Speaker To Discuss ‘Major Public Health Problem’ — Inactivity
April 15, 2005 --
People are spending so much time sitting — working, driving, relaxing, watching TV or playing video games — that physical inactivity is being called the major public health problem of the 21st century. Steven Blair, president and chief information officer of the Cooper Institute in Dallas, will visit the University of Virginia April 25 and 26 to give two lectures on the topic.
Blair will speak about how physical inactivity is taking its toll on Americans’ health and what to do about it on Monday at 2 p.m. in the Jordan Hall Conference Center Auditorium, as part of the U.Va. Curry School of Education’s Centennial Lecture Series. He will address what he believes doctors should tell their patients about the importance of cardiorespiratory fitness in aging on Tuesday at 8:45 a.m. at a symposium on exercise, sponsored by U.Va.’s Institute on Aging.
Blair’s research focuses on the associations between lifestyle and health, with a specific emphasis on exercise, physical fitness, body composition and chronic disease. He has published more than 300 papers and chapters on the subject and was the first-ever Senior Scientific Editor for the U.S. Surgeon General’s Report on Physical Activity and Health. He was the first president of the National Coalition for Promoting Physical Activity and is a past-president of the American College of Sports Medicine and the American Academy of Kinesiology and Physical Education.
The Cooper Institute is a nonprofit research and education center dedicated to advancing the understanding of the relationship between habits and health, and to providing leadership in implementing these concepts to enhance the physical and emotional well-being of individuals. Research conducted at the institute has influenced major national public policy initiatives from the American Heart Association, American College of Sports Medicine, and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
For information on U.Va.’s Institute on Aging symposium, see http://www.virginia.edu/aginginstitute/news.html
Contact: Anne Bromley, (434) 924-6861 |
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