Capability to promote physical activity in South American countries: an ecological study

Objective: To analyze the relationship between physical activity (PA) research, monitoring, and policy indicators and the prevalence of PA in South American countries. Methods: An ecological study was carried out based on PA information from a representative sample of the adult population, through national surveys, from all countries in South America. In each country, data on total and leisure time PA were assessed using survey-specific questionnaires, and information on research, monitoring, and policy indicators to promote PA was provided. Spearman correlation was carried out for the analysis. Results: The frequency of policies aimed only at promoting PA (rho = 0.67, p = 0.025) and the frequency of discontinued policies (rho = -0.65, p = 0.028) were correlated to the prevalence of leisure-time PA. No relationship was observed for the prevalence of total PA. Conclusion: Targeted and sustained public policies seems be related with leisure-time PA in South American countries.