The growing burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) creates a need for effective public policy to change systems instead of individuals and create supportive contexts that reduce NCDs and health inequity. A major determinant of disease reduction is physical activity (PA). Covid-19 has emphasized PA’s protective effects, but movement restrictions highlighted the inequities experienced by population subgroups with low PA levels (e.g. children, women, minorities, people with disabilities). IMPAQT will improve health equity ‘in’ and ‘through’ PA for large parts of the population by developing, testing and promoting policy benchmarking as a tool to make PA policy more effective and equitable.

The project involves 6 countries of diverse size and background with 165m inhabitants. It uses an innovative tool, the PA-Environment Policy Index for Equity, to gather data and make cross-country comparisons on the extent of implementation of PA policies and their health equity impact. Mixed methods including evidence synthesis, document analysis and case reports will be used to ‘evidence ground’ countries’ policy implementation status in relevant domains, e.g. health, sport, education, transport, urban design. Quantitative and qualitative evidence validation with policymakers will ensure the comprehensive representation of government action. IMPAQT engages stakeholders representing i) non-government PA experts and ii) citizens from each country. These will independently assess the evidence on their governments’ action, comparing it to international best practice.

The project will yield country-specific policy index scores, which will be translated into report cards containing critical implementation gaps and policy recommendations. Transnational comparisons will provide international benchmarks for healthy and equitable PA policy environments. IMPAQT will employ an Advisory Board with high-level experts to ensure its alignment with EU policy and relevant scientific societies.