Dr. Scott Rollo: The Reasons I’m here…
My name is Dr. Scott Rollo and I recently started as Director of Research, Strategy and Content Development for GoGet.Fit – a habit-formation & behavioural-support platform transforming the way we empower people when starting on and to sustain in their pursuits to get healthier.
Outside of this role, I am currently a Health Promotion Specialist with Canadian Forces Morale & Welfare Services at CFB Borden. Prior to this, I was a postdoctoral research fellow with the Healthy Active Living and Obesity (HALO) research group at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute (CHEO-RI) and with the School of Epidemiology and Public Health, Faculty of Medicine at the U of Ottawa. My research focused on population-based measurement and surveillance of 24-hour movement behaviours & health among both adult and paediatric populations. I have a PhD in Kinesiology from The University of Western Ontario, where I specialized in evidence-based health promotion, health behaviour change & behavioural medicine research targeting lifestyle behaviours.
Outside of work, I can be found spending time with my wife and son, being physically active, exercising, playing hockey, cycling and hiking. I also enjoy travelling, camping, snowboarding, good food & drink, and time spent with friends and family.
As part of my role as Director of Research, Strategy and Content Development with GoGet.Fit, I will be communicating with you as Health Care Providers and Family Physicians regarding the importance of a healthy active lifestyle as it relates to the health and well-being of your patients AND aligns with the future of health care and clinical practice.
Why I am here…
Since 2019, I have conducted healthy active living epidemiology, population-based health measurement and surveillance, and public health promotion research in both adult and pediatric populations. I have also been involved in healthy active living knowledge translation and mobilization, as well as the development of evidence-based recommendations. I have worked with numerous databases and surveillance systems (e.g., Canadian Health Measures Survey), which has allowed me to examine trends in socio-demographic characteristics, built environment factors, health behaviours, and health outcomes from large, diverse, and geographically stratified samples of children and adults across multiple countries. I collaborate with leading experts in the field around the world. I have also developed research partnerships and fulfilled research contracts with Statistics Canada, the Public Health Agency of Canada, ParticipACTION, and the Sedentary Behaviour Research Network.
My work experience has provided me with a critical understanding of theories, methods and strategies required for community health promotion activities, interventions, and program evaluation. For my PhD, I developed and implemented several research studies and health promotion programs targeting physical activity, sedentary behaviour, smoking cessation, mental health, school health, and occupational health and wellness using behaviour change frameworks and digital health, counselling, planning, and social marketing techniques. I have also facilitated and delivered wellness events, symposiums, and workshops.
To date, I have published >30 scientific papers and book chapters (including multiple systematic reviews), delivered presentations (>25) at numerous national and international conferences, and secured research funding at the provincial/national level. I have experience as a sessional lecturer/course instructor, teaching ‘Psychology of Human Movement Science’ at The University of Western Ontario and ‘Contemporary Issues in Healthy Active Living: Biological, Psychosocial, Policy and Global Perspectives’ at Carleton University. I have worked with diverse populations (e.g., persons with chronic disease and disability) and operated in a number of settings (e.g., long-term care facilities, hospitals, and community housing).
I am passionate about working in a team-oriented environment dedicated to monitoring population health, developing public health messages, and implementing effective community programs and services to foster healthy active living, prevent non-communicable/chronic diseases and promote public health and well-being.
What I see as concerns…
“…in view of the prevalence, global reach, and health effect of physical inactivity, the issue should be appropriately described as pandemic, with far reaching health, economic, environmental, and social consequences.”
We are confronted with an alarming inactivity crisis (and increasing rates of NCDs). The decline in healthy levels of movement behaviours among all age groups, coupled with the last two years of the COVID-19 pandemic have certainly created (or accelerated) a pending healthcare crisis and the need for further public health promotion efforts (development of programs/policies) to encourage and support healthy levels of daily movement behaviours (and improve compliance with the 24-Hour Movement Guidelines).
A few sobering statistics worth considering:
Worldwide, it is estimated that physical inactivity causes 9% of premature mortality and between 6–10% of the major non-communicable diseases of coronary heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and breast and colon cancers.
If global inactivity were decreased by 10% or 25%, more than 533,000 and more than 1·3 million deaths, respectively, could be averted every year.
It is estimated that eliminating physical inactivity would increase the life expectancy of the world’s population by 0·68 (range 0·41–0·95) years.
Globally, 81·0% of students aged 11–17 years were insufficiently physically active (77·6% of boys and 84·7% of girls) prior to 2020 (Guthold et al., 2020).
Global age-standardised prevalence of insufficient physical activity was 27·5% in 2016, with a difference between sexes of more than 8 percentage points (23·4%, in men vs 31·7%, in women) (Guthold et al., 2018)
Of Canadian adults aged 18-79 years old, only 7.1% reported meeting all of the recommendations in the 24-Hour Movement Guidelines (Ross et al., 2020; Rollo et al., 2022)
For the economy, Increasing physical activity in the population would lead to reduction in working-age mortality and morbidity and an increase in productivity, particularly through lower presenteeism, leading to substantial economic gains for the global economy (Hafner et al., 2020)
Physical activity has multiple health, social and economic benefits and can contribute to achieving the 2030 sustainable development goals (SDGs). Policy action on PA is interconnected with/would have a positive impact on 13/17 SDGs. PA has the potential to contribute to achieving many of the United Nations’ SDGs for 2030.
How I think we can turn this around…
“If there was one prescription that could prevent and treat dozens of diseases and substantially improve your quality of life, with little to no negative side effects … Would you take it?”
Evidence such as that outlined above should alert health care professionals, researchers, educators, policy makers, advocacy groups, and key organizations to the high proportions of children and adults alike who are not meeting the 24-Hour Movement Guideline recommendations. Urgent scaling up of implementation of known effective policies and programs is needed now to increase activity among all age groups. Investment and leadership at all levels to intervene on the multiple causes and inequities that might perpetuate the low participation in physical activity, as well as engagement of children, youth, and adults themselves, will be vital to strengthen the opportunities for physical activity in and health of all communities. Such action will improve the health of this and future generations and support achieving the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (Guthold et al., 2020).
Beyond means of dissemination (e.g., distribution of guideline materials, mass media campaigns), it is crucial that novel and innovative integration (e.g., feedback, financial incentives, counseling, and planning tools), implementation process (e.g., engaging key stakeholders), capacity building (e.g., stakeholder training), and/or scale-up strategies be implemented and evaluated. These efforts are needed to foster adoption of these guidelines, especially among target populations that are less likely to meet the current guideline recommendations. Additionally, messaging strategies that will be the most effective and inclusive in reaching Canadians and diverse socioeconomic groups within the Canadian population need to be explored further.
Given that most adults referred to online medical resources and physicians as their primary means of receiving information regarding movement behaviors and health, there is a need for continued efforts (e.g., Exercise is Medicine, PHIT Canada, Prescription to Get Active) that focus on changing the practice of health care professionals. Large-scale interventions and public health promotion efforts are required to encourage a healthy mix of daily movement behaviors and improve prevalence rates meeting the 24-Hour Movement Guidelines among the general public. Public health interventions targeting healthy levels of 24-hour movement behaviors should be evidence-based and tailored to the target audience.
The big question is how do we move beyond education and awareness to help individuals with intention to get active actually initiate and remain active long enough to develop self-efficacy (task, scheduling) and coping strategies – both of which are active and necessary ingredients to gaining a degree of agency over one’s life, establishing and maintaining healthy habits, and reaping the benefits of a healthy active lifestyle. One piece of the puzzle likely lies in developing cost-effective, resource-friendly, sustainable and scalable ways to connect and foster relationships between professionals (e.g., health care professionals, educators) and individuals (patients, students). Unfortunately, information does not equal transformation. With this in mind, we need to focus on mobilizing healthcare networking with community-based resources to provide encouragement/scheduled support, reinforce individual capability, and highlight the wealth of opportunities to incorporate self-initiated movement into daily routines. Finally, we need to move beyond individualistic intervention/behaviour change models to leverage and utilize screen-based technologies/mobile health interventions that can be used to conveniently reach large populations (88% and 95% of CAN and US adults own mobile phones), across diverse settings, cost effectively and without requiring large amounts of time by either the provider or the user.