Move It, Louisville!

The first phase of The Mayor’s Health Hometown Movement will focus on the benefits of physical activity and will provide important information and examples for how to make physical activity an integral part of the day’s routine events:

Fast Facts About Physical Activity

• 45.3% of Louisvillians fail to meet recommendations for moderate or vigorous activity.
• Despite proven benefits of being active, more than 28% of Americans report no leisure-time physical activity.
  
• Physical activity helps prevent being overweight and obese and is important in any weight loss program.
  
• Physical activity helps prevent heart disease, helps control blood pressure, cholesterol levels and diabetes, slows bone loss associated with advancing age, lowers the risks of cancer, helps reduce anxiety and depression and improves self-esteem and quality of life for people suffering from health conditions such as arthritis.
• According to the CDC, participants in a major clinical trial exercised at moderate intensity, usually by walking an average of 30 minutes a day, five days a week, lowered their intake of fat and calories, representing an average weight loss of about 10-15 pounds.
• All adults should accumulate at least 30 minutes or more of moderate intensity physical activity on most, and preferably, all days of the week.

Fast Facts About Worksite Wellness

• 59.6% of Louisvillians are overweight; of those, 28.6% are obese.
• 78% are not eating five or more servings of fruits and vegetable per day.
• 35% engage in no leisure time physical activity.
• 289 out of every 100,000 Louisvillians will die of heart disease, compared to 247 nationwide
• 61 out of every 100,000 Louisvillians will die of stroke, compared to 58 nationwide.
• 9% of Louisvillians have been diagnosed with diabetes as compared to 6% nationwide.
• Employees spend almost 45% of their waking hours in the workplace; health and fitness promotion activities at worksites contribute to a healthy workforce and save the company thousands of dollars.
• According to the CDC, $33 billion in medical costs and $9 billion in lost productivity is spent each year due to heart disease, cancer, stroke and diabetes.
• If 10% of adults began a regular walking program, $5.6 billion in heart disease costs could be saved.
• The lifetime medical costs of five diseases and conditions (hypertension, diabetes, heart disease, stroke and high cholesterol) among moderately obese people are $10,000 more than among people at a healthy weight.

Employers with physical activity programs have:

• Reduced healthcare costs by 20-55%.
• Reduced short-term sick leave by 6 to 32%.
• Increased productivity by 2 to 52%.

Opportunities for Employers

• Encourage employees to take the stairs instead of the elevator by making stairs safe, accessible and aesthetically pleasing.
• Create a walking path outside, or mark a course inside the building, with directions and distance displayed, so people can track how far they go.
• Offer health club discounts as part of benefit programs.
• Install bike racks at the worksite.
• Make pedometers available for employee use.
• Encourage stretching breaks at meetings and workstations.
• Offer employees 20 minutes per day on company time to engage in physical activity.
• Create departmental competitions for miles walked, weight lost or minutes of physical activity accomplished.
• Display signage and materials to encourage employees and provide information on how to incorporate physical activity into other parts of their daily lives.
• Post Body Mass Index (BMI) charts to help employees manage weight.
• Make sure drinking water is available to employees as a constant alternative to sugary sodas.

Sources: 2002 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Survey; Centers for Disease Control & Prevention