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Ken Powell: running the distance for physical activity
Perspectives
Profile Ken Powell: running the distance for physical activity “I have often said that I think running has done more for my mental health than my physical health”, Ken Powell tells The Lancet. It has always been an important part of his life. As a child in the suburbs of Chicago he played games and sport with his older brothers, at college he found exercise always improved his studies, when he became a parent running slotted perfectly into family life, and now as he enters retirement it’s still a regular part of his daily routine. The personal enjoyment that Powell clearly finds in exercise seems fitting for someone who is credited with helping make physical activity into a respected public health topic. Physical activity was certainly not on the public health agenda when Powell began his career. After studies in medicine and public health, he found himself drawn to epidemiology: “I am a quantitative person, counting things comes naturally and seems important to me.” He joined the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the 1970s, and initially worked in traditional public health areas. Then he branched out. “You could say that I grew as public health grew. Environmental pollutants, chronic diseases, and injuries were all relatively new topics of public health focus when I moved to work in them. I welcomed the chance to be part of a new effort, to learn new things, and to develop new organisational structures and systems to address them.” He was still at the CDC in the 1980s when behavioural research began to impact on public health. Powell started to apply his knowledge of epidemiology to behaviours rather than diseases as Chief of CDC’s newly created Behavioural Epidemiology and Evaluation Branch. It was here that he helped to initiate CDC’s work in physical activity. In 1984, Powell organised a workshop on the epidemiological and public health aspects of physical activity and exercise. The subsequent papers consolidating the scientific literature and his 1987 paper “Physical activity and the incidence of coronary heart disease”, in the Annual Review of Public Health, are considered seminal in the field. Powell went on to support the creation of a specific branch at the CDC to focus on physical activity as a healthy behaviour, which he believed was just as important as smoking or nutrition. Together with colleagues, he provided the necessary analysis and evidence that eventually led to the establishment of CDC’s Physical Activity and Health Branch, and had a major influence on the US Surgeon General’s Report on Physical Activity and Health in 1996. During his 25 years at the CDC, Powell also developed expertise on injury risk and protection related to physical activity, serving on the Department of Health and Human Services’ 2007–2008 Physical Activity Guidelines Advisory Committee, for which his chapter on adverse events was a major contribution to approaches in injury prevention. www.thelancet.com Vol 380 July 21, 2012
The way Powell has helped to transform physical activity within public health reflects both his meticulous scientific contribution and his willingness to take part in wider debate. “Ken is one of the most careful and thoughtful epidemiologists I know”, said Steven Blair, from the University of South Carolina’s Departments of Exercise Science and Epidemiology and Biostatistics, who has worked with Powell closely. While Jeffrey Koplan, Director of the Emory Global Health Institute, and Powell’s long-time colleague and friend, told The Lancet, “Ken has strong values and beliefs—politics, the role of government, the value of religion, the importance of public health, the value of societal concerns and integrity, compassion, and generosity in acting as a good citizen—and enjoys a good difference of opinion being eager to convert viewpoints even when the gap in perspectives seems unbridgeable.” Powell hopes The Lancet’s Series on Physical Activity will convert those who consider inactivity unimportant. “Physical activity lacks the fear engendered by infectious diseases, the malevolence of the tobacco industry, and the demands of clinical signs and symptoms of chronic illness. Regular physical activity is viewed as merely a personal choice, a frivolous behaviour, and not a very important one from a health perspective. Absolutely wrong! I expect The Lancet Series to generate awareness, discussion, and action about the health, environmental, and social value of regular physical activity around the world but especially in low and middle-income countries.” When asked whether the 2012 Olympic Games will raise the profile of physical activity, Powell is more cautious. “My concern is not that the Olympics cannot be used to promote physical activity but that we need to be sure that people do not get the idea that they should equate physical activity with high-intensity competitive sport. Keeping that concern in mind, the Olympics can be used to raise awareness of the benefits of activity and to promote participation.” One way to encourage participation is, he says, to create environments with access to a place that is safe and pleasant to be physically active. Powell would like the benefits of physical activity on physical and mental health to be much more widely known, so that public and private organisations have policies to enable their members, workers, and families to be regularly physically active. In an ideal world, he wishes that every child could have a childhood like his with “the opportunity to play actively and out of doors with friends and siblings, unfettered with rigid rules and uniforms, and with an emphasis on fun and sportsmanship rather than winning”.
