World Health Organization 2020 guidelines on physical activity and sedentary behaviour
Creators: name: Bull, Fiona C
name: Al-Ansari, Salih S
name: Biddle, Stuart
name: Borodulin, Katja
name: Buman, Matthew P
name: Cardon, Greet
name: Carty, Catherine
name: Chaput, Jean-Philippe
name: Chastin, Sebastien
name: Chou, Roger
name: Dempsey, Paddy C
name: DiPietro, Loretta
name: Ekelund, Ulf
name: Firth, Joseph
name: Friedenreich, Christine M
name: Garcia, Leandro
name: Gichu, Muthoni
name: Jago, Russell
name: Katzmarzyk, Peter T
name: Lambert, Estelle
name: Leitzmann, Michael
name: Milton, Karen
name: Ortega, Francisco B
name: Ranasinghe, Chathuranga
name: Stamatakis, Emmanuel
name: Tiedemann, Anne
name: Troiano, Richard P
name: Van Der Ploeg, Hidde P
name: Wari, Vicky
name: Willumsen, Juana F
Publisher: name: Apollo - University of Cambridge Repository
Year: 2020
Subjects: Original research
1506
2314
prevention
health promotion
non-communicable disease
physical activity
public health

description: Funder: The Public Health Agency of Canada and the Government of Norway provided financial support, without which this work could not have been completed
description: Objectives: To describe new WHO 2020 guidelines on physical activity and sedentary behaviour. Methods: The guidelines were developed in accordance with WHO protocols. An expert Guideline Development Group reviewed evidence to assess associations between physical activity and sedentary behaviour for an agreed set of health outcomes and population groups. The assessment used and systematically updated recent relevant systematic reviews; new primary reviews addressed additional health outcomes or subpopulations. Results: The new guidelines address children, adolescents, adults, older adults and include new specific recommendations for pregnant and postpartum women and people living with chronic conditions or disability. All adults should undertake 150–300 min of moderate-intensity, or 75–150 min of vigorous-intensity physical activity, or some equivalent combination of moderate-intensity and vigorous-intensity aerobic physical activity, per week. Among children and adolescents, an average of 60 min/day of moderate-to-vigorous intensity aerobic physical activity across the week provides health benefits. The guidelines recommend regular muscle-strengthening activity for all age groups. Additionally, reducing sedentary behaviours is recommended across all age groups and abilities, although evidence was insufficient to quantify a sedentary behaviour threshold. Conclusion: These 2020 WHO guidelines update previous WHO recommendations released in 2010. They reaffirm messages that some physical activity is better than none, that more physical activity is better for optimal health outcomes and provide a new recommendation on reducing sedentary behaviours. These guidelines highlight the importance of regularly undertaking both aerobic and muscle strengthening activities and for the first time, there are specific recommendations for specific populations including for pregnant and postpartum women and people living with chronic conditions or disability. These guidelines should be used to inform national health policies aligned with the WHO Global Action Plan on Physical Activity 2018–2030 and to strengthen surveillance systems that track progress towards national and global targets.