Physical Activity in Lifestyle Medicine in Viet Nam: From “Exercise More” to Evidence-Based Exercise Prescription

Physical Activity in Lifestyle Medicine in Viet Nam: From “Exercise More” to Evidence-Based Exercise Prescription

Last reviewed: September 2026

“Exercise more” is one of the most common pieces of health advice given to patients. It is usually sound advice, but it is often too general to function as an individualized therapeutic plan.

A person with hypertension who has been inactive for ten years, an older adult with reduced strength and a history of falls, a young adult living with obesity, a cancer survivor rebuilding physical function and someone who already exercises regularly may all benefit from physical activity. But they do not necessarily need the same type, intensity, frequency, duration, progression or monitoring.

This distinction is central to Lifestyle Medicine. The 2025 Lifestyle Medicine Core Competencies retain a dedicated domain of Physical Activity Science, Assessment, and Prescription, covering aerobic activity, strength, flexibility, balance, assessment, exercise terminology, referral and the development of physical activity prescriptions adapted for different populations. Physical activity in Lifestyle Medicine therefore goes beyond simply telling people to move more.

For Viet Nam, this discussion has become particularly timely. In 2026, a new national legal and professional framework for disease prevention came into effect, and new guidance was introduced for addressing physical inactivity and other risk factors for noncommunicable diseases in the community. The Ministry of Health's guidance now includes assessment of current activity, identification of barriers, goal setting, action planning, self-monitoring and follow-up. The Department of Disease Prevention has also issued a community handbook covering physical activity across different ages and health conditions.

The opportunity is not to turn every walk into a medical procedure. It is to build a clearer bridge between general advice to be more active and individualized exercise prescription when greater clinical specificity is useful.

Physical activity is broader than exercise

Physical activity and exercise are related, but they are not identical. Physical activity includes bodily movement produced by skeletal muscles that requires energy expenditure. Walking for transport, cycling, climbing stairs, household activities, occupational movement, recreation, sport and structured exercise can all contribute to a person's overall physical activity.

Exercise is a subset of physical activity. It is generally planned, structured and repetitive, with the purpose of improving or maintaining some aspect of health, fitness or physical function. Viet Nam's 2026 Handbook on Physical Activity for Health Promotion in the Community similarly distinguishes general physical activity from structured exercise and sport.

This distinction matters because becoming more physically active does not require everyone to join a gym or adopt a formal training program. For someone who is very inactive, walking to nearby destinations, taking stairs when appropriate, reducing prolonged sitting or adding short periods of movement during the day may be useful starting points. For another person, particularly when the objective is therapeutic or functional, structured aerobic training, progressive resistance exercise, balance training or a combination may be more appropriate.

A useful assessment therefore asks more than “Do you exercise?” It considers how the person moves across the day and week, including work, transport, household activity, recreation, planned exercise and sedentary time.

Population guidelines are not the same as an individualized exercise prescription

Population guidelines provide an essential starting point. The World Health Organization recommends that adults undertake at least 150–300 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic physical activity per week, 75–150 minutes of vigorous-intensity aerobic activity, or an equivalent combination, together with muscle-strengthening activity involving all major muscle groups on at least two days each week. Older adults should additionally undertake varied multicomponent activity emphasizing functional balance and strength on three or more days each week to support functional capacity and reduce the risk of falls.

The World Health Organization also emphasizes that some physical activity is better than none. People who are inactive should generally start with manageable amounts and progressively increase frequency, intensity and duration. Importantly, the older requirement that aerobic activity had to occur in bouts of at least ten minutes to count toward the guideline has been removed.

These recommendations describe levels of physical activity associated with substantial health benefits across populations. An individualized exercise prescription addresses a different level of question: what type of activity is appropriate for this person, how often should it be performed, at what intensity, for how long, how should the dose progress, what limitations or risks need to be considered and how should the response be monitored?

