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Enabling is a concept central to health promotion. It is perceived as a mechanism that can help people gain control over determinants of health. Little is known, however, about enabling among policy-makers and professionals. This case study investigates enabling among policy-makers and professionals who engaged in a specific participatory approach, cooperative planning. We define 'enabling' as creating action situations that allow policy-makers and professionals to (i) build individual capacities for health promotion and to (ii) apply these capacities to concrete organizational and political action at the institutional level. This case study followed policy-makers and professionals as they participated in a local physical activity promotion action research project in Germany. We conducted a secondary analysis of qualitative data gathered in that project (2005-2011). Methods included participant observation, document analysis, focus groups and qualitative interviews. All data were revisited for the case study and analyzed using qualitative content analysis. Findings include examples of enabling among policy-makers and professionals related to the cooperative planning process. Individual capacities were developed in perceived project roles, interactions with target groups and decision-making procedures. Findings also demonstrated municipal policy changes. Access to physical activity infrastructures improved, and an intersectoral job position was funded to support physical activity promotion among target group participants. Findings were analyzed using a model that links cooperative planning with a framework on policy change from a political science perspective. We conclude that cooperative planning might be a pathway to negotiated agreements that foster systematic enabling and health-promoting policy change.

Despite the recent rapid development of policies to counteract physical inactivity (PI), only a small number of systematic analyses on the evolution of these policies exists. In this article we analyze how PI, as a public health issue, “translates” into a policy-making issue. First, we discuss why PI has become an increasingly important public health issue during the last two decades. We then follow Guy Peters and conceptualize PI as a “policy problem” that has the potential to be linked to policy instruments and policy impact. Analysis indicates that PI is a policy problem that i) is chronic in nature; ii) involves a high degree of political complexity; iii) can be disaggregated into smaller scales; iv) is addressed through interventions that can be difficult to “sell” to the public when their benefits are not highly divisible; v) cannot be solved by government spending alone; vi) must be addressed through a broad scope of activities; and vii) involves interdependencies among both multiple sectors and levels of government.We conclude that the new perspective on PI proposed in this article might be useful and important for i) describing and mapping policies to counteract PI in different contexts; ii) evaluating whether or not existing policy instruments are appropriate to the policy problem of PI, and iii) explaining the factors and processes that underlie policy development and implementation. More research is warranted in all these areas. In particular, we propose to focus on comparative analyses of how the problem of PI is defined and tackled in different contexts, and on the identification of truly effective policy instruments that are designed to “solve” the PI policy problem.

ObjectivesThis paper presents a typology of available evidence to inform physical activity policy. It aims to refine the distinction between three types of evidence relating to physical activity and to compare these types for the purpose of clarifying potential research gaps.MethodsA scoping review explored the extent, range and nature of three types of physical activity-related evidence available in reviews: (I) health outcomes/risk factors, (II) interventions and (III) policy-making. A six-step qualitative, iterative process with expert consultation guided data coding and analysis in EPPI Reviewer 4.Results856 Type I reviews, 350 Type II reviews and 40 Type III reviews were identified. Type I reviews heavily focused on obesity issues (18 %). Reviews of a systematic nature were more prominent in the Type II (>50 %). Type III reviews tended to conflate research about policy intervention effectiveness and research about policymaking processes. The majority of reviews came from the United States, United Kingdom, Australia and Canada.ConclusionsAlthough evidence gaps exist regarding evidence Types I and II, the most prominent gap regards Type III, i.e. research pertaining to physical activity policymaking. The findings presented herein will be used to inform physical activity policy development and future research.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00038-016-0807-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

The Formando Nuestro Futuro/Shaping our Future project (herewith, Formando) is a community-based participative research (CBPR) focused on type 2 diabetes. It was conceptualized and designed by a team of university-based researchers and community health workers (promotores). This article describes the process of establishing a CBPR project such as Formando and the most current results from that project. The Formando project is an example of health-focused advocacy with the Mexican agricultural workers in Southeast (SE) Idaho. To date, 172 qualitative interviews on participants' knowledge about type 2 diabetes have been carried out with farmworker women and their families. Biometric data (heights, weights, blood pressures and fasting blood glucoses) were obtained from participants. Fieldnotes, focus group discussions and key informants were used to triangulate findings. Significant quantitative findings include that age was significantly associated with Body Mass Index (BMI) (p < 0.001, Spearman Correlation < 0.001) and with elevated fasting blood glucose (p < 0.001, Spearman Correlation < 0.001). The qualitative interviews were thematically analyzed. Key themes associated with type 2 diabetes in this community were the connection between thinness and vanity, dieting and starvation and the onset of diabetes as a result of, what social scientists call, structural violence within the immigrants' daily lives. We conclude that long-term commitment to using the CBPR approach in these Mexican agricultural communities is an effective way to engage in health research and to establish real and meaningful dialogue with community members.