Health-enhancing physical activity took centre stage at this year’s #BEACTIVE conference on Thursday, September 24. The event, as part of the European Week of Sport, was live-streamed from Frankfurt and under the theme of Be(come) Active there were many positive insights for the fitness sector.
Speakers including the German Gymnastics Federation (DTB)’s President Alfons Hӧlzl spoke about the need for multi-pronged approach as a means of combatting physical inactivity. This was later followed by the CEO of the Sports Confederation of Hessen (Germany), Andreas Klages, who illustrated that a legal framework established in 2015 requires health insurances companies to invest and support health promotion activities and through a quality label based system Sport Pro Gesundheit, fitness and sports clubs throughout Germany can be recognised as such, and thus receive partial reimbursement from health insurance companies. He also noted that there is much more work to do and both cooperation and goodwill from the health sector are required for this to reach its potential success.
Prof. Dr Sylvia Titze, from the University of Graz (Austria), gave an analysis of complex interventions; for the uptake in physical activity to have a long term effect, it must involve all stakeholders to play a role in changing the environment. Titze also discussed the Sports Club for Health initiative in which sports clubs, which typically centre around competitive sport, development, and performance to put a stronger focus on HEPA through Sport.
The conference gave some incredible insights into the potential for the fitness sector and EuropeActive is delighted with the conference’s focus on creating more physically active people and communities, and are excited to be a part of helping to create this change.