Driving physical activity policy for improved population health demands political action

Public policy can be a powerful tool for improving health and well-being at the community and societal levels.1 Policies profoundly shape the context in which health happens. They do so by shaping the set of options people have to engage in healthy behaviour, the incentives or disincentives for doing so and the resources people have to invest in these behaviours. For physical activity (PA), for example, policies often determine whether people can safely walk or bike in their neighbourhoods or—through transportation and urban planning—how much time people have available for PA in general. In this sense, population-level PA is an outcome, in part, of public policy and, therefore, political choices.