December 6 - 7, 2007 Advisory Committee Meeting Minutes
Review of Agenda and Overview of Subcommittee Process
The Chair of the Committee, William Haskell, Ph.D., thanked Committee members and everyone who supported the work of the Committee. Dr. Haskell noted his personal satisfaction dealing with key scientific issues in the field. In reviewing the agenda, Dr. Haskell indicated much of the meeting will be driven by the work of subcommittees that were formed at the June, 2007 Committee Meeting. Each subcommittee will provide an update on their work to date.
At the June meeting, the Committee developed a plan to review the existing literature through the subcommittee approach with support from liaisons from CDC. Because the Committee report is primarily a public health document, the initial focus of the Committee’s work has been on treatment as the main outcome. As health has been interpreted in a broad context the Committee has been working on determining the actual format of the report. Between now and the third Committee Meeting in February we will address issues raised during this meeting and begin drafting summary chapters and an executive summary. Thirty days after the February meeting the Committee will submit a final report.
Several consultants were invited to help support the work of many of the subcommittees. At the same time, CDC staff responded to subcommittee requests for additional literature searches. While the majority of the subcommittees were organized around health outcomes there are additional groups that address special populations such as persons with disabilities and ethnic and socio-economic subgroups.
As much of the existing literature on physical activity is centered on health outcomes it made sense for the CDC to organize its database on health outcomes. Committee members in turn were asked to prepare three to six key questions, the answers to which will be the primary focus of the final report. Centrally, we wanted to ask two primary questions:
Is there evidence that physical activity is linked to a specific outcome?
If there is a link, what information is available in terms of dose-response. The type, amount, intensity, frequency of activity that might lead to benefit.
Committee members were also encouraged to ask questions that would provide information that might not be directed at clinical outcomes, but would support the clinical outcome data. These questions are primarily in the area of risk factors or biomarkers. While the report is prevention oriented the Committee did look into areas that were treatment or secondary prevention oriented. For example, it was important to address the role of physical activity in people that have Type 2 Diabetes.
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