Portal InstitucionalUFPEL

01/03/2018 - 28/02/2019

Ciências da Saúde - Saúde Coletiva

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Background Despite the importance of physical inactivity as one of the four main risk factors for NCDs, there was no observatory dedicated exclusively to monitor physical activity worldwide. The need for country level data collection, high quality locally applicable research and monitoring to inform policy and planning of interventions at the population level was evident. In 2012, the Global Observatory for Physical Activity – GoPA! was launched in response to this urgent call for action becoming a worldwide response to a worldwide problem. Although described as urgent in the call to action set by the Lancet Physical Activity Series 1, there is no record of any summarizing document that includes national indicators of physical activity health outcomes, surveillance, policy and research, developed with a standardized methodology and accessible to a diverse public. Neither, a comparison of these indicators at the country and regional levels was ever conducted. In addition, even though research in the area of physical activity and health has increased dramatically in the last years, to date, beyond opinion leaders, little is known about the real structure of the network that led to information dissemination and consequently field development, meaning that the map of the evolution of research in the physical activity and public field is unknown. Methods Using a standardized methodology, physical activity health outcomes, surveillance, policy and research indicators will be collected and summarized in an accessible and allinclusive public physical activity country profile called the “Country Cards”. Two sets will be part of this thesis: 1) the first set with 2013 data, and 2) the second set with 2015 data. Besides providing a thorough description of the data collection methods, a process evaluation, statistical data analyses, and the creation of a comprehensive physical activity ranking will be conducted allowing countries to track and evaluate their progress in terms of health burden, physical activity prevalence, surveillance, policy and research over time. In addition, a historical reconstruction of the development of the physical activity and health research field, using formal citation network analysis methods that will identify the most influential pieces over time, will be conducted.