Promoting Physical Activity in Secondary School for Health

Background In December 2015, the European Council highlighted the necessity to specifically develop the promotion policy for children and adolescents. In fact, it is estimated that 80% of young people aged 11 to 17 globally do not comply with international recommendations on physical activity (PA). Two third of European adolescents aged 11–15 years are not active enough to meet the current guidelines (WHO, European Region). Objectives In order to improve the participation in sport and physical activity (PA), and thus support the European Council’s Recommendation on Health Enhancing Physical Activity (HEPA) and EU PA Guidelines, this project aimed at examining examples of interventions to promote physical activity at school, identifying good practices as well as the main problems linked to the design, implementation and evaluation of such interventions in order to improve their quality and sustainability. Implementation Using a co-design approach involving several internationally recognised experts, stakeholders, and end-users, we developed some adapted and ready-to-use contents and we designed an optimised multicomponent school-based intervention that has been implemented in France and Spain. We evaluated these interventions not only in terms of outcomes related to PA and sedentary time, but also in relation to other important domains like implementation or maintenance based on the RE-AIM framework. Achievements We have produced (1) a white paper geared towards professionals and policy makers, and a consensus statement intended for the scientific community; (2) two handbooks on the implementation of the intervention and its evaluation, accompanied by two scientific publications; (3) an educational toolkit to support PA promotion in schools; and (4) articles on the evaluation of the interventions held in France and Spain.