Speaker
Description
Background:
To improve population levels of physical activity (PA), a multifaceted response, including government action, is essential. The purpose of this study was to develop the ‘Physical Activity Environment Policy Index’ (PA-EPI) monitoring framework which allows for the assessment of government policies and actions.
Methods:
An iterative process was undertaken. This involved a review of policy documents, a policy audit of four European countries, systematic reviews of scientific literature, an online consultation with academic experts (N=101; 20 countries) and policymakers (N=40; 4 countries), and consensus workshops.
Findings:
The PA-EPI is conceptualised as a two-component framework. The two components comprise eight ‘policy’ and seven ‘infrastructure support’ domains. The policy domains are education, transport, urban design, healthcare, public education, sport-for-all, workplaces and community. The infrastructure support domains are leadership, governance, monitoring and intelligence, funding and resources, platforms for interaction, workforce development, and health-in-all-policies. Across all domains, the PA-EPI includes forty-five ‘good practice statements’ (GPS).
Discussion:
The PA-EPI is the first attempt at using knowledge co-production at the science–policy interface to create a policy index to assess the healthiness of the PA environment. From a social science perspective, it is grounded in evidence pertaining to the importance of specific settings for population-level physical activity behaviour. Its design reflects theories pertaining to the policy cycle and on policy instruments.
Conclusion:
Once pre-tested and piloted in several countries of various sizes and income levels, the PA-EPI GPS will evolve into benchmarks established by governments at the forefront of creating and implementing policies to address inactivity.