Not everyone needs a formal exercise prescription. General physical activity guidance may be entirely appropriate for many healthy adults. The need for greater individualization increases when exercise is being used to address a defined clinical or functional problem, when chronic disease or significant limitations are present, when the planned activity is more demanding, or when symptoms and safety considerations require closer assessment.

Start with the person's current activity and clinical context

Before deciding how much activity someone should do, it is useful to understand where they are starting. Someone who currently walks ten minutes a week requires a different starting plan from a person already completing several hours of exercise. Pain, breathlessness, previous injury, fear of falling, fatigue, disability, medications, working patterns and previous exercise experience may all influence what is safe, realistic and useful.

Assessment can therefore include current physical activity and sedentary behavior, relevant symptoms and known medical conditions, medication use, functional limitations, physical capacity, previous injuries, goals, preferences and practical barriers. Not every patient requires sophisticated testing. In routine practice, asking what someone currently does, how their body responds when they do more and what makes regular activity difficult can reveal a great deal.

The purpose of assessment is not to create unnecessary barriers before people become active. It is to identify when simple advice is sufficient, when a more individualized plan would be useful and when additional clinical assessment or referral is appropriate.

Preparticipation assessment should be proportionate to risk

Contemporary exercise guidance has moved away from requiring extensive medical testing simply because a person is older or has cardiovascular risk factors. Current guidance from the American College of Sports Medicine uses a risk-based approach that considers factors such as current activity, known disease, relevant signs or symptoms and the intended exercise intensity. The current 12th edition of ACSM's Guidelines for Exercise Testing and Prescription, published in 2025, provides the latest edition of this framework.

The World Health Organization takes a similarly pragmatic position for people living with chronic conditions. It states that pre-exercise medical clearance is generally unnecessary for individuals without contraindications before beginning light- or moderate-intensity physical activity that does not exceed the demands of brisk walking or everyday living. At the same time, people with chronic conditions may benefit from professional advice about the type and amount of activity appropriate to their individual needs, abilities, functional limitations, complications, medications and overall treatment plan.

Symptoms change the situation. Exertional chest discomfort, unexplained or disproportionate breathlessness, syncope, significant dizziness or other concerning symptoms require appropriate assessment rather than simply encouraging the person to exercise through them. Viet Nam's 2026 community handbook likewise includes safety guidance and advises people to stop activity and seek appropriate attention when concerning symptoms occur.

The practical principle is straightforward: safety matters, but unnecessary medicalization can itself become a barrier to physical activity.

An exercise prescription needs more than a number of minutes

A widely used approach to exercise prescription considers six related variables: frequency, intensity, time, type, volume and progression. Frequency describes how often activity is performed. Intensity describes how hard the person is working. Time refers to duration, type identifies the form of activity, volume reflects the overall exercise dose, and progression describes how that dose changes as the person adapts.

These variables should not be selected in isolation. An eventual target can be clinically appropriate while still being unsuitable as a starting dose. A previously inactive person might begin with a manageable amount of walking and gradually increase duration or frequency, while someone who is already active may require a change in intensity, resistance or type of exercise to achieve a particular clinical or functional goal.

Progression is therefore part of the prescription rather than something that happens after the prescription. As capacity improves, the activity may need to become longer, more frequent, more demanding or more complex. Conversely, illness, new symptoms, poor recovery or inability to sustain the program may require the dose to be reduced or modified.

An exercise prescription should be viewed as a plan that can evolve, not as a fixed instruction given once.

Intensity is relative to the person

Terms such as “moderate exercise” can sound more precise than they really are. The same walking speed may be easy for one person and demanding for another. This is why exercise intensity can be considered in absolute terms, such as speed or energy expenditure, but also relative to the individual's capacity.

Depending on the purpose and setting, relative intensity may be informed by heart-rate response, perceived exertion, exercise testing or other appropriate measures. A 2025 joint expert statement from the American College of Sports Medicine and Exercise and Sport Science Australia proposed standardized terminology using five broad exercise intensity categories: very low, low, moderate, high and very high. The purpose was to improve consistency across public health, exercise science and sport science rather than to suggest that every patient requires complex physiological testing.

For routine care, the practical lesson is simpler. Instructions such as “walk briskly” or “exercise moderately” should be interpreted in relation to the person, particularly when exercise is being used as part of treatment rather than only as general health advice.

Aerobic activity is important, but it is not the whole prescription

Walking receives considerable attention in health promotion, and for good reason. It is accessible, inexpensive and can be incorporated into everyday life. But walking alone does not address every component of physical fitness.

The Lifestyle Medicine Core Competencies recognize aerobic activity, strength, flexibility and balance as relevant components of physical activity assessment and prescription. World Health Organization recommendations similarly combine aerobic activity with muscle strengthening and, for older adults, multicomponent activity emphasizing functional balance and strength.

This becomes especially important with aging. An older adult may accumulate substantial walking time while still having difficulty rising from a chair, reduced lower-limb strength or impaired balance. Simply adding more walking may not adequately address the functional limitation that matters most. Someone whose goal is to maintain or improve muscle function may need appropriately progressive resistance exercise, while a person at increased risk of falls may benefit from balance and functional training.

The relevant question is therefore not only how many minutes of activity a person accumulates. It is also which physical capacities matter for that person's health, function and goals.

Muscle strengthening deserves explicit attention

Public discussions about physical activity often focus on steps, walking, running and other aerobic exercise, while muscle strengthening receives less attention. Current World Health Organization guidance recommends muscle-strengthening activities at moderate or greater intensity involving all major muscle groups on at least two days each week for adults. Viet Nam's 2026 community handbook also specifically includes muscle-strengthening activity.

Strength training does not necessarily require heavy weights or a gym membership. Depending on the individual, resistance can be provided by machines, free weights, resistance bands, body weight or other appropriately loaded movements. The appropriate exercise depends on health status, functional ability, experience and goals.

What matters is that the muscle receives an appropriate stimulus. Repeating the same easy movement indefinitely still involves physical activity, but it may eventually provide too little stimulus to produce further improvements in strength.

Sedentary behavior is a related but separate target

A person can meet weekly exercise recommendations and still spend much of the remaining day sitting. Sedentary behavior and insufficient physical activity are therefore related, but they are not identical.

The World Health Organization recommends limiting the amount of time spent sedentary and replacing sedentary time with physical activity of any intensity, including light activity. It does not set one universal maximum number of sitting hours that applies to everyone.

In practice, care may therefore address both planned exercise and the movement pattern of the rest of the day. An office worker might complete structured exercise before or after work while also finding practical ways to interrupt long periods of sitting. An older adult might combine planned walking or strengthening with more frequent movement around the home.

This distinction is useful because adding a scheduled exercise session does not automatically remove the potential effects of spending the rest of the day almost entirely sedentary.

Chronic disease changes how exercise is prescribed, not whether movement matters

Having a chronic disease does not automatically mean that a person should avoid exercise. The World Health Organization provides specific physical activity recommendations for adults living with chronic conditions, and Viet Nam's 2026 handbook includes guidance for people with conditions such as hypertension, type 2 diabetes, cancer and chronic respiratory disease. Both emphasize regular activity, gradual progression and appropriate adaptation to individual ability and health status.

At the same time, a population recommendation should not be mistaken for a disease-specific therapeutic plan. Two people with the same diagnosis may have very different exercise capacity, complications, medications, symptoms and functional limitations. Someone with uncomplicated, well-controlled hypertension who already walks regularly is very different from someone recently hospitalized with cardiovascular disease. Likewise, uncomplicated type 2 diabetes presents different exercise considerations from diabetes complicated by significant neuropathy, cardiovascular disease or other functional limitations.

The 2025 Lifestyle Medicine Core Competencies reflect this complexity. Practitioners are expected not only to understand physical activity guidelines, but also to recognize indications for referral and develop appropriately modified prescriptions for populations including older adults, pregnant women, children and adolescents, people with obesity or disability and people living with cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer or stroke.

The diagnosis informs the prescription, but it does not determine it by itself.

Exercise prescription still depends on behavior change

A technically excellent exercise program has limited therapeutic value if the person cannot incorporate it into everyday life. Lack of time, pain, fatigue, embarrassment, low confidence, previous unsuccessful attempts, caring responsibilities, working hours or simply disliking the proposed activity can all influence whether a plan becomes a sustainable behavior.

Exercise prescription therefore sits at the intersection of exercise science and behavioral science. The healthcare professional needs to consider not only what would be physiologically useful, but also what forms of movement the person is willing and able to perform, when activity could realistically occur, what barriers are predictable and what support might help.

For someone who is inactive, the most useful starting dose may be smaller than the eventual guideline target. Establishing a repeatable behavior can be an important first step, followed by progression as capacity and confidence improve. This is consistent with the broader Lifestyle Medicine emphasis on patient-centered planning, self-efficacy, follow-up and sustained behavior change.

This is also why exercise prescription should not be separated from the broader clinical question of what matters to the patient. A plan that fits a person's goals and life has a better chance of surviving beyond the consultation.

The environment can make movement easier or harder

Physical inactivity should not automatically be interpreted as a lack of motivation. Working hours, commuting, caring responsibilities, disability, cost, climate, access to suitable places for activity, neighborhood design and perceptions of safety can all influence whether a plan that appears reasonable in a consultation is realistic outside it.

This has become increasingly explicit within Lifestyle Medicine. The 2025 Core Competencies added a competency requiring Lifestyle Medicine interventions to be applied in the context of social determinants of health, including social and economic circumstances, cultural relevance and collaboration with communities.

The implication for physical activity is practical. Advising someone to swim several times a week is of little value if they cannot reasonably access a pool. Recommending long outdoor sessions may be unrealistic during periods of extreme heat or poor environmental conditions. An exhausted shift worker may understand the benefits of exercise perfectly and still need a plan that looks very different from one designed for someone with more control over their schedule.

The best plan is therefore not simply the physiologically ideal one. It should balance evidence, safety, the person's goals and what can realistically be sustained in their environment.

Viet Nam has an important physical activity gap, but the numbers require careful interpretation

The national STEPS 2021 survey reported that 22.2% of Vietnamese adults aged 18–69 did not meet recommended levels of physical activity, compared with 28.1% in the 2015 survey. In 2021, insufficient physical activity was reported in 28.3% of women and 16.1% of men, and in 28.3% of people living in urban areas compared with 19.1% in rural areas. The World Health Organization published the full Viet Nam STEPS 2021 report in February 2025.

A World Health Organization country profile published in 2025 reports a 2022 estimate of 30% physical inactivity among Vietnamese adults aged 18 years and older, including 26% of men and 35% of women.

These figures should not be used to conclude that physical inactivity suddenly increased from 22.2% to 30%. They refer to different population definitions and are produced through different survey and estimation frameworks. They are better interpreted as complementary indicators showing that insufficient physical activity remains a meaningful health issue in Viet Nam.

This distinction is important because evidence-based Lifestyle Medicine should apply the same care to interpreting population statistics that it applies to interpreting clinical evidence.

Viet Nam's 2026 framework goes beyond simply telling people to exercise more

The policy environment changed significantly in 2026. The Law on Disease Prevention No. 114/2025/QH15, adopted on December 10, 2025 and effective from July 1, 2026, established a broader legal framework covering prevention of communicable and noncommunicable diseases, mental disorders, preventive nutrition and other disease-prevention activities. Article 9 specifically includes communication to change behavior and lifestyle for disease prevention and requires prevention communication to be scientifically accurate, understandable, practical, accessible and appropriate to the relevant population and context.

The Government's Decree No. 165/2026/NĐ-CP, also effective from July 1, 2026, develops this framework further. Among the measures for prevention of noncommunicable diseases in the community, it expressly includes health communication, education and individual behavior-change counseling related to issues such as healthy nutrition, increased physical activity, weight management, tobacco, alcohol and other risk factors.

The Ministry of Health then issued Decision No. 1983/QĐ-BYT on July 1, 2026, providing guidance on controlling risk factors, people with risk factors and people living with noncommunicable diseases in the community. For insufficient physical activity, the guidance asks health workers to help people assess their current activity, identify barriers, choose forms of movement appropriate to their health and circumstances, develop goals and an activity plan, monitor implementation and receive follow-up support. The accompanying counseling form uses a structured behavior-change process and considers weekly aerobic activity, muscle strengthening, balance and flexibility where relevant, sedentary behavior and barriers to physical activity.

On July 13, 2026, the Department of Disease Prevention under the Ministry of Health issued Decision No. 103/QĐ-PB, together with the Handbook on Physical Activity for Health Promotion in the Community. The handbook covers children, adults, older people, pregnant and postpartum women, people living with chronic diseases and people with disabilities. It also addresses safety and implementation in communities, educational settings and workplaces. The handbook states that it is intended both to provide information to the public and to serve as a reference for primary healthcare workers and health personnel in organizations and businesses when communicating and guiding community physical activity.

Taken together, these developments provide a much stronger foundation for structured physical activity promotion in Viet Nam. They show a clear movement beyond generic messages toward assessment, goal setting, barrier identification, planning and follow-up.

They should not, however, be interpreted as creating a new independent clinical profession or allowing everyone involved in physical activity promotion to diagnose disease, determine medical contraindications or provide clinical treatment outside their legally recognized scope of practice.

Exercise prescription in Viet Nam requires clear professional boundaries

The term exercise prescription is widely used internationally in sports and exercise medicine, rehabilitation and Lifestyle Medicine. In Viet Nam, however, it should be understood as a clinical and professional concept rather than as a separate statutory license category or independent professional title.

The current consolidated Law on Medical Examination and Treatment, Consolidated Document No. 26/VBHN-VPQH dated February 26, 2026, defines medical examination as the use by a licensed practitioner of professional knowledge, methods and techniques to assess a patient's health status, health risks and healthcare needs. Treatment includes professional activities used to address disease, prevent its occurrence or progression, or meet healthcare needs on the basis of the medical examination.

Article 26 of the law identifies the professional titles for which a practice license is required, including physicians, assistant physicians, nurses, midwives, medical technicians, clinical nutrition professionals, out-of-hospital emergency care professionals and clinical psychologists, among other categories provided by law. The law does not establish “exercise prescriber” or “exercise physiologist” as a separate licensed healthcare profession.

Circular No. 32/2023/TT-BYT, as amended in 2026, further provides that a practitioner's scope of practice must be consistent with healthcare qualifications issued or recognized in Viet Nam and with that person's professional competence. The scope may include examination, treatment, diagnostic or therapeutic procedures, prescribing medication, care, nutrition, evaluation, counseling and health education according to the relevant professional title and Ministry of Health regulations. Circular No. 25/2026/TT-BYT subsequently amended parts of Circular No. 32/2023/TT-BYT and other Ministry regulations, so the two should be read together when considering the current framework.

This creates an important practical distinction. Promoting physical activity to the public, providing general health education or supporting someone to implement an established activity plan is not the same as independently evaluating unexplained clinical symptoms, diagnosing disease, interpreting medical investigations, determining clinical contraindications or managing a therapeutic intervention in a patient whose condition requires medical care.

Physicians, nurses, professionals working in rehabilitation, medical technicians and other appropriately qualified health professionals may all contribute according to their qualifications, competence and legally authorized scope. Professionals outside clinical care may also contribute to community physical activity promotion when the activities they provide do not constitute medical examination or treatment.

An international qualification in Lifestyle Medicine, exercise, fitness or health coaching can demonstrate additional education and skills. It does not by itself create a Vietnamese healthcare practice license or expand the holder's legally authorized clinical scope.

The important questions are therefore not simply who knows about exercise, but what activity is being performed, for whom, for what purpose, at what level of clinical risk and within what professional scope.

A practical pathway from advice to individualized prescription

In practice, a structured approach does not need to become unnecessarily complicated. It can begin by clarifying the person's health or functional goal and assessing current physical activity and sedentary behavior. Relevant symptoms, medical conditions, medications, limitations, previous experience and practical barriers can then be considered to determine whether general guidance is sufficient or whether further clinical assessment, testing or referral is needed.

Where an individualized plan is appropriate, frequency, intensity, time, type, total volume and progression can be defined according to the person's starting point and goals. The plan should also consider how the activity will fit into daily life and how response, safety and progress will be monitored.

For a healthy inactive person, this process may be brief and result in a simple walking or activity plan. For someone with complex chronic disease, substantial functional limitation, concerning symptoms or higher-intensity exercise goals, it may require formal assessment and multidisciplinary input.

The level of assessment, individualization and supervision should therefore match the needs and risk of the person rather than being applied uniformly to everyone.

Follow-up is also part of the process. A prescription that is never reviewed cannot respond to improving fitness, new symptoms, poor recovery, injury, changing health status or the discovery that the original plan simply does not work in the person's life.

Measure what actually changed

Writing an exercise plan is not the outcome. Depending on the purpose of the intervention, useful measures may include weekly physical activity, sedentary time, exercise frequency and volume, strength, walking or functional capacity, balance, symptoms, blood pressure, glucose-related measures, quality of life or other condition-specific outcomes.

Safety also needs attention. Unexpected symptoms, injury, poor recovery or interactions with another condition or treatment may indicate that the plan needs to be reconsidered. At the same time, adherence should not be reduced to whether someone simply “complied” with instructions.

If a plan repeatedly fails, that is useful information. The dose may be too ambitious, the activity may not fit the person's preferences or environment, additional support may be needed, or the clinical situation may have changed. Measurement is most useful when it helps clinicians and patients improve the intervention rather than merely documenting whether instructions were followed.

This is also where physical activity can become part of a wider quality-improvement approach. If a healthcare organization introduces structured physical activity assessment or exercise interventions, it can ask not only whether patients received advice, but whether assessment occurred consistently, appropriate referrals were made, follow-up happened and meaningful outcomes changed.

What does this mean for Lifestyle Medicine in Viet Nam?

The opportunity for Viet Nam is not simply to replace the phrase “exercise more” with the more technical phrase “exercise prescription.” The larger task is to strengthen the ability of healthcare services to move appropriately from advice to assessment, from assessment to individualized planning when needed, and from planning to follow-up and measurable outcomes.

This does not require every healthcare organization to establish a separate Lifestyle Medicine clinic. Physical activity assessment can be incorporated into hypertension and diabetes care. Strength, balance and functional capacity can become more visible in care for older adults. Rehabilitation and progressive physical activity can form part of recovery and cancer survivorship pathways. Hospital discharge planning can consider restoration of physical function, while community health services can identify insufficient activity and practical barriers and help people develop realistic plans.

The 2026 Vietnamese framework provides a timely foundation for strengthening this work. International Lifestyle Medicine competencies add a broader clinical structure for assessment, exercise prescription, behavior change, referral and outcome measurement. The two should not be treated as competing models. International evidence can help inform practice, while implementation needs to remain consistent with Vietnamese law, professional scope, healthcare capacity and local social and cultural realities.

There is also an important equity dimension. Recommendations that assume everyone has equal time, money, mobility, safe environments or access to facilities can unintentionally widen gaps rather than reduce them. Good Lifestyle Medicine therefore needs to make physical activity more accessible as well as more evidence-based.

“Exercise more” is useful advice, but it is not yet an individualized prescription

Physical activity is an important modifiable determinant of health and a core component of Lifestyle Medicine. Its apparent simplicity, however, can lead to overly general recommendations.

Telling someone to exercise more gives direction, but it does not necessarily establish where to start, what type of activity is most appropriate, how hard the person should work, how the dose should progress, what safety considerations matter, how the plan fits into daily life or how the response will be evaluated. Those questions become increasingly important when physical activity is being used as part of clinical care.

A stronger approach asks about the person's current activity and capacity, the outcome being targeted, the appropriate exercise dose, safety, feasibility, progression and follow-up. It also recognizes that not every person requires the same degree of assessment or individualization.

The aim is not to medicalize movement. It is to become more precise when precision improves care, more individualized when individualization matters and more clinically governed when exercise is being used as treatment.

That is the practical difference between telling someone to exercise more and prescribing exercise well.

References

1. Rea BL, Cheema S, Lanza S, et al. Lifestyle Medicine Core Competencies: 2025 Update. American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine. 2026;20(3):443–451. First published online October 28, 2025. doi:10.1177/15598276251379821.

2. World Health Organization. WHO Guidelines on Physical Activity and Sedentary Behaviour. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2020.

3. American College of Sports Medicine. ACSM's Guidelines for Exercise Testing and Prescription. 12th ed. Wolters Kluwer; 2025.

4. Bishop DJ, Beck B, Biddle SJH, et al. Physical Activity and Exercise Intensity Terminology: A Joint American College of Sports Medicine Expert Statement and Exercise and Sport Science Australia Consensus Statement. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise. 2025;57(11):2599–2613. doi:10.1249/MSS.0000000000003795.

5. World Health Organization Regional Office for the Western Pacific. National Survey on the Risk Factors of Noncommunicable Diseases in Viet Nam, 2021. Manila: World Health Organization Regional Office for the Western Pacific; 2025. ISBN 978-92-9-062026-6.

6. World Health Organization. Hypertension Country Profile: Viet Nam. 2025.

7. National Assembly of Viet Nam. Law on Disease Prevention No. 114/2025/QH15, dated December 10, 2025, effective July 1, 2026.

8. Government of Viet Nam. Decree No. 165/2026/NĐ-CP, dated May 15, 2026, detailing and guiding implementation of selected provisions of the Law on Disease Prevention, effective July 1, 2026.

9. Ministry of Health of Viet Nam. Circular No. 15/2026/TT-BYT, dated May 17, 2026, detailing selected provisions of the Law on Disease Prevention, effective July 1, 2026.

10. Ministry of Health of Viet Nam. Decision No. 1983/QĐ-BYT, dated July 1, 2026. Guidance on the Control of Risk Factors, People with Risk Factors, and People Living with Noncommunicable Diseases in the Community.

11. Department of Disease Prevention, Ministry of Health of Viet Nam. Decision No. 103/QĐ-PB, dated July 13, 2026. Handbook on Physical Activity for Health Promotion in the Community.

12. Office of the National Assembly of Viet Nam. Consolidated Document No. 26/VBHN-VPQH, dated February 26, 2026. Law on Medical Examination and Treatment.

13. Ministry of Health of Viet Nam. Circular No. 32/2023/TT-BYT, detailing selected provisions of the Law on Medical Examination and Treatment, as amended.

14. Ministry of Health of Viet Nam. Circular No. 25/2026/TT-BYT, dated June 30, 2026, amending selected provisions of Circular No. 32/2023/TT-BYT and other Ministry of Health regulations.

This article is intended for professional education and general information. It does not provide an individualized exercise prescription, medical diagnosis or medical clearance. Physical activity or exercise used as part of clinical care should be assessed, prescribed, supervised or referred as appropriate to the person's health status and should remain within the training, competence and legally authorized professional scope of the practitioners involved. The term “exercise prescription” as used in this article is an internationally used clinical concept and does not represent a separate professional license category or independent scope of practice under Vietnamese law. Lifestyle Medicine, exercise, fitness or health coaching education or certification does not by itself authorize medical examination, diagnosis, treatment, medication adjustment or other regulated clinical practice in Viet Nam.

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