The Routledge Handbook of Physical Activity and Health

Physical activity and health is a wide-reaching field that is relevant to exercise and sport science, public health, urban and transport planning, occupational health, and clinical medicine. Accordingly, The Routledge Handbook on Physical Activity and Health is a comprehensive guide for anyone interested in how physical activity can contribute to solving many health challenges of the 21st century. Across 50 chapters, the Handbook provides fundamental background information on the history, biological mechanisms, and epidemiological evidence linking physical activity with physical and mental health. It also explores the ways to measure physical activity and key determinants of the behaviour across different socio-ecological levels of influence. It presents the latest evidence on the effectiveness of physical activity interventions for improving physical activity in specific populations and contexts, and proposes how public health policies for physical activity can be developed, implemented, and evaluated. The Routledge Handbook on Physical Activity and Health is an essential resource for researchers, students, policymakers, and other professionals in many disciplines, including sport, exercise and health, public health, environment, and planning.

Miranda E.G. Armstrong is Associate Professor in the Department of Health at the University of Bath. She is a physical activity epidemiologist, and her research focuses on physical activity and health, particularly active travel, chronic disease, and population health. Her work has contributed to the UK Chief Medical Officer's Physical Activity Guidelines. Rona Macniven is Senior Lecturer in the School of Population Health at the University of New South Wales Sydney. Her research expertise is in physical activity, sport, well-being, falls prevention, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health, and public health epidemiology and evaluation. Max J. Western is Associate Professor of Behavioural Science at the University of Bath. His research focuses on motivation and behaviour change, exercise interventions for healthy and active ageing, and the use of digital tools to measure and support physical activity. Klaus Gebel is Senior Lecturer in the School of Human Performance, Rehabilitation and Population Health at the University of Technology Sydney. In his research, he mainly focuses on the relationship between urban design, physical activity, active transport, and health. Adrian E. Bauman is Emeritus Professor of Public Health, Sydney University, Australia, with over 30 years of experience in public health and physical activity research. His research includes physical activity epidemiology, surveillance and measurement research, evaluating community-wide interventions, and implementation science. He has contributed to physical activity policy translation, capacity building and training, and physical activity guideline development in several countries.

SECTION 1 Introduction 1 Physical activity and health: key definitions, concepts, and controversies 2 A Brief history of physical activity and health SECTION 2 Physiological mechanisms of physical activity and health 3 Physiology of physical activity and sedentary behaviour 4 Cardiorespiratory fitness 5 Physical function, falls, and the role of physical activity across the life course SECTION 3 Measurement of physical activity 6 Self-reported measurement of physical activity behaviour and interventions 7 Device-based measurement 8 Contextual measurement of physical activity 9 Pragmatic evaluation of physical activity interventions and programmes 10 Economic evaluation of physical activity interventions SECTION 4 The epidemiological evidence for physical activity and health 11 Research designs and causal inference in physical activity epidemiology 12 Physical activity and all-cause mortality 13 Physical activity and mental health 14 Physical activity and diabetes 15 Physical activity and obesity 16 Physical activity, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease 17 Physical activity and cancer 18 Physical activity and bone health, osteoporosis, and fractures 19 Physical activity and ageing 20 Sedentary behaviour epidemiology SECTION 5 Correlates and determinants of physical activity 21 Sociodemographic correlates and determinants of physical activity 22 Physical literacy and physical activity 23 The motivational basis of physical activity 24 Social environments and physical activity 25 Built environments and physical activity 26 Sociocultural and religious contexts of physical activity SECTION 6 Physical activity interventions 27 Physical activity interventions in children and adolescents 28 Physical activity interventions for older adults 29 First Nations peoples 30 Refugees and people affected by forced displacement 31 Interventions to enhance physical activity among people living with physical disability 32 People living with adverse mental health 33 Physical activity interventions for pregnancy and postpartum 34 Community-wide interventions to increase physical activity 35 Mass media campaigns and communications strategies for physical activity 36 Environment and transport 37 Digital interventions (e-health and m-health) 38 Novel and emerging technologies 39 Sedentary behaviour interventions 40 Exercise as therapy and management of chronic disease 41 Sport and recreation 42 Workplace interventions for physical activity SECTION 7 Physical activity and public health 43 Policy and regulatory approaches to physical activity 44 Government and interagency approaches to physical activity promotion: using data from the Global Observatory for Physical Activity-GoPA! 45 Physical activity plans, guidelines, and guidance 46 Advancing physical activity through strategic advocacy 47 Systems approaches to physical activity 48 Scale-up of physical activity programmes to the population level 49 Commercial determinants of health-applications to physical activity 50 Co-benefits of physical activity for societal and planetary health Epilogue