Introduction

The problems we are going to explore in this course are well outlined in these two quotes from the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) website:

Obesity - “Overweight and obesity are major risk factors for a number of chronic diseases including diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and cancer. Once considered a problem only in high-income countries, overweight and obesity are now dramatically on the rise in low- and middle-income countries, particularly in urban settings.”

Physical Activity - “Physical activity is defined as any bodily movement produced by skeletal muscles that requires energy expenditure. Physical inactivity (lack of physical activity) has been identified as the fourth leading risk factor for global mortality (6% of deaths globally). Moreover, physical inactivity is estimated to be the main cause for approximately 21–25% of breast and colon cancers, 27% of diabetes and approximately 30% of ischemic heart disease burden.”

Because of the relationship between obesity and physical inactivity, the course is designed to help in understanding not only the size of the problem, but also the causes, health effects and benefits of prevention and management of both issues through exercise and weight loss. Also, it explores the relationship between obesity and physical inactivity.

The course is designed to help you: 

1. Appreciate the main ways in which physical inactivity may be measured, its extent and causal factors in the population, and its influence on health outcomes.
2. Appreciate the main ways in which obesity may be measured, its extent and causal factors in the population, and its influence on health outcomes.
3. Appreciate the extent of the relationship between physical activity and obesity.
4. Understand the evidence base used to guide policy in reducing the harmful effects of obesity and physical inactivity on health.

This course is an Open Online Course (OOC) that has been adopted from Peoples-uni. It was further developed by NextGenU.org (NGU).

There are four (4) modules to complete, which include:

Module 1: Physical Inactivity and Health
Module 2: Obesity and Health
Module 3: Physical Activity and Obesity - Are they Related?
Module 4: Evidence-Based Interventions

Approximate time for completion of this course is 5 hours at an average reading rate of 144 words/minute.

Engaging with this course

• To register for this course, complete the registration form. Begin the course with Module 1. For each lesson, read the description. 
• Each lesson comprises introductory remarks. You can click on the collections of resources in each module. 
• There is a forum on each module for reflection, and you will be able to add a new topic or respond to a previous one. You may want to share your learning from this and other readings, comment on the topics from your own experience, comment on others' posts, or provide feedback on how we can improve the content and/or presentation.
• There is a final quiz to assess your understanding of some important concepts. Click on the hyperlinks to take you to these items in each topic.

Requirements to obtain the certificate 

You may browse this course for free to learn for your personal enrichment. There are no requirements.

To obtain a certificate, a learner must successfully complete:

• All reading requirements
• All discussion forums
• The final exam with a minimum of 80% and a maximum of 3 attempts and
• The self and course evaluation forms

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