More than 30 national medical, scientific, and health and fitness organizations today urged President Obama to give physical activity a heightened focus on the nation's health care agenda.
The call to action cited the powerful effects that physical activity has on reducing long-term health care costs. The United States currently spends 16 percent of its Gross Domestic Product on health care, more than any other developed nation in the world. Although health care spending could account for up to 20 percent of the GDP by 2015, more than 75 percent of diseases treated by health care are preventable.
Physical activity is a viable, inexpensive way to combat these numerous preventable health problems, including heart disease, hypertension, type 2
diabetes, colon
cancer, stroke,
osteoporosis, depression and anxiety,
breast cancer, and falls among older adults.
Supporters of the letter also urged Obama to focus the activities of the to-be-appointed Surgeon General, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and director of the National Institutes for Health on increasing physical activity to promote health and reduce chronic disease.
Organizations issuing the call to action include:
-American Alliance for Health Physical Education Recreation and Dance
-American Association of
Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Rehabilitation
-American College of Sports Medicine Activity & Health Policy Network
-American Council on Exercise
-American Dietetic Association
-American Hiking Society
-American Osteopathic Academy of Sports Medicine
-Association for Applied Sport Psychology
-Be Active New York State
-Center for Science in the Public Interest
-Clinical Exercise Physiology Association
-Connor Sport Court International
-International Association for Worksite Health Promotion
-International Health, Racquet, and Sportsclub Association
-National Association for Sport and Physical Education
-National Athletic Training Association
-National Coalition for Promoting Physical Activity
-Pop Warner Football
-Pop Warner Little Scholars
-Shaping America's Health
-Snowsports Industries America
-The National Association for Health and Fitness
-Trust for America's Health
-US Biathlon Association
-US Speedskating
-US Triathlon
-USA Diving
-USA Hockey
-USA Luge
-USA Volleyball
-Washington Coalition for Promoting Physical Activity
-Wellness Institute of Greater Buffalo and Western New York
-Women's Sports Foundation
The letter to President Obama read as follows:
March 13, 2009
President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
Dear President Obama:
We, the undersigned organizations, write to express our strong support for the promotion of physical activity as a way to combat our nation's health care problems…