Ryan E. Rhodes

The Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology (CSEP), in cooperation with ParticipACTION and other stakeholders, and with support from the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC), has developed the new Canadian Physical Activity Guidelines for Children (aged 5-11 years), Youth (aged 12-17 years), Adults (aged 18-64 years), and Older Adults (aged >=65 years). The new guidelines include a preamble to provide context and specific guidelines for each age group. The entire guideline development process was guided by the Appraisal of Guidelines for Research Evaluation (AGREE) II instrument, which is the international standard for clinical practice guideline development. Thus, the guidelines have gone through a rigorous and transparent developmental process; we based the recommendations herein on evidence from 3 systematic reviews, and the final guidelines benefitted from an extensive online and in-person consultation process with hundreds of stakeholders and key informants, both domestic and international. Since 2006, the products of our efforts resulted in the completion of 21 peer-reviewed journal articles (including 5 systematic reviews) that collectively guided this work. The process that Canadian researchers undertook to update the national physical activity guidelines represents the most current synthesis, interpretation, and application of the scientific evidence to date.

BACKGROUND: Healthy childhood development is fostered through sufficient physical activity (PA; including time outdoors), limiting sedentary behaviours (SB), and adequate sleep; collectively known as movement behaviours. Though the COVID-19 virus outbreak has changed the daily lives of children and youth, it is unknown to what extent related restrictions may compromise the ability to play and meet movement behaviour recommendations. This secondary data analysis examined the immediate impacts of COVID-19 restrictions on movement and play behaviours in children and youth. METHODS: A national sample of Canadian parents (n = 1472) of children (5-11 years) or youth (12-17 years) (54% girls) completed an online survey that assessed immediate changes in child movement and play behaviours during the COVID-19 outbreak. Behaviours included PA and play, SB, and sleep. Family demographics and parental factors that may influence movement behaviours were assessed. Correlations between behaviours and demographic and parental factors were determined. For open-ended questions, word frequency distributions were reported. RESULTS: Only 4.8% (2.8% girls, 6.5% boys) of children and 0.6% (0.8% girls, 0.5% boys) of youth were meeting combined movement behaviour guidelines during COVID-19 restrictions. Children and youth had lower PA levels, less outside time, higher SB (including leisure screen time), and more sleep during the outbreak. Parental encouragement and support, parental engagement in PA, and family dog ownership were positively associated with healthy movement behaviours. Although families spent less time in PA and more time in SB, several parents reported adopting new hobbies or accessing new resources. CONCLUSIONS: This study provides evidence of immediate collateral consequences of the COVID-19 outbreak, demonstrating an adverse impact on the movement and play behaviours of Canadian children and youth. These findings can guide efforts to preserve and promote child health during the COVID-19 outbreak and crisis recovery period, and to inform strategies to mitigate potential harm during future pandemics.

The Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology assembled a Consensus Panel representing national organizations, content experts, methodologists, stakeholders, and end-users and followed an established guideline development procedure to create the Canadian 24-Hour Movement Guidelines for Adults aged 18–64 years and Adults aged 65 years or older: An Integration of Physical Activity, Sedentary Behaviour, and Sleep. These guidelines underscore the importance of movement behaviours across the whole 24-h day. The development process followed the strategy outlined in the Appraisal of Guidelines for Research and Evaluation (AGREE) II instrument. A large body of evidence was used to inform the guidelines including 2 de novo systematic reviews and 4 overviews of reviews examining the relationships among movement behaviours (physical activity, sedentary behaviour, sleep, and all behaviours together) and several health outcomes. Draft guideline recommendations were discussed at a 4-day in-person Consensus Panel meeting. Feedback from stakeholders was obtained by survey (n = 877) and the draft guidelines were revised accordingly. The final guidelines provide evidence-based recommendations for a healthy day (24-h), comprising a combination of sleep, sedentary behaviours, and light-intensity and moderate-to-vigorous-intensity physical activity. Dissemination and implementation efforts with corresponding evaluation plans are in place to help ensure that guideline awareness and use are optimized. Novelty First ever 24-Hour Movement Guidelines for Adults aged 18–64 years and Adults aged 65 years or older with consideration of a balanced approach to physical activity, sedentary behaviour, and sleep Finalizes the suite of 24-Hour Movement Guidelines for Canadians across the lifespan

OBJECTIVE: To provide a broad overview of the state of physical activity (PA) research in the form of (1) definitions of PA, (2) health benefits, (3) prevalence, (4) correlates and (5) interventions. DESIGN: A high-level overview of published reviews of the literature. RESULTS: Regular PA is an effective primary and secondary preventative strategy against at least 25 chronic medical conditions with risk reduction typically in the 20-30% range. While approximately 75% of adults meet recommended PA guidelines, the prevalence is slightly lower for women compared to men, and considerably lower for youth, older adults and those in higher income countries. Motivation, self-efficacy and self-regulation remain consistent correlates of PA. Interventions show PA changes in the small effect size range for adults and youth but the heterogeneity is considerable across studies. Only a few (aggregate of behavioural regulation strategies, supervision, high frequency of contact) reliable moderators of intervention success were identified across study quality, sample characteristics, theory/behaviour change techniques and delivery modes/settings. CONCLUSION: PA research should continue to examine the mechanisms causing health outcomes, the dose that can lead to clinically relevant changes in health status, the scope and validity of PA surveillance and innovative behaviour change techniques, while improving the reach and duration of PA interventions.

OBJECTIVES: The physical activity (PA) intention-behaviour gap is a topic of considerable contemporary research, given that most of our models used to understand physical activity suggest that intention is the proximal antecedent of behavioural enactment. The purpose of this study was to quantify the intention-PA gap at public health guidelines with a meta-analysis of the action control framework. DESIGN: Systematic review and meta-analysis. METHODS: Literature searches were conducted in July 2012 among five key search engines. This search yielded a total of 2,865 potentially relevant records; of these, 10 studies fulfilled the full eligibility criteria (N = 3,899). RESULTS: Random-effects meta-analysis procedures with correction for sampling bias were employed in the analysis for estimates of non-intenders who subsequently did not engage in physical activity (21%), non-intenders who subsequently performed physical activity (2%), intenders who were not successful at following through with their PA (36%), and successful intenders (42%). The overall intention-PA gap was 46%. CONCLUSION: These results emphasize the weakness in early intention models for understanding PA and suggest this would be a problem during intervention. Contemporary research that is validating and exploring additional constructs (e.g., self-regulation, automaticity) that augment intention or improving the measurement of motivation seems warranted. STATEMENT OF CONTRIBUTION: What is already known on this subject? Intention is considered the proximal antecedent of behaviour in many popular models. Intention is also an established correlate of physical activity behaviour, yet discordance is considerable in experimental research. What does this study add? This meta-analysis of studies that have assessed concordance/discordance of physical activity intention and behaviour at public health guidelines shows the intention-behaviour gap at 48% and the discordance is from intenders who do not act. The results demonstrate that discordance is not just from extreme levels of intention or behaviour (e.g., intend to exercise six times but only exercise five), but from levels that are relevant to health promotion.