Tackling physical inactivity in Scandinavia: a narrative review of reviews supplemented by expert interviews

Abstract

Aims: This study aims to identify physical inactivity-related challenges and motives, based on reviews and supplemented by expert interviews with Danish national experts on physical inactivity, providing a general discussion of the subject ultimately generating knowledge useable in a Scandinavian context. Methods: This study is framed as a narrative review of scientific review literature on physical inactivity, limited to the general population. The review is supplemented by expert interviews with Danish national experts on physical inactivity. We used thematic coding of the included reviews, while using hermeneutic interpretation analysis for the expert interviews. Results: Based on 11 included reviews, we highlighted four themes based on our analysis of reviews: (a) socioeconomic determinants of physical activity; (b) life-course perspective; (c) physical inactivity and older adults aged 60+ years; and (d) intervention recommendations. The supplementary expert interviews revealed three additional themes: (a) the individual history with physical activity; (b) sporting organisation importance; and (c) society responsibility for physical inactivity. Conclusions: Collectively this study concludes, based on review and expert interviews, that a number of determinants and correlations for physical inactivity affect the individual from various socioecological levels. Based on this review, we suggest moving beyond the ‘upstream’ public health approach of randomised controlled trials and consider complex interventions targeting physical inactivity from several levels. Physical inactivity should be acknowledged as a ‘wicked problem’ that requires a systems-based approach instead of a single quick fix. Future work with physical inactivity would profit from focus on the life-course perspective, sporting clubs’ responsiveness and physical literacy.

The Association between Physical Activity and Mental Health among Danish Women Aged 16–34 Years

“…Most results of the descriptive analysis were in line with other studies of determinants of PA (Ryom et al, 2021), including occupation, relationship status, and living situation. However, this study found that adequately physically active women had a larger proportion with high school as the highest completed education (34.95%) than inadequately physically active women (22.97%).…”

“…However, this study found that adequately physically active women had a larger proportion with high school as the highest completed education (34.95%) than inadequately physically active women (22.97%). Existing literature emphasised that level of education is an important determinant of PA (Ryom et al, 2021). The explanation for the finding in this study could be, that the participants were asked about their highest completed education.…”

“…The explanation for this finding could be, that the inadequately physically active women also had a larger proportion of women working as public servants (22.09%) and skilled workers (16.86%), which often is more sedentary work. Further, studies show that women become more physical inactive when entering the labour market (Ryom et al, 2021).…”

“…Life events were included since the descriptive analysis cannot be used as a determination of confounders (VanderWeele, 2019). According to the existing literature, life events are associated with PA and MH and are not an intermediate variable between PA and MH (WHO, 2019;Ryom et al, 2021).…”

School Medical Service: Strategies to Promote Psycho-Physiological Well-Being

“…Aptitude for sport is directly proportional to this; a high level of education corresponds to a lower level of sedentariness. This is a trend that, while maintaining a ratio of gender differences, is particularly interesting for the analysis of the phenomenon, precisely because a sedentary lifestyle increases linearly as the level of education decreases [ 28 ]. Time is a fundamental variable in the choice of whether to practice physical and sporting activities.…”