Conclusions Advice and Counselling

• Advice and counselling of patients in everyday clinical practice increases physical activity by 12–50% for at least six months after the counselling session (strong scientific evidence).
• More frequent, intensive counselling by means of repeated sessions for several months additionally boosts physical activity (limited scientific evidence).
• Counselling supplemented by prescribed physical activity, diaries, pedometers, informational brochures, etc, increases activity by another 15–50% (limited scientific evidence).

Supervised Exercise in Group and Individualized Programs

• A six-month group exercise program for patients with coronary artery disease promotes physical activity (limited scientific evidence).
• A six-month supervised exercise program for patients with peripheral arterial disease increases physical activity in terms of walking distance and/or time (limited scientific evidence).

Theory-Based Behavioural Intervention

• Theory-based behavioural intervention increases physical activity 10–15% more than usual care and as much as structured exercise programs (limited scientific evidence).
• More extensive behavioural interventions further boost physical activity, though with a diminishing marginal effect (limited scientific evidence).
• Interventions that include a person’s entire lifestyle, focusing on diet and stress management as well as physical activity, reinforce the increase in activity (limited scientific evidence).

Methods for Children and Adolescents

• Devoting greater resources to school curricula in areas such as health education, textbooks, study materials and teacher training increases activity by 5–25% during physical education classes – even more so for boys than for girls (strong scientific evidence).
• School-based interventions that include multiple components – such as teacher training, curriculum modifications, extra activity sessions during class periods and/or recess, support for behaviour changes, improved health education and the involvement of parents – favourably impact the physical activity of children and adolescents during the school day and sometimes during after-school hours and weekends as well (moderately strong scientific evidence).
• School-based interventions for groups at greater risk of cardiovascular disease increase physical activity by approximately 10% (limited scientific evidence).

Health Economic Aspects

• The availability of health economic studies that address the project’s questions is highly limited, permitting no conclusions about the cost-effectiveness of the methods under consideration.