The development of the Egyptian 24-h movement guidelines for adults aged 50 years and older: an integration of sleep, sedentary behavior, and physical activity by the Egyptian Academy of Bone and Muscle Health

With the vision of healthy aging, the Egyptian Academy of Bone and Muscle Health followed an established guideline development process to create the Egyptian 24-h movement clinical guideline for adults aged 50 years and older adults. This guideline highlights the significance of movement behaviors across the whole 24-h day. Online databases (PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane Library) were searched for relevant peer-reviewed studies that met the a priori inclusion criteria.

A total of 53 studies met the inclusion criteria. Leveraging evidence from the review of the literature led to the development of 27 statements answering the 5 key questions. Results revealed a major change in the previous basic understandings as it shifts away from focussing on a sole movement behavior to the combination of all the movement behaviors. Based on this, the final guideline was developed providing evidence-based recommendations for a “Healthy 24-Hour Day”, comprising a mix of light-intensity and moderate-to-vigorous-intensity physical activity, sleep, and sedentary behavior.

The developed guidelines are meant to help in the decision-making process and are intended for use by adults and older both nationally and internationally; also, for endorsement by the policy-makers. Dissemination and implementation efforts would impact positively on both health professionals and researchers and would also be useful to interested members of the public sector.