1193 COMMENTARY Pratt (michael.pratt@emory.edu) is with the Hubert Dept of Global Health, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, Atlanta, GA. Ramirez and Martins are students with the Post-graduate program in Epidemiol- ogy, Universidade Federal de Pelotas, Brazil. Bauman is with the Sydney School of Public Health, University of Sydney, Australia. Heath is with the University of Tennessee College of Medicine Chattanooga. Kohl is with the Dept of Kinesiology and Health Education, Michael and Susan Dell Center for Healthy Living, University of Texas at Austin. Lee is with the School of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA. Powell is with the Division of Public Health, Georgia Dept of Human Resources, Atlanta, GA. Hallal is with the Post-graduate program in Epidemiology, Universidade Federal de Pelotas, Brazil. Journal of Physical Activity and Health, 2015, 12, 1193 -1194 http://dx.doi.org/10.1123/jpah.2015-0569 © 2015 Human Kinetics, Inc. 127 Steps Toward a More Active World Michael Pratt, Andrea Ramirez, Rafaela Martins, Adrian Bauman, Gregory Heath, Harold Kohl III, I-Min Lee, Kenneth Powell, Pedro Hallal On December 4, 2015, The Global Observatory for Physi- cal Activity (http://www.globalphysicalactivityobservatory.com/) released the irst ever comprehensive country-by-country report on the status of physical activity surveillance, research, and policy activities for 127 countries around the world. 1 These countries account for 81% of the global population and 76% of the world’s physical activity research publications in PubMed. The 127 country cards (available in English and 26 of the original languages I ) include data on mortality attributable to physical inactivity; as well as the prevalence of adults participating in physical activity suficient to promote health, research productivity, and national public health policy for physical activity (eg, Appendix Figure 1: Country Card from Japan in English and Japanese). Physical inactivity accounts for more than 5 million deaths each year globally. 2 The country cards demonstrate that this enormous burden of mortality is spread across low, middle, and high-income countries. The estimated proportion of mortality due to physical inactivity ranges from a high of 19% in Malta to 1% in Bangladesh. Self-reported physical activity levels vary substantially around the world as well, with 6 countries reporting 90% or more of the adult population reaching the 150 minutes/ week recommended by the World Health Organization and 16 countries reporting 40% or less of the population meeting the physical activity recommendation. An encouraging 114 countries have at least 1 national survey on physical activity, although only 31 have some degree of ongoing surveillance. As physical activity has moved into the mainstream of public health, the quantity and quality of research has grown. In 2013, papers on physical activity from 105 countries were published. However, fully 52% of scientiic publications on physical activity come from only 6 countries (United States, Australia, Canada, Neth- erlands, Spain, and Germany). The leading 20 countries accounted for 82% of global physical activity research productivity in 2013, and the only low- or middle-income countries (LMIC) appearing on this list were Brazil and China. Public health action to reduce physical inactivity is manifest in the incorporation of physical activity into national public health plans and surveillance systems. Thirty-ive countries have speciic national plans for physical activity and another 68 countries include substantive attention to physical activity within their national non- communicable disease (NCD) prevention or health promotion plans. Unfortunately, only 12 of the 64 countries classiied as LMIC in the irst release of country cards have a speciic national plan for physical activity. Seventy-nine percent of these countries do include physical activity in their national NCD plans. The initial release of 127 country cards clearly demonstrates the scale and extent of the global pandemic of physical inactivity. There is also good news: half of the countries in the world engage in research on physical activity, and 103 countries (81%) have initiated public health efforts to address physical inactivity as evidenced by inclusion of physical activity within national public health plans or policies. In terms of surveillance, 114 (90%) have included physical activity at least once in a national survey. These are important initial steps along a dificult path. The Global Observatory for Physical Activity will continue to monitor progress against the pandemic of physical inactivity and will release country-speciic cards every 2 years. Acknowledgments Without the input, review, and support of the contact persons in each of the included countries, the country cards could not have been completed. We also acknowledge important support from Cíntia Borges, Silvia Pinto, and Paulo Ferreira of the Federal University of Pelotas, Brazil, and the Board of the International Society for Physical Activity and Health. Notes I All the country cards are available in English and also, if the contact agreed, each card was translated into its original language (26 original languages: Arabic, Bulgarian Chinese, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Greenlandic, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Lithuanian, Macedonian, Maori, Nepalese, Polish, Portuguese, Rumanian, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Slovak, Welsh). Although this commentary appears in the September issue of the Journal of Physical Activity and Health, the actual timing of publication followed that of The Global Observatory for Physical Activity’s release of country cards. References 1. Hallal P, Martins R, Ramírez A. The Lancet Physical Activity Observa- tory: promoting physical activity worldwide. Lancet. 2014;384:471– 472. PubMed doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(14)61321-0 2. Lee IM, Shiroma EJ, Lobelo F, Puska P, Blair SN, Katzmarzyk PT. Effect of physical inactivity on mayor non-communicable dis- eases worldwide: an analysis of burden of disease and life expec- tancy. Lancet. 2012;219:219–229. PubMed doi:10.1016/S0140- 6736(12)61031-9