Reacción a "Policies to promote physical activity fall short"

In this article, this team of authors has made an important reflection on the overwhelming evidence showing how policies to promote physical activity have improved over the last twenty years without any noticeable improvement in epidemiological data. This group of authors has extensive experience in the field and has analysed in detail the public policies of many countries, so the data provided is highly rigorous and of great scientific value. The fact that these policies are presented as focused on the prevention of non-communicable diseases has prevented them from having a direct effect, at least for the moment, on the population.

The authors raise a very relevant point for these policies to be successful in the near future: intersectoral work. This would make physical activity a real political priority by creating opportunities for physical activity in all contexts in which human beings move. If there are policies that promote active transport to school or work, policies that encourage physical activity during the working day, policies that articulate health centres as spaces for physical activity, which is already happening in some places, we will probably see an increase in physical activity.

In the case of Spain, we can say that there are a significant number of policies that encourage physical activity among the population, with progress having been made towards intersectorality. However, as mentioned, it is important to have clear leadership to prevent all progress from stalling. Furthermore, in Spain we have the particularity of the regions and the powers delegated to them in certain areas. This implies the additional need for vertical coordination that takes into account the particularities of each region, as has been observed in some regional analyses in Spain. Therefore, based on the comments in the reference article, Spain is in a good starting position to “create active communities” in which it is normal to move around as a fundamental principle.