Olympics Legacy Inquiry

On the 3rd of March, Tessa Sanderson and I were asked to give Oral Evidence to the House of Commons Select Committee on Culture, Media and Sport. The Committee is holding an inquiry on Olympics Legacy and Tessa and I spoke about community sport in particular. I've had the pleasure of working with the Committee on London 2012 since well before there was a formal bid. And although the makeup of the Committee may have changed over the past eight years, the insistence on achieving the best possible result from London 2012 has not.

Fatness Begins At Home

The Wellcome Trust is posting archived medical films on its YouTube channel. Among them is "Cruel Kindness", this priceless three-part 1967 warning about childhood obesity. It includes the wonderful line "fatness begins at home". Marvel at how skinny1967's normal kids look in the playground. Note the salutary scene where the obese young Ronnie Brown is pictured drinking a bottle of sugary orange pop, while watching a swimming competition on TV.



Fast forward more than 40 years and the fundamental problem seems little changed, while its scope has been grown beyond all recognition. Spending on the Change4Life campaign is measured in hundreds of millions. Kids, meanwhile, are more fat and less fit than ever before. Have the efforts to engender behavioural change failed? Probably not. But it would appear to make sense, meanwhile, to look at the deeper socio-industrial issues around our lifestyle and our diets.

We might examine, for example, the way the promotion of car ownership has influenced the way children get to school. Or we might look at the way the food business lobby has influenced the guidance our governments give us on what to eat.

Be Light Hearted

A new study examining data from one million Swedes has allowed a definitive link to be drawn between body mass index (BMI) and cause of death. It demonstrated that the link between a high BMI (indicating an overweight or obese condition) and coronary heart disease, may be even stronger than previously thought. By linking the BMI of parents with that of their children the statistical analysis was able to avoid biases caused by confounding influences, like weight loss caused by smoking and / or cancer.

A three point increase in BMI was found to be associated with an 82% greater likelihood of heart death. Coronary heart disease costs the US economy more that half a trillion dollars a year. In the UK, the survival of the welfare state is predicated upon people being able to retire later than the current age. Yet heart health, or rather ill-health, is likely to see record numbers off the job and on Incapacity Benefit.

As with the climate change crisis, industrialised nations have created societal norms that have failed to the consider the long term impacts of overconsumption and convenience on our own bodies. Steps must be taken. Walking and jogging are a great start. Because to paraphrase the legendary late Bill Shankly, healthy weight and regular physical activity are not just a matter of life and death: they're much more important than that.

Where's The Proof?

“The Olympic and Paralympic Games do not inspire everyone in the same way - in fact, what inspires some may have the opposite effect on others.  In particular, evidence suggests that elite sport rarely motivates physical activity take-up among non-participants and the least active." As a lifelong believer in the power of the Olympic Games to inspire, these were hard words for me to read. But they confirmed what my research had already started to indicate. And they confirmed too, the difficulty I had at the IOC when trying to convince journalists about the ability of the Olympic Games to encourage more sports participation in host countries. The words are those of Professor Mike Weed. His statement is based on evidence, rather than the gut-feeling resonance of appeals to Olympic emotion.

Prof. Weed continues, however: "For these groups, the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games should be promoted as a four year festival of community participation events rather than an elite sport competition.” Considering that non-participants and the least active account for the majority of people in the UK provides an idea of the scope of the opportunity we are faced with. It's one of Olympian proportions.

Let's get on with it, supported by an evidence-based approach.

Mark

IOC President's Closing Speech, London 1948

"We exercise our sport not only for the joy we obtain and for the physical advantages it gives us, but also to improve the physical health of our nation."

Sigfrid Edström

Physical Activity in the US: Too Little, Too Late?

A bill was submitted to the US Congress this week, calling for the creation of national guidelines for physical activity. With sponsors from both parties and both the Assembly and Senate, it has excellent chances of passing. The only real question is what took so long? And when will something with real teeth be proposed on a federal level? After all, the federal government already issued guidelines in October 2008: the problem is how few people noticed.

Alarm bells have long been ringing in the USA about the problems engendered by a lack of physical activity. It's been six years since the Centers for Disease Control drew widespread attention to the type 2 diabetes epidemic. The CDC predicted that fully one third of children born in the year 2000 will develop type 2 diabetes during their lifetimes, many of them at much younger ages than in the past. Those children are now nearly ten years old. Their physical activity patterns are already becoming hard wired. Muscle memory is forming and there's pitifully little to remember.

Passing the Physical Activities Guidelines for Americans Act would lead to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) preparing and promoting physical activity guidelines based on the latest scientific evidence. Its the promoting part that is most important. Will it be more than just talk?

There has been no shortage of rhetoric from the White House, regarding physical activity, for more than fifty years. The problem, as with some many other issues in the US, has been a historical lack of willingness when it comes to real intervention:

“I believe you and I share the feeling that more and better coordinated attention should be given to this most precious asset – our youth – within the Federal government. By this I do not mean that we should have an over-riding Federal program. The fitness of our young people is essentially a home and local community problem...", Dwight D. Eisenhower.

“We want a nation of participants in the vigorous life. This is not a matter which can be settled, of course, from Washington. It is really a matter which starts with each individual family. It is my hope ... that the communities will be concerned...", John F. Kennedy

In more recent times, the Council has been seen as a source for photo opportunities, but given little means to effect real change. Bush Sr. appointed steroid-abuser Arnold Schwarzenegger to chair his council. Clinton appointed Florence Griffith-Joyner, the glamorous sprinter whose incredible achievements were marked by doubts over steroids. She served alongside bodybuilder Lee Haney ("steroids are dangerous only when misused..."). George Bush Jr appointed Marion Jones. At time of the 2008 election, the council was chaired by John Burke of Trek Bicycles, maker of the bikes ridden by Bush idol Lance Armstrong. Burke gave the maximum allowable $4,600 to the Obama campaign almost immediately after the latter won the Democratic nomination. He has continued to chair the Council since the election.

The time for photo opportunities and window dressing is over.  Government in the US must roll up its sleeves, underpinned by a recognition that the market and our society have created an environment and a set of lifestyle habits that will see today's children live shorter, less active and sicker lives than their parents. What is the point, after all, of expending so much energy on debating healthcare without a concurrent effort to improve health itself?

Way Past Pedometers

Philips launched a new gizmo this week: the DirectLife monitor. More than a pedometer of old, the little device contains an accelerometer, the same kind of sensor that lets an iPhone know which way up its being held, or that lets a Nintendo Wii video game controller how hard its being swung during a simulated game of tennis.

Carrying the Activity Monitor all day long allows it to record daily physical motion, or activity. Philips claims sophisticated algorithms allow the device to extrapolate how much a whole body is moving on the basis of how much just one part of that body (i.e. the pocket holding the device) might shift. Green bars light up to let the user know how much activity is being logged. And the daily tallies can be uploaded to the interwebs, where a monthly subscription provides access to personal advice from a real human being on goals, activity, diet, etc.

While the device will be made available directly to consumers, Philips does seem set for a big push towards corporate clients. Sizeable healthcare cost savings are available to employers investing in healthy workforces, especially in the US. DirectLife should provide a fairly straightforward means to prove increases in physical activity to insurers and the like.

In an interesting choice of tactics, Philips seems to be going the physical activity path, while Nike takes the running / fitness industry track. What chance some decent data to test the relative effectiveness of the two?

The services behind the Philips and Nike gadgets, meanwhile, are likely to be what endures. The gadgets themselves are likely to be made redundant as yet more manufacturers offer these features in mobile phones.