Intended for healthcare professionals

Rapid response to:

Editor's Choice

The miracle cure

BMJ 2019; 366 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.l5605 (Published 19 September 2019) Cite this as: BMJ 2019;366:l5605

Rapid Response:

GAPPA

Increasing physical activity is a global health priority, and outside the vast array of individual health benefits it confers, it also contributes towards 12 of the 17 WHO Sustainable Development Goals. [1]

The first Global Action Plan for Physical Activity (GAPPA) that took over ten years to develop, provides nations with a coherent route map and framework to guide key policy actions across the whole system. Action 3.2 under the ‘Active People’ strategic objective focusses on implementing systems of patient assessment and counselling on physical activity in primary and secondary care [1], originally informed by the Toronto Charter and the ‘Investment that Work for Physical Activity’ supporting document [2].

[1] https://www.who.int/ncds/prevention/physical-activity/gappa
[2] http://www.globalpa.org.uk/pdf/investments-work.pdf

Competing interests: No competing interests

04 October 2019
John S Bradley
public health worker
Wales