countries and the European Union. Across all regions, a lack of specific advice was identified for individuals with chronic conditions (46%), disability (46%) and advanced age (11%). Advice for chronic conditions and disability commonly replicated general adult population advice.

Conclusion Many countries/regions do not produce physical activity guidelines specific to populations with chronic conditions and disability. As such, a large proportion of countries/regions failed to meet WHO recommendations, highlighting a lack of customised advice to address unique barriers faced by vulnerable populations.

  • Physical activity
  • Health promotion
  • Public health

Data availability statement

No data are available. Not applicable.

https://doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2024-108247

Statistics from Altmetric.com

    Request Permissions

    If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.

    Data availability statement

    No data are available. Not applicable.

    View Full Text

    Footnotes

    • X @FrancoisME, @CathieSherr, @PC_Dempsey

    • Contributors MPR: conceptualisation, methodology, data curation, investigation, writing–original draft preparation; PCD: conceptualisation, methodology, resources, writing, supervision; CS: conceptualisation, methodology, writing, supervision; NW: data curation and validation; HA: data curation and validation; RKD: data curation and validation; RD: resources; MF: resources. ADO: resources, writing; SG: writing. Author MPR is the guarantor.

    • Funding This investigator-initiated study required no funding from internal or external sources. Authors CS, ADO, MF and PCD receive salary support from Australian National Health and Medical Research Council Fellowships.

    • Map disclaimer The depiction of boundaries on this map does not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of BMJ (or any member of its group) concerning the legal status of any country, territory, jurisdiction or area or of its authorities. This map is provided without any warranty of any kind, either express or implied.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

    • Supplemental material This content has been supplied by the author(s). It has not been vetted by BMJ Publishing Group Limited (BMJ) and may not have been peer-reviewed. Any opinions or recommendations discussed are solely those of the author(s) and are not endorsed by BMJ. BMJ disclaims all liability and responsibility arising from any reliance placed on the content. Where the content includes any translated material, BMJ does not warrant the accuracy and reliability of the translations (including but not limited to local regulations, clinical guidelines, terminology, drug names and drug dosages), and is not responsible for any error and/or omissions arising from translation and adaptation or otherwise.