Collaboration between the health and transport sectors in promoting physical activity

Between June 2005 and January 2006, examples of
collaboration between the health sector and other relevant
sectors, especially transport, to promote healthenhancing
physical activity were gathered in Europe.
Of particular interest were projects with contributions
from different sectors and those accompanied by evaluation.
Sixty-seven potential case studies were identified;
after initial screening, 48 were included. All the projects
reported were from the western part of the WHO European
Region or Israel, with 19 from the United Kingdom.
The case studies were mainly implementation or intervention
projects. Most were implemented on a city level
(local), followed by projects carried out nationwide. The
target population was mostly the “general population”.
About two thirds were “behaviour change campaigns” or
“engineering or infrastructural measures combined with
publicity or motivational measures”. The remaining third
mainly comprised “publicity or awareness-raising campaigns
to promote active modes of transport”, “research
initiatives” and “policy documents describing strategies
to promote active modes of transport”. The four sectors
most often involved were transport, health, local or subnational
public authorities and the private sector. In 25
projects (52%), the health sector collaborated with the
transport sector. In 18 projects (38%), the health sector
collaborated with a sector other than transport, and in
5 projects (10%), the health sector was not involved.
Many case studies focused either on transport-related
objectives or on behavioural changes of individuals
or target groups and less on infrastructural changes.
Twenty-three case studies (49%) recorded participation
in promotional campaigns for physical activity or active
travel (such as health walks or walking buses), 9 (19%)
collected data on modal shift towards walking and cycling
(solely assessing before versus after) and 10 (21%)
measured specific health outcomes such as the fitness
and body fat values of participants (four projects with
before-versus-after assessment).