Background: Policies targeting diets and physical activity have been proposed as mechanisms for the prevention and control non communicable diseases in Europe. While these actions have the potential to improve health at a population level, the impact of these policies in Europe is currently unknown. The aim of this study, as part of the wider Policy Evaluation Network, is to catalogue the data currently available for policy evaluation in Europe to inform the development of surveillance instruments. The catalogues will also provide an opportunity for key stakeholders to view the available EU indicators that can be employed to evaluate policies which influence diet, physical activity and sedentary behaviour.
Methods: A suite of key indicators was agreed by PEN members and over 30 EU experts during a workshop in September 2019. Next, variables in existing EU monitoring systems were suggested by workshop participants for the measurement of each key indicator. The mapping process involved an evaluation of how suitable the suggested variables were as measures for the indicators. This was done using a Likert scale (matched, somewhat matched, less matched, not matched).
Results: The suite of key indicators included both behaviour outcome indicators and upstream indicators relating to diet (n=72) and physical activity and sedentary behaviour (n=67). 72% of diet indicators and 86% of physical activity and sedentary behaviour indicators were matched to at least one variable in an existing EU monitoring system. The majority of indicator-measure pairs were categorised as ‘matched’ on the Likert scale.
Conclusions: While there are gaps in the measurement of policy level indicators in domains such as inequality, funding and resources and governance, the majority of key policy indicators were mapped to measures in existing systems. Therefore, much of the data for evaluation of policies is readily available.
Figure 1
This is a list of supplementary files associated with this preprint. Click to download.
Loading...
Posted 17 Aug, 2020
Posted 17 Aug, 2020
Background: Policies targeting diets and physical activity have been proposed as mechanisms for the prevention and control non communicable diseases in Europe. While these actions have the potential to improve health at a population level, the impact of these policies in Europe is currently unknown. The aim of this study, as part of the wider Policy Evaluation Network, is to catalogue the data currently available for policy evaluation in Europe to inform the development of surveillance instruments. The catalogues will also provide an opportunity for key stakeholders to view the available EU indicators that can be employed to evaluate policies which influence diet, physical activity and sedentary behaviour.
Methods: A suite of key indicators was agreed by PEN members and over 30 EU experts during a workshop in September 2019. Next, variables in existing EU monitoring systems were suggested by workshop participants for the measurement of each key indicator. The mapping process involved an evaluation of how suitable the suggested variables were as measures for the indicators. This was done using a Likert scale (matched, somewhat matched, less matched, not matched).
Results: The suite of key indicators included both behaviour outcome indicators and upstream indicators relating to diet (n=72) and physical activity and sedentary behaviour (n=67). 72% of diet indicators and 86% of physical activity and sedentary behaviour indicators were matched to at least one variable in an existing EU monitoring system. The majority of indicator-measure pairs were categorised as ‘matched’ on the Likert scale.
Conclusions: While there are gaps in the measurement of policy level indicators in domains such as inequality, funding and resources and governance, the majority of key policy indicators were mapped to measures in existing systems. Therefore, much of the data for evaluation of policies is readily available.
Figure 1
Loading...