Publications

2014 Global Summit on the Physical Activity of Children

Chair, Global Summit on the Physical Activity of Children Active Healthy Kids Canada, established in 1994, is a registered charitable organization that works to power the movement to get kids moving by providing knowledge, insight and understanding that influences thinking and action among issue stakeholders to help them build better programs, campaigns and policies to increase physical activity (PA) among children and youth.This year marks the 20th anniversary of Active Healthy Kids Canada.Since 2005, Active Healthy Kids Canada has prepared, produced and released an annual Report Card on the Physical Activity of Children and Youth (see www.activehealthykids.ca).Each year the Report Card provides a comprehensive overview of the "state of the nation" on how Canada is succeeding in providing PA opportunities for children and youth.The 10th Anniversary Active Healthy Kids Canada Report Card was released in 2014.A failing or unsatisfactory grade for PA has been assigned in Canada every year that the Report Card has been released. 1The most recent data suggest that only 5% of Canadian school children and youth meet minimum PA guidelines. 2,3Similar findings are available in many countries making childhood and youth physical inactivity a global concern 4 with significant implications for future chronic disease.A recent comprehensive analysis of the effects of PA on the global burden of noncommunicable diseases and mortality has estimated that 6% of coronary heart disease cases, 7% of type 2 diabetes, 10% of breast and colon cancers, and 9% of deaths are directly attributable to physical inactivity. 5Consequently, 5.3 million deaths worldwide were attributed to physical inactivity in 2007 6 leading to the conclusion that ". . . in view of the prevalence, global reach, and health effect of physical inactivity, the issue should be appropriately described as pandemic, with far reaching health, economic, environmental, and social consequences". 6(p.67)In Canada alone the annual health care costs attributed to physical inactivity among adults is estimated to be $6.8 billion. 7oncerns over high levels of physical inactivity and obesity and subsequent implications for the development of noncommunicable diseases have been expressed worldwide. 4-10Notably, at the sixtysixth session of the United Nations (September 2011) in New York City, the General Assembly made a political declaration on the prevention and control of noncommunicable diseases ". . .with concern [for] the rising levels of obesity in different regions, particularly among children and youth, and note that obesity, an unhealthy diet and physical inactivity have strong linkages with the four main non-