During the Sport, Medicine and Health Summit 2021, organised in late April by the German Association of Sports Medicine and Prevention (DGSP) and the European Initiative of Exercise is Medicine (EIEIM), the Hamburg Declaration was officially presented, creating a new global alliance for the promotion of physical activity.
The Declaration highlights that the COVID-19 pandemic and its devastating impact has again demonstrated the crucial importance of physical activity for people’s health and wellbeing, and urges increased investment in physical activity as part of the crisis recovery. It also stresses that physical activity can play an essential role in tackling the prevalence of non-communicable diseases, which currently are responsible for almost 70% of deaths worldwide, and should therefore be considered a mainstay for disease prevention and health promotion.
EuropeActive strongly supports the Hamburg Declaration and looks forward to working closely with the DGSP, EIEIM and the organisations involved in the global alliance. Together we can make more people, more active, more often and fully realise the potential of physical activity as a public health solution.