From: Physical activity and the environment: conceptual review and framework for intervention research
Themes | |||||
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Conceptual points for discussion | 1. Conceptualisations of physical activity | 2. Environmental interventions as changes in structure | 3. Context may alter the success of an intervention | 4. Mechanisms may be observable or unobservable | 5. Understanding interventions as events in complex systems |
Physical activity means different things to different disciplines… | |||||
 movements (exercise physiology) | ✓ | ||||
 types of activity (behaviours) | ✓ | ||||
 a collection of activities (practices) | ✓ | ||||
Influences on physical activity are viewed differently in different disciplines… | |||||
 social influences (psychology) cf. socially embedded (anthropology, practices) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
 physical influences (could be as a context) | ✓ | ||||
Physical activity behaviour and its influences are complex and inter-related | ✓ | ||||
Definition of the environment includes attributes of the social and physical environment | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ||
Interactions between people and environment… | |||||
 people as agents | ✓ | ||||
 environments as structural constraint | ✓ | ||||
Effectiveness of interventions differs… | |||||
 and could be altered by social or physical environments | ✓ | ||||
 or trigger different processes | ✓ | ||||
Methods for assessing mechanisms differ… | |||||
 Observable and measurable: quantitative methods (mediation or moderation) or qualitative methods | ✓ | ✓ | |||
 Unobservable and unmeasurable: qualitative methods | ✓ | ✓ | |||
Important to acknowledge that .. | |||||
 feedback loops or reciprocal pathways (interactions between people and structure) operate | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ||
 long causal pathways are non-linear | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |