Determinants of Physical Activities in Settings
DE-PASS will focus on identifying, understanding and measuring the determinants which promote, maintain or inhibit Physical Activity Behaviours (PABs) across the lifespan and in different settings and translating this knowledge to assist policy-makers to achieve greater health impact.
Description of Action
The COST Action “Determinants of Physical ActivitieS in Settings” (DE-PASS) is unique in focus, extent, constitution and as an effective Knowledge Transfer Platform (KTP). DE-PASS will focus on identifying, understanding and measuring the determinants which promote, maintain or inhibit Physical Activity Behaviours (PABs) across the lifespan and in different settings and translating this knowledge to assist policy-makers to achieve greater health impact. European and global society is now largely physically inactive. The health, economic and social benefits of a more active society are enormous.
DE-PASS will illuminate why individuals and/or societies adopt a physically active or inactive lifestyle. To date enormous energy has been invested by researchers in answering this question, however, the knowledge gained and the impact achieved through this investment is fragmented, not readily translatable and progress beyond the state of the art is slow.
DE-PASS will achieve the following:
- Use a settings approach (home, school, work etc.) to bridge the knowledge and translation gap;
- enact a multi-disciplinary, Pan-European, international network of established, young and Early Career Investigators (ECIs) and policymakers;
- exploit, consolidate and further integrate existing relevant expertise, evidence, resources and influence;
- develop capacities and careers for ECIs;
- provide a new European PABs conceptual framework, a best evidence statement and implementation guidelines for policy-makers;
- define and standardise European measurement protocols;
- establish a new, high functioning, open access European database of determinants of PABs with a cohort extension and
- define an evidenced-based and aspirational Pan-European research harmonisation and implementation strategy.
Background
European and global society can now be described as largely physically inactive. Appropriate levels of health enhancing Physical Activity (PA) are the exception. The positive health, economic and social implications of a more physically active society are far reaching. Therefore, it is essential to identify the determinants of this inactive, at risk society.
The knowledge translation premise of the “DEterminants of Physical ActivitieS in Settings” (DE-PASS) Action is that the more we understand and can identify the factors that determine a physically active or inactive lifestyle, the better we can design and implement targeted and effective interventions and policies. Within DE-PASS Physical Activity Behaviours (PABs) are defined as sedentary, light, moderate and vigorous intensity PA.
The evidence-based rationale for establishing DE-PASS is both extensive and contemporary (2017-2019), some challenges with extant evidence and data are as follows:
- Data is often not comparable and thus cannot be harmonised or pooled;
- Data represents single or few determinants and thus do not illuminate how the determinants interact;
- A need to identify the key determinants which should be prioritised for intervention and policy design exists;
- Data are often characterised by outcome measures having poor validity and are not longitudinal in nature;
- The determinant profile that explain the greatest percentage of the variance of objectively measured PABs across the life-span is unknown;
- The specific determinant profile which best predicts participation in and transition between light, moderate PA levels and meeting the PA recommendations is unknown; Differentiated knowledge regarding setting specific determinants is limited;
- A valid standardised methodology to comprehensively and feasibly measure determinants of PABs does not exist;
- The conclusions of a series of recent extensive umbrella systematic literatures reviews (SLR), indicate few convincing relationships between PA and measured factors;
- Existing data is lacking in depth, breadth and quality regarding multi-level and multidisciplinary determinants of PABs;
- Scarcity/lack of high quality, Europe-wide data collected with standardised methodology on PABs and their multi-level determinants is a major barrier that stops further progress towards informing policy and intervention.
Many gaps and issues exist regarding extant knowledge and the related science of the determinants of PABs. However, regardless of this reality, effective translation of the current state of the art must still take place to optimise the efficacy and evaluation of ongoing and planned interventions and policy. Existing “Best Evidence” provides a meaningful launch pad for the translation of extant knowledge and for the definition of a future research agenda. Best evidence statements based on convincing levels of evidence regarding what the key modifiable determinants of PABs are and a set of guidelines on how to effectively change these determinants in specific settings are currently not available.
A sea change in knowledge generation is now required, it must be characterised by standardised and harmonised Pan-European data collection; it must use an objective measure of PABs; it must be comprehensive in the spectrum of determinants measured and include new candidate determinants, and must include prospective settings based cohort designs. Once armed with the newly derived knowledge, it will be possible to design interventions and policy that have a predictable and quantifiable chance of success. Without this sea change, no meaningful advance in the state of the art will occur, DE-PASS will be the platform to direct and ensure such change.
