The situation in Canada

People living physically active lifestyles will lead to healthier communities through injury prevention and general health and wellness. The overlap between the sport, recreation, education, and health sectors not only helps with the integration of facilities and the delivery of quality sport and physical activity programming, but it ultimately leads to a healthy Canadian population.

Data from the Canadian Health Measures Survey (CHMS) indicates that the average Canadian is weaker, less flexible, and fatter than they were just a generation ago (twenty years). This means that as a country, we are less physically fit than we have been in the past.

Physical activity is an integral component of healthy living: regular participation in physical activities is associated with important physical, cognitive and emotional benefits contributing to healthy musculoskeletal development, maintenance of healthy body weights, prevention of high blood pressure, and social and mental development.

How physical literacy helps health practitioners

Physical literacy initiatives readily align with early and preventative healthcare and collaborates with both primary care and allied health practitioners. This focus on health and wellness is one way in which physical literacy fits into Canada’s health care model.

By putting the programs in place that will give people an active start – a start that will help them develop the competence, confidence, and motivation that make up physical literacy, our work with the health sector can increase the chance that our population will get healthier and stay physically active for life.

Resources

Provincial Healthy Living Websites: