Allana LeBlanc and Dr. Mark Tremblay are authors on a paper, “Knowledge and awareness of Canadian Physical Activity and Sedentary Behaviour Guidelines: a synthesis of existing evidence,” that was recently published in Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism. Citation details and a summary of the paper are below.
Allana G LeBlanc, Tanya Berry, Sameer Deshpande, Mary Duggan, Guy Faulkner, Amy E. Latimer-Cheung, Norm O’Reilly, Ryan E Rhodes, John C Spence, Mark S. Tremblay. Knowledge and awareness of Canadian Physical Activity and Sedentary Behaviour Guidelines: a synthesis of existing evidence. Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism, 10.1139/apnm-2014-0464.
ABSTRACT: The aim of this review was to consolidate and synthesize existing evidence regarding current knowledge and awareness of Canadian Physical Activity (PA) and Sedentary Behaviour (SB) guidelines. MEDLINE, Embase and PsycINFO were searched for peer-reviewed publications pertaining to the guidelines. Content experts, key organizations (i.e., ParticipACTION, and the Canadian Fitness and Lifestyle Research Institute), journal websites, and service organizations (i.e., the Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology (CSEP), and the Public Health Agency of Canada) were consulted for additional evidence. Scientific publications (n=6) and research from ParticipACTION and the Canadian Fitness and Lifestyle Research Institute reported that awareness of the guidelines is low, especially with respect to the SB guidelines. Less than 10% of survey respondents from the Canadian population were aware of PA guidelines, and less than 5% were aware of SB guidelines. Information on the guidelines was available on 51% of public health unit and CSEP partner websites. Online metrics (e.g., downloads, site accessions) from CSEP, the Public Health Agency of Canada, and journal websites showed that online accession of the guidelines was high (e.g., all “highly accessed” on journal websites). This review showed that awareness of Canadian PA and SB guidelines is low amongst the general population, but higher amongst the scientific and stakeholder community. Governmental, non-governmental, and stakeholder organizations should collaborate in creating sustained, long-term and well-resourced communication plans to reach the Canadian population to raise awareness of PA and SB guidelines and implement programs to facilitate their uptake.
