A rapid review of communication strategies for physical activity guidelines and physical activity promotion: A review of worldwide strategies

BACKGROUND: To support the strategy development for communication of the updated physical activity (PA) guidelines, the UK Chief Medical Officers’ Expert Panel for Communication was created.

METHODS: To help inform this process a rapid review was performed to identify and describe how other nations are communicating their PA guidelines and PA generally. Elements of the Health enhancing physical activity (HEPA) policy audit tool (PAT) created by the World Health Organization (WHO) were used to investigate all 195 countries.

RESULTS: Seventy-seven countries had their own guidelines, 53 used the WHO guidelines, and for 65 countries no guidelines could be found. For the communication, 27 countries used infographics, 56 had government policies/documents, and 11 used a mass media campaign. Only 6 of these had been evaluated. Although many countries used infographics, there were no associated evaluations. As such any future communication strategies should incorporate an evaluation. Mass media campaigns had the strongest evidence base, proving to be an effective strategy, particularly when incorporating aspects of social marketing.

CONCLUSION: This review provides an insight into strategies countries worldwide have taken to communicate PA guidelines and PA promotion. These should be carefully considered when deciding how best to communicate and promote PA
guidelines.