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In our society, there are some trends that are not exciting. We are living increasingly in an aging society and we are becoming fatter (globesity). Moreover, we are facing an alarming decline in physical activity (PA) worldwide. In this context, chronic diseases are booming and health expenditures are skyrocketing. Stimulating PA is likely the best way to reduce the burden of disease and increase the social, psychological, and economic well-being of a community. In this chapter, two projects aimed at increasing PA among individuals are presented. The key point of the two projects is that they medicalize PA. The first project was carried out in Italy. A series of doctors started to “prescribe” PA as if it were a medicine. Therefore, PA is presented as a real cure to treat diseases and pathologies. The other project was supported by a private enterprise. The “concept” of the project is summarized as follows: “The quantity and quality of the physical activity carried out by the patient should be considered by the general practitioner as a clinical parameter as well as other parameters, such as blood pressure, weight, and glucose level.” It is possible that the success of these two initiatives stems from the fact that the biomedical complex has a strong influence on the part of the population. It is very effective to use a reliable source to spread a health promotion message. It becomes a medicalization without pathologization and a form of medicalization without pharmacologicalization. In Conrad’s (2007) words, it becomes a conceptual medicalization.

This study, a narrative literature review, aims to examine the combined benefits of the active and passive use of social media (SM) for well-being (WB), physical and mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic.

A search strategy has been carried out in the databases: Riss, PubMed, Medline, Scopus and Google Scholar, including all the articles published until 19 October 2023.

SM offers various benefits, including global risk awareness, health information, social connections and support. With the natural increase in physical inactivity due to COVID-19 social restrictions, SM has been identified as an appropriate tool for promoting physical activity (PA) at home to improve health.

It suggests that the combined use of active and passive benefits of SM could potentially play an important role in public health by increasing individuals’ health behaviours. In addition, dissemination, sharing and social interaction of information provided by YouTube can encourage healthy behaviours, contribute to WB, physical and mental health and raise public health awareness.

The findings presented in this study highlight the combined benefits of differentiating the features of SM use. Compared to other SM platforms, YouTube can be used as a useful tool for home-based PA that promotes health by enabling people to remain active and avoid barriers to PA due to social restrictions during the global crisis. In addition, some recommendations from the findings may help protect against potential risks and improve public health outcomes during global crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, among the general public using SM.

Recent evidence shows that any form of physical activity, not just aerobic activity to improve cardiovascular fitness, can have significant health benefits. However, physical inactivity is increasingly widespread. Recent health promotion has emphasised the value of integrating activity into daily life, yet popular attention continues to focus on sporting excellence and team sports. Data from people in early and late middle age in the West of Scotland demonstrate that sporting and team activities are rarely undertaken throughout adult life, especially amongst women and people from more disadvantaged circumstances. The activities that are most commonly taken up and sustained throughout later adult life are walking, swimming, social dancing, keep fit/aerobics and golf. There is a need for greater emphasis, by all those in physical activity promotion, on activities which are the most likely to be sustained into adulthood.

Involvement of youth in electronic sports is increasing and outdoor sports are decreasing day by day. It not only affects their health but also leads them towards noncommunicable diseases. Risk of noncommunicable diseases is associated with physical inactivity and affects physical and mental health. It results in different personal and social implications. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to highlight the importance of outdoor sports and risks of electronic sports for health.

The data for study is collected from 450 university students using purposive sampling technique. In order to measure outdoor sports, a four items instrument developed by Simon and Smoll (1974) is used. For electronic sports, instrument is adopted from Lemmens et al. (2009) and for health of youth, instrument by Bailis et al. (2003) is used. After reliability and validity check, structural equation modeling is used to analyze data.

The results reveal that perceived outdoor sports have significant positive impact on health, whereas electronic sports have negative impact on youth health that lead them to certain noncommunicable diseases. There is need to emphasize and encourage youth for outdoor sports and avoid indulging in esports that may lead to addiction.

Electronic games have various risks for the development of syndromes among younger generation. Awareness should be provided that physical activities are essential for healthy life and how risky be the esports for their health. This study may be helpful for government as well to reduce dependency of youth on technological devices and provide necessary recreation facilities to engage in. This research study validates that outdoor sports have significantly positive impact on health of youth and it reduces health related problems and destructive behaviors among youth.

Involvement of youth in electronic sports is increasing and outdoor sports are decreasing day by day. It not only affects their health, but also leads them toward non-communicable diseases. The present study examines the impact of esports and physical sports on youth health.

This study aims to investigate the impact of regular Kung Fu and Taekwondo practice on the health and quality of life among elderly individuals in the Maule region, Chile.

The authors designed a 12-week Kung Fu and Taekwondo workshop with activities suitable for their age. Through semistructured interviews (at the beginning and the end of the workshop), along with periodic monitoring of vital signs and cardiovascular components, the authors observed an improvement in participants’ physical (strength, speed of reaction and flexibility) and psychological conditions (self-esteem and resilience), quality of life (relationships with family and friends and ability to deal with stressful events in working life) and health (waist circumference, percentage of oxygen saturation in blood, blood pressure, among other values).

From these results, the authors affirm that this workshop improves health and physical condition and helps the participants develop the coping capacity to deal with stressful situations and complicated interpersonal relationships. In this sense, the authors conclude that Kung Fu and Taekwondo as regular sports activities can benefit senior citizens’ aging process.

This research is based on an original study project.

People with long‐term mental health problems have a considerably higher risk of physical illness and premature mortality than the general population. This paper describes a survey of lifestyle behaviours and health perceptions of people with severe mental illness (SMI) living in Gloucester. Findings were compared with data from the general population of Gloucestershire to reveal significant health differences that are currently being addressed through a multi‐agency health alliance established to initiate targeted health promoting opportunities for people with severe mental illness in the community.

The objective of this paper is to assess the effect of the socio‐economic status (SES) on long‐term outcomes of a family‐based obesity treatment intervention in prepubertal children. A total of 52 overweight and 26 normal weight children were investigated. Nutritional status, intake of fruit, vegetables and low fat foods, in‐between meals, sports club membership, frequency of exercise and daily television viewing were measured before intervention (t₀ and after a mean period of 1.3 years (t₁. The result obtained indicate that a low SES may serve as a barrier against family‐based intervention. The data provide evidence for the idea that there is need for social stratification of future measures of health promotion within families.

The purpose of this study is to describe the systematic process in developing an interpersonal communication material for the prevention and control of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) in the City of Manila, Philippines.

The systematic process in the development of an interpersonal communication material is presented. The seven steps in the process included mapping of available health communication materials, needs identification, development of the material, pretesting, finalization, printing/production and orientation on the use of the material.

The process followed an iterative, multistakeholder approach in order to ensure that all important insights are obtained and that the final material is contextualized, easily communicated and culturally appropriate. It is important to consider context and culture on top of the methodology in order to ensure development of appropriate interpersonal communication material. It is also important that the experience of the primary health-care workers on the use of the interpersonal communication material is properly documented for future reference, through both quantitative and qualitative evaluations.

The seven-step systematic process utilized can be used as a model in developing health communication materials in the field of health promotion and education.

Despite preventive efforts from some companies to offer some sport and physical activity (SPA) to their employees, French participation rates remain very low, which limit impacts in terms of health and economic benefits. The aim of this study was to better understand the factors influencing SPA participation in the workplace.

A cross-sectional study was conducted based on an electronic questionnaire survey disseminated to 24 companies based in France that offered SPA to their employees. An independent sample t-test was conducted to explore the differences between the most common facilitating and constraining factors, in relation to “being a sporty person” self-perception, leisure-time physical activity (LTPA) level and demographic information. Predictors of SPA in the workplace were determined using a binomial logistic regression.

A total of 1,318 employees completed the survey, of which 60% were women, mostly highly educated and white collar. “Being a sporty person,” self-perception has been a predictor of SPA participation in the workplace.

More multicomponent work-based interventions, including incidental physical activity, might be necessary to increase participation and overcome time constraint.

Although SPA participation in the workplace is considered to promote numerous positive organizational and individual consequences, this is the first study to assess the associations between facilitating and constraining factors of SPA participation in the workplace setting and physical self-perception.