Prescribing active transport as a planetary health intervention – benefits, challenges and recommendations

Abstract

A high proportion of people are insufficiently physically active. The reasons for this are complex and in part relate to social determinants of health, lifestyle choices, and deleterious environmental conditions like climate change, loss of green and outdoor environments and a concomitant loss of biodiversity. Physiotherapists, and other health professionals, may have a positive impact on these global issues, through the encouragement of active transport, and advocacy to reduce barriers to its uptake and optimize exposure to health-giving outdoor spaces. In this paper, we demonstrate how physiotherapists can promote active transport as a planetary health intervention, and provide insight into the benefits and challenges of this planetary health intervention, with direct implications to physiotherapy practice.

Keywords:

• Active transport
• planetary health
• physical activity
• physiotherapy
• cycling

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Adam Toner

Adam Toner is a physiotherapist from Ireland with a particular interest in orthopedic outpatients. He qualified in 2010 from Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh with a MSc (pre-registration) Physiotherapy with distinction. He began his career as a research physiotherapist for the University of Oxford. He has worked across all fields of physiotherapy in the United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland and the United States, where he is currently completing a clinical residency in musculoskeletal physiotherapy in Madison, Wisconsin.

Jeremy S. Lewis

Jeremy Lewis is a Consultant Physiotherapist and Professor of Musculoskeletal Research. He works in the UK National Health Service. He has been awarded a Fellowship of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy, which is the highest award the Society can bestow on one of its members. He has been acknowledged as an eminent clinician in his profession (UK DoH [Department of Health] National AHP Clinical Expert Database). He assesses and treats patients with complex shoulder problems. Jeremy has also trained as a sonographer and performs ultrasound guided shoulder injections, as part of the rehabilitation process if required and appropriate. He has also completed an MSc (Musculoskeletal Physiotherapy), and Postgraduate Diplomas in Sports Physiotherapy, and in Biomechanics, as well as MSc modules in injection therapy for soft tissues and joints. He also has a Postgraduate Certificate in Diagnostic Imaging (Ultrasound) (University of Leeds, UK). He has recently qualified as an Independent Prescriber. Jeremy teaches internationally and has also lectured at many international conferences. His main areas of research interest are rotator cuff related shoulder pain, frozen shoulder, shoulder pain syndromes and lateral epicondylopathy.

Jessica Stanhope

Dr Jessica Stanhope is a physiotherapist, epidemiologist, researcher and educator with a particular interest in cross-disciplinary research. She obtained a Bachelor of Physiotherapy (Honours I) degree from the University of South Australia in 2013, followed by a Graduate Certificate in Clinical Epidemiology from the University of Newcastle in 2014, and a PhD (Medicine) from the University of Adelaide in 2020. She also has qualifications in public health/epidemiology (GCertClinEpid, PhD, FRSPH), and music (AMusA, BMus). Jess has worked as a physiotherapist in private practice, and as a researcher at the University of South Australia, University of Tasmania, and University of Western Australia. Jess has more than 100 research outputs, including more than 30 first author, peer reviewed papers. She has been invited to present her work internationally, and her work has attracted media attention.

Filip Maric

Filip Maric (PhD) is a physiotherapist with a particular interest in critical physiotherapy and the link between health, function and our planetary environment. He is a University Lecturer in Tromsø at UiT The Arctic University of Norway. He teaches on society and public health, environmental physiotherapy and planetary health, musculoskeletal physiotherapy, qualitative research methods and supervises bachelor projects. Filip is also the Founder and Executive Chair of the Environmental Physiotherapy Association (EPA), a founding member of the Critical Physiotherapy Network (CPN) and regional leader of the german-speaking branch of the CPN.