Updated October 2022

Author: Physical Activity and Nutrition Program, Vermont Department of Health

Regular physical activity helps improve overall health and fitness and reduces the risk of many chronic diseases. It is recommended that people get 150 minutes of moderate activity or 75 minutes of vigorous activity per week. Moderate physical activities include, but are not limited to: biking slowly, canoeing, ballroom dancing, general gardening, using a manual wheelchair, arm cycling, walking briskly, and water aerobics. Examples of vigorous activities are: basketball, jumping rope, running or bicycling on hills, soccer, swimming laps, and martial arts.

The Healthy Vermonters 2020 target for adults in Vermont meeting the national physical activity guidelines is 65%. As of 2017, 60% of adult Vermonters met the aerobic physical activity guidelines.

Being physically active has many benefits and is one of the most important things people can do to improve their health. Regular physical activity can reduce the burden of chronic diseases, such as heart disease, diabetes, and some cancers, and can prevent early death. Physical activity can also help people with chronic diseases manage their conditions. Physical activity has other health benefits, too. It can help people manage weight and prevent falls. Physical activity can even reduce depression and may improve cognitive abilities.

According to the US Department of Health and Human Services, Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, 2nd Edition, any amount of physical activity is beneficial. Ideally, though, adults should do at least 2½ hours of moderate-intensity physical activity (like walking), 1 hour and 15 minutes of vigorous-intensity activity, or a combination each week.

This indicator is part of Healthy Vermonters 2020 State Health Assessment that documents the health status of Vermonters at the start of the decade and the population health indicators and goals that will guide the work of public health through 2020.

This indicator is also part of the State Health Improvement Plan (SHIP), a five-year plan that prioritizes broad Healthy Vermonters 2020 goals: reducing prevalence of chronic disease, reducing prevalence of substance abuse and mental illness, and improving childhood immunizations. The SHIP is a subset of HV2020 and details strategies and planned interventions.

• Vermont Department of Health, Offices of Local Health: Promotes physical activity through community-based work.
• Vermont Agency of Transportation: Provides funding and technical assistance for bike and pedestrian projects.
• Agency of Commerce and Community Development : Provides funding and technical assistance to communities regarding planning tools and activities that support active transportation.
• AARP-VT : Livable Communities program helps ensure safe places for all to be physically active.
• Regional Planning Commissions and municipal planners and officials (parks and recreation, public works, selectboards): Supports planning and development in communities that promotes physical activity.
• Governor’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports:Promotion and small grants to encourage Vermonters to be active.
• Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation: Promotes use of Vermont’s forests and state parks for recreation.
• Healthcare providers: Encourages patients to be physically active.
• Worksites: Provides opportunities for physical activity during the work day, including flex-time and onsite physical activity opportunities.

According to the Guide to Community Preventive Services, behavior change programs, social supports, community-wide informational campaigns, and environmental and policy approaches, are all recommended for increasing rates of physical activity. This may include educating individuals about the benefits of physical activity and teaching them skills on ways to incorporate physical activity into their daily routines, engaging many sectors to promote messages and support physical activity and creating safe, accessible places for people to be active (sidewalks, parks, bike lanes). Each of these alone is effective, however, implementing several or all would provide additional benefit.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also outlines a number of ways adults can increase their levels of physical activity: individuals can make a commitment to be more active alone, with friends, family members, co-workers; employers can offer opportunities for employees to be more active during the work day; state and local governments may create walk and bike friendly communities; the federal government can implement polices to make physical activity accessible for everyone.

The Vermont Department of Health works with partners to support municipal level, environmental and policy approaches to improve access to places to be physically active. State partners (listed above) have developed and offered training and other resources (grant funding, toolkits, fact sheets) to community coalitions and municipal and regional planners on ways to improve bicycle and pedestrian facilities; parks, recreation and open spaces; and support mixed use development (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Recommended Community Strategies to Prevent Obesity in the United States). Office of Local Health staff are available to support local partners with this work. In addition, the Health Department leads a Worksite Wellness program that includes a focus on helping workplaces develop and implement policies, systems and environmental strategies to support employee physical activity. The State has developed a toolkit for worksites, provides grants, technical assistance and support to worksites (through the Offices of Local Health).

Vermont tracks risk behaviors and chronic disease using a telephone survey of adults called the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Survey (BRFSS). Since 1990, Vermont, along with the 49 other states, Washington D.C. and U.S. territories, has participated in the BRFSS with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (http://www.cdc.gov/brfss). The CDC provides the Vermont Department of Health with funding each year to carry out the survey. Several thousand Vermonters are randomly and anonymously selected and called annually, on both landlines and cell phones. An adult (18 or older) is asked a uniform set of questions. The results are weighted to represent the adult population of the state.

Note that beginning in 2011 the CDC implemented changes to the BRFSS weighting methodology in order to more accurately represent the adult population. While this makes calculations more representative of the population, the changes in methodology also limit the ability to compare results from 2011 forward with those from previous years. The Vermont Department of Health recommends that comparisons between BRFSS data from 2011 forward and earlier years be made with caution. Statistical differences may be due to methodological changes, rather than changes in opinion or behavior.

Age adjustment is used for comparison of regions with varying age breakdowns. In order to remain consistent with the methods of comparison at a national level, some statistics in Vermont are age adjusted. In cases where age adjustment was noted as being part of the statistical analysis, the estimates were adjusted based on the proportional age breakdowns of the U.S. population in 2000. For more detailed information on age adjustment visit http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/statnt/statnt20.pdf.

Prevalence and percentages are calculated by using descriptive statistical procedures using software such as SPSS, SAS, and/or SUDAAN. These statistics describe the proportion of individuals with a given trait in the population during a specified period of time.