Authors: Aoife Noonan, Caera Grady, Kevin Volