The stakeholder role in health enhancing physical activity policies

Abstract

Background: About one third of the total population is insufficient physically active - this considerably affects health. Policies address this dilemma but are accompanied by challenges. Especially the gap between scientific and practical policy work appears to be a reason for the lack of success. It is known that stakeholders can serve as interesting link between research and practice - but actual roles and their recognition are insufficiently defined. Aim: The aim of this study is to operationalize the stakeholder role by considering both sides: the research and the practice. Gained knowledge is used to develop stakeholder indicators – a recommended tool to identify stakeholders in differing contexts which is required in policy development. Methods: Two data sources - scientific literature and local policy cases from 5 different countries - are elaborated during 4 steps: Information gathering, expert consultancy, validation and a pilot-testing in the German environment was done in order to elaborate the stakeholder role and indicators. Results: The stakeholder role can be operationalized within 4 dimensions: the necessity to consider stakeholders in policies, the importance to consider different stakeholders (also across sectors and levels), the need to consider stakeholder knowledge and active stakeholder participation. Further, 3 hypotheses enable first instructions to deepen the current stakeholder role: Stakeholder identification needs to be done more strategically, exact timing of stakeholder inclusion influences the policy’s success and stakeholders prove to be mediators between research and practice. On the base of the operationalization two loops of consultancy and validation transform indicators, a tool to recognize the stakeholder role in physical activity policies. The pilot-testing reveals changes that enhance the tool’s applicability. Conclusion: This study confirms the hypotheses that stakeholders should take an integral part in the HEPA policy-making. According to the findings of this work the developed indicators should be applied and evaluated in the future in order to emphasize the stakeholder role more clearly.