Community and public health approaches to the promotion of physical activity

Research in the exercise adherence area over the past several decades has resulted in the identification of a number of promising methods for influencing physical activity on the individual level. The substantial prevalence of underactivity across most sectors of the American population, however, demands that higher-level approaches to physical activity promotion that include environmental, organizational, and policy-level strategies be increasingly brought to bear on this problem. This paper compares individual and community approaches to physical activity intervention and provides examples of how the community/public health approach to physical activity promotion can be implemented to facilitate increases in population-wide physical activity.