AUSactive backs Cancer Council call for implementation of recommendations of National Preventive Health and National Obesity strategies

The call by the Cancer Council for all levels of government to adopt the recommendations of both the National Preventive Health Strategy and National Obesity Strategy - which recommends a physical activity policy, as well as urban design, education, and support to encourage and enable people to increase their physical activity and live longer and healthier lives - has been backed by AUSactive Chief Executive Barrie Elvish.

The Cancer Council came following the release of new research which suggested that more than three times as many cancer cases are attributable to physical inactivity than previously thought.

Published in the Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport, it estimates that of 6,361 of the cancers observed in 2015 were attributable to physical inactivity, representing 4.8% of all cancers diagnosed.

Supporting the Cancer Council, Elvish told Australasian Leisure Management “AUSactive fully supports calls by the Cancer Council asking government at all levels to implement the recommendations of the National Preventive Health and National Obesity strategies.

“The most recent Research identifying the crucial role physical activity and exercise can play in preventing almost 2% of all cancers, while seeming minimal, represents 2500 actual cases, and doing so requires only forty minutes a week.

“A key component of the existing bipartisan preventive health strategy is a public health campaign encouraging Australians to get more active; now is the time for the government to lead by example and to do the same by activating the campaign now.”