Incentive for regular physical activity has been considered an important line of action in public health, stimulating initiatives with wide population reach such as programs and campaigns aimed at promoting active lifestyles. On the present paper, we make some considerations about the process of adherence to regular physical activity and the lines of action usually adopted in physical activity promotion programs (especially Agita São Paulo and Programa de Educação e Saúde através do Exercício Físico e do Esporte). We found that these programs' objectives, strategies and evaluation are focused on the increment of population physical activity and knowledge of physical activity benefits. Given the complexity of physical activity adherence, we believe that it is necessary to increase the number of variables on which actions and evaluation of programs should be based. In our opinion, besides the number of physically active individuals, variables such as facilities availability, accessibility and quality should be considered in order to demonstrate the effectiveness of lines of action adopted, improving the design and evaluation of physical activity promotion programs with wide population reach.
Physical exercise; Public policies; Adherence
