Research Framework
The Canadian Fitness and Lifestyle Research Institute’s Physical Activity and Sport Monitoring Program (PASMP) is internationally recognized as a comprehensive surveillance system to guide and assess the population impact of policy in the area of physical activity, recreation, and sport.
The PASMP takes a population health approach to studying the levels of physical activity and sport for the population as a whole, and by looking within the context of everyday life. So, for example, this can mean studying how people get to work or school (e.g., active vs inactive transportation), types of activities done in the workplace (e.g., sitting, standing or lifting heavy objects), and the types of activities people participate in during their leisure time (e.g., whether they play soccer or do chores after school, whether they participate on a community hockey team, or if they like to garden or play outdoors with the kids on the weekend). Not only do we study the actual behaviours of being active or not, but we also examine the environments where people can be active. This can include home, at school, at work, or in the community, in order to see what factors in these important settings can help or prevent people from being active. Our research also explores the role that key sport and recreation organizations and governments have in impacting participation rates through their programs and policies. All of this research is collected and systematically analyzed and informs CFLRI’s key mission of knowledge creation.
The CFLRI’s PASMP achieves the task of knowledge creation by gathering information from many types of research studies as described in the CFLRI’s Research Framework in Figure 1, including:
- Setting-based studies
- Organizational studies
- Government studies
- Qualitative studies
Figure 1. Research Framework, Canadian Fitness and Lifestyle Research Institute
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DEVELOPING EVIDENCE-BASED POLICY |
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KNOWLEDGE CREATION |
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Quantitative Data |
Qualitative Research | ||||||
| Longitudinal studies | Population studies (objective) | Population studies (self-report) | Setting-based studies | Organizational studies | Government studies | ||
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Areas of focus |
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| Physical activity | Steps, Adherence to guidelines | Physical activity, Sport participation, Sedentary | Community, Schools, Workplace | Recreation, Sport | Local (see setting), Provincial/Territorial, Federal | Focus groups | |
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Examples of factors collected |
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| Health behaviours, factors associated with physical activity | Factors associated with physical activity | Individual, social, physical environment factors | Policy, programming, awareness of strategies, information, barriers | Policy, programming, awareness of strategies, information, barriers | Policy, programming, awareness of strategies, information, barriers | Formative work to identify experiences and barriers related to sport | |
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Level of estimate produced |
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| National, regional estimates | National, regional, biannual provincial/ territorial estimates |
National, regional, provincial/ territorial estimates |
National, regional estimates | National estimates | National estimates | ||
Guiding policy and strategies
The PASMP provides information to guide the development of strategies to increase physical activity levels and sport participation rates. The PASMP has evolved over time. Since the mid-1990s, physical activity and sport benchmark indicators were established to enable governments to be accountable for expenditures with respect to the outcomes and impacts achieved by the investment of public dollars in support of physical activity and sport. Since the 2000s, the CFLRI has been monitoring changes in these indicators to determine progress in increasing population levels, understanding key factors for setting policies and strategies for joint action by governments, and establish research priorities within governmental work plans.
Data from this surveillance system guides policy development by:
- identifying key target groups;
- tracking changes in factors influencing participation rates;
- determining the impact of policies;
- examining changes in policies and practices across various settings;
- identifying equitable access of initiatives, services and opportunities, versus perceptions of level, actual use, and factors encouraging and restricting access;
- detecting policy and research gaps; and
- identifying new directions for action.
