Active Living

Active Living

Active Living integrates physical activity, reduced sedentary behavior, balanced screen use, and adequate sleep into daily life. It leverages community resources, including the built and supportive environments to promote health and create environments where the healthier choice is the easier choice.

 

Physical Activity
Sedentary Behaviour
Screen/Device Behaviour
Sleep
Resources

Active living is an approach to life that values and prioritizes physical activity and movement in everyday living. It’s about integrating movement into our daily routines, whether through walking, cycling, playing sports, or engaging in recreational activities. Active living isn't just about individual behaviour, it’s a holistic approach that involves entire communities, schools, workplaces and urban planning; the environments where we live, work, learn and play that support and contribute to everyone being active.

Let's Get Moving

Visual model of the PASS conceptual framework. Learn more at Conceptualizing a framework for the surveillance of physical activity, sedentary behaviour and sleep in Canada

 

The World Health Organization’s Global action plan on physical activity 2018–2030 and Canada’s Physical Activity Framework, A Common Vision for increasing physical activity and reducing sedentary living in Canada are policy documents that provide active living guidance and support for increasing physical activity and reducing sedentary living in our communities. WHO adopted the voluntary global target of a 15% relative reduction, using a baseline of 2016, in the global rate of physical inactivity in adolescents and in adults by 2030.

 

Objectives

  • Integrate healthy design principles into land-use planning, improving infrastructure to increase physical activity opportunities
  • Increase access to parks, green, and open spaces and outdoor recreation opportunities as no to low cost alternatives
  • Promote movement and reduce sedentary time in schools, childcare centers, workplaces, at home and during leisure time
  • Increase participation in sport and active recreation by addressing barriers to physical activity.
  • Build capacity in promoting physical activity and literacy through training and professional development, including tools, programs and resources

To help measure changes in health related to physical activity, sedentary behavior, and sleep, it is important to look at physical activity behaviours/indicators from across the Active Living domains of home, work, school, transportation, and community. This socioecological approach addresses outcomes and factors not only at the individual level but also the broader social and built-environment levels  The Public Health Agency of Canada’s  Physical Activity, Sedentary Behaviour and Sleep (PASS) Indicator Framework ,  incorporates these domains, outcomes and factors into key health indicators. In addition to the indicators currently in the PASS framework, new indicators will be released as appropriate measures and data sources are identified, such as physical literacy, presence and types of barriers for physical activity, community walkability, workplace sedentary time, awareness about sleep benefits and others.

PASS Active Living Health Indicators for Physical Activity, Sedentary Behaviour and Sleep,

Individual, Social and Built Environment Levels.

Check Key Indicators Here

Supporting all community members to incorporate movement into their lives, whether for fun or for a purpose, is an important part of creating a healthy community.

Resources

Schools, Day Cares and Camps

Early Years

Early Years Webinar (Physical Literacy): Reigniting Passion through Active Play

Download Slides (PDF) View Recording

Physical Literacy Toolkit for Childcare Settings: Physical Literacy self-assessment survey and planning toolkit. Fillable Toolkit

Physical Activity in Childcare Settings Manual (coming soon)

Schools

Daily Physical Activity (DPA)

Recess Programs

Example local policies and programs: Promising Practices in Canada CPHA

Intramurals

Communities and Environment

In order to make your school community healthier check out the following resources:

Active Transportation

Canada’s National Active Transportation Strategy (pdf)The Active Transportation Strategy's is to build new and expanded active transportation networks and to create safe environments for more equitable, healthy, active and sustainable travel options to thrive.

The Active Transportation Fund supports Canada's National Active Transportation Strategy, which was launched on July 28, 2021. Canada's National Active Transportation Strategy is the country's first coast-to-coast-to-coast strategic approach for promoting active transportation and its benefits

Canada Walks - Green Communities Canada - WALK Friendly Ontario - Green Communities Canada

NATN_Sustainable_Calgary_2020_Nov_17_20MB.pdf (squarespace.com)

Advocacy and Policy Work

The Impact of Physical Activity on Mental Health Outcomes during the COVID-19 Pandemic - Ontario 2022 - A report from Ontario’s COVID-19 science advisory table has found that reduced opportunities for physical activity greatly impacted the mental health of Canadians during the pandemic.

Healthy Public Policy brings health and equity considerations to all areas of policy, with the end goal of improving health outcomes for all. To do so, existing public policies must be analyzed and evaluated for their impact on health equity and population health. Both applied research and academic research are used to help to inform where improvements can be made. Then, new policy approaches can be introduced that address these health impact. Public Policy Models and Their Usefulness in Public Health: The Stages Model (ncchpp.ca)

Links and Resources

 

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