Transforming waiting pauses into opportunity for physical activity: the "Activate your Wait" pilot study.

Background And Aim: Physical activity is recognized as a major health determinant. However, the prevalence of inactivity can be as high as 80% in some adult subpopulations. From the urgent need to implement strategies to fight sedentary behaviour, considering that physical activity is defined as any bodily movement produced by skeletal muscles that require energy expenditure, the pilot study "Activate your Wait" was born.

["Activate your Wait" project : pilot study carried out at a thermal centre].

Physical activity is recognised as a major health determinant, with positive effects on health, environmental sustainability and economy. National surveillance data show that one out of three Italians - adult and elderly alike - declares to be sedentary, with a progressively increasing trend. From the urgent need to implement strategies to promote physical activity the “Activate your Wait” (“Attiva l’Attesa”) project was born, aimed at transforming the waiting pauses during day to day life into opportunities to perform simple stretching and active mobilization exercises.

[Health promotion 25 years after the Ottawa Charter].

Twenty-five years have passed since the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion was signed at the First International Conference on Health Promotion, organized by the World Health Organization. This article traces the evolution of the definition of health, the introduction of the "salutogenesis" approach to health, the evolution of educational processes in community health, and defines the concept of health promotion, describing its application needs.