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Increased Access to Safe and Attractive Places for Physical Activity

Action steps to increase access to safe and attractive places for physical activity include:

Encourage use of stairs.
Taking the stairs is one way to be more physically active. At work, employees are often presented with a choice between taking the stairs and taking an elevator or escalator. Choosing the stairs instead of the elevator is a quick way for people to add physical activity to their day.

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Provide on site exercise opportunities or subsidize health club membership for employees.
Employers can enhance access to opportunities for physical activity and health education programs, workshops, classes, and other resources in a worksite setting. Such practices can include developing walking trails, building a fitness center at the worksite, or creating a par course (fitness trail). Workplace environments that offer incentives for employees to seek preventive healthcare practices Workplace environments that offer incentives for employees to seek preventive healthcare practices -- such as reimbursement or coverage policies can see an increase in employee health and a reduction in overall healthcare costs to all parties.

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Know your community and identify local opportunities for safe, affordable, and developmentally appropriate physical activity to share with patients and their families.
Knowing about local opportunities for safe and affordable physical activity will improve your ability to counsel patients and their families on physical activity.

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Create opportunities for physical activity in clinical settings for employees, patients, and their families via events or design/built environment.
Providing opportunities for clinic/hospital employees as well as patients and their families to participate in physical activity (i.e. fun runs and walks) is a great way to encourage and support behavior change.

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Increased Physical Activity

Action steps to increase physical activity include:

Institute a health and wellness program within your practice.
Enhanced access to opportunities for physical activity combined with practices and policies that enable or facilitate access to physical activity programs, workshops, classes, and other resources in a worksite setting can improve employee health. Additionally, well-designed programs have the potential to extend beyond the worksite and positively influence dependents (spouses and children).

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Last Updated

03/10/2022

Source

American Academy of Pediatrics