A new year typically coincides with New Year’s resolutions focused on exercising more and/or losing weight. With all the fitness trends and conflicting health advice flooding our news feeds today, it can be hard to grab people’s attention with accessible and evidence-based physical activity messages. The Move Your Way® campaign, developed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (ODPHP), can help you promote physical activity in your communities.
The ODPHP developed the Move Your Way® campaign to share key recommendations from the second edition of the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans. Released in November 2018, the guidelines provide evidence-based guidance to help Americans maintain or improve their health through physical activity. Rather than a one-size-fits-all approach, Move Your Way® emphasizes personalized, practical strategies that people can use to fit more activity into their busy lives, while clearly communicating the amount and types of physical activity Americans need to stay healthy.
You can help spread the word! The Move Your Way® campaign provides online resources – available in English and Spanish – that can be used to help communicate with your audiences about physical activity. The Community Resources page includes campaign materials, a community playbook, and a partner promotion toolkit. Health professionals, organizations, and communities can utilize audience-specific messaging and resources to reach adults, senior adults, parents, kids, and pregnant and postpartum individuals about the importance of physical activity. The materials include fact sheets, posters, videos, social media messages, and interactive tools to motivate people to be more active and start feeling the benefits of physical activity today.
Move Your Way® has been pilot tested in communities across the country! Findings from an outcome evaluation show that reported exposure to Move Your Way® was associated with higher odds of knowing recommended dosages from the Guidelines, likelihood of becoming more active in the future, higher physical activity self-efficacy, and higher physical activity levels. Check out the recently published manuscript: https://profpubs.com/index.php/jheal/article/view/49
To learn more about how public health agencies in North Carolina and Mississippi used the Move Your Way® campaign to support their communities, register for this free webinar on February 17, 2023.