See Series page 247
Pamela Das 209
Profile Ken Powell: running the distance for physical activity “I have often said that I think running has done more for my mental health than my physical health”, Ken Powell tells The Lancet. It has always been an important part of his life. As a child in the suburbs of Chicago he played games and sport with his older brothers, at college he found exercise always improved his studies, when he became a parent running slotted perfectly into family life, and now as he enters retirement it’s still a regular part of his daily routine. The personal enjoyment that Powell clearly finds in exercise seems fitting for someone who is credited with helping make physical activity into a respected public health topic. Physical activity was certainly not on the public health agenda when Powell began his career. After studies in medicine and public health, he found himself drawn to epidemiology: “I am a quantitative person, counting things comes naturally and seems important to me.” He joined the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the 1970s, and initially worked in traditional public health areas. Then he branched out. “You could say that I grew as public health grew. Environmental pollutants, chronic diseases, and injuries were all relatively new topics of public health focus when I moved to work in them. I welcomed the chance to be part of a new effort, to learn new things, and to develop new organisational structures and systems to address them.” He was still at the CDC in the 1980s when behavioural research began to impact on public health. Powell started to apply his knowledge of epidemiology to behaviours rather than diseases as Chief of CDC’s newly created Behavioural Epidemiology and Evaluation Branch. It was here that he helped to initiate CDC’s work in physical activity. In 1984, Powell organised a workshop on the epidemiological and public health aspects of physical activity and exercise. The subsequent papers consolidating the scientific literature and his 1987 paper “Physical activity and the incidence of coronary heart disease”, in the Annual Review of Public Health, are considered seminal in the field. Powell went on to support the creation of a specific branch at the CDC to focus on physical activity as a healthy behaviour, which he believed was just as important as smoking or nutrition. Together with colleagues, he provided the necessary analysis and evidence that eventually led to the establishment of CDC’s Physical Activity and Health Branch, and had a major influence on the US Surgeon General’s Report on Physical Activity and Health in 1996. During his 25 years at the CDC, Powell also developed expertise on injury risk and protection related to physical activity, serving on the Department of Health and Human Services’ 2007–2008 Physical Activity Guidelines Advisory Committee, for which his chapter on adverse events was a major contribution to approaches in injury prevention. www.thelancet.com Vol 380 July 21, 2012
The way Powell has helped to transform physical activity within public health reflects both his meticulous scientific contribution and his willingness to take part in wider debate. “Ken is one of the most careful and thoughtful epidemiologists I know”, said Steven Blair, from the University of South Carolina’s Departments of Exercise Science and Epidemiology and Biostatistics, who has worked with Powell closely. While Jeffrey Koplan, Director of the Emory Global Health Institute, and Powell’s long-time colleague and friend, told The Lancet, “Ken has strong values and beliefs—politics, the role of government, the value of religion, the importance of public health, the value of societal concerns and integrity, compassion, and generosity in acting as a good citizen—and enjoys a good difference of opinion being eager to convert viewpoints even when the gap in perspectives seems unbridgeable.” Powell hopes The Lancet’s Series on Physical Activity will convert those who consider inactivity unimportant. “Physical activity lacks the fear engendered by infectious diseases, the malevolence of the tobacco industry, and the demands of clinical signs and symptoms of chronic illness. Regular physical activity is viewed as merely a personal choice, a frivolous behaviour, and not a very important one from a health perspective. Absolutely wrong! I expect The Lancet Series to generate awareness, discussion, and action about the health, environmental, and social value of regular physical activity around the world but especially in low and middle-income countries.” When asked whether the 2012 Olympic Games will raise the profile of physical activity, Powell is more cautious. “My concern is not that the Olympics cannot be used to promote physical activity but that we need to be sure that people do not get the idea that they should equate physical activity with high-intensity competitive sport. Keeping that concern in mind, the Olympics can be used to raise awareness of the benefits of activity and to promote participation.” One way to encourage participation is, he says, to create environments with access to a place that is safe and pleasant to be physically active. Powell would like the benefits of physical activity on physical and mental health to be much more widely known, so that public and private organisations have policies to enable their members, workers, and families to be regularly physically active. In an ideal world, he wishes that every child could have a childhood like his with “the opportunity to play actively and out of doors with friends and siblings, unfettered with rigid rules and uniforms, and with an emphasis on fun and sportsmanship rather than winning”.
See Series page 247
Pamela Das 209