Disseminate information on physical activity guidelines and best practices to the medical community.

Convene a committee to develop a database of guidelines and best practices.
Coordinate with Blueprint partners to disseminate information to the medical community.
Create an advisory group to disseminate the information and develop physical activity materials for the medical community and consumers.
Pilot test focus groups on the developed materials.

American College of Sports Medicine and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Lead Organizations)

American Geriatrics Society, American Medical Association, Fifty-Plus Fitness Association, Partnership for Prevention, and other organizations.

ACSM would develop the best practices recommendations.
The process would involve advisory group facilitation, pilot testing, and focus group meetings prior to disseminating the information to the public.

Funding to convene advisory and focus groups.
Funding to develop and disseminate the materials.

Physical activity materials for consumers should be easy to read and adaptable for home use.
Consideration should be given to how the materials would be distributed to the medical community and to consumers.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American College of Sports Medicine collaborated with authors from academic institutions to publish a best practices statement to guide researchers and practitioners with their physical activity promotion among older adults, including those who are low active, low fit, or who have chronic diseases. The reference citation for the statement is: Cress, M.E., Buchner, D.M., Prohaska, T., Rimmer, J., Brown, M., Macera, C., DePietro, L., & Chodzko-Zajko, W. (2004) Best practices statement: Physical activity programs and behavior counseling in older adult populations. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise 36(11), 1997-2003.

Wojtek Chodzko-Zajko, PI of the National Blueprint, Marcia Ory, director of Active for Life, and Barbara Resnick, president of the National Conference of Gerontological Nurse Practitioners, wrote on editorial on pre-exercise screening, published in the Journal on Active Aging.

With CDC support, the University of Washington conducted an environmental scan of assessment tools that could be used in clinical settings to rapidly assess patients' physical activity behaviors. The assessment tools located were either too lengthy to use during a brief patient visit, or were not validated. The Tulane University School of Medicine was awarded a cooperative agreement to develop a valid and relable "rapid assessment" physical activity measure that can be used as a medical chart variable for patients. The tool will also have the potential to track the physical activity HEDIS measure for adults age 65 and older.

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