At the fifty-third session of the Regional Committee for the Western
Pacific in Kyoto, Japan, health policy-makers from 30 countries and
areas of the Western Pacific participated in a round table on diet,
physical activity and health that discussed how lifestyle changes can be
achieved in whole populations. Reviewing successful experiences,
participants stressed the need to build supportive environments to
facilitate personal change. Many factors generate changes in disease
patterns; to bring about positive changes in lifestyles, it will take an
alliance of many partners in government, the private sector and civil
society. This summary of ideas and experiences discussed at the
ministerial round table will be one of the contributions from the
Western Pacific Region to developing a global strategy on diet, physical
activity and health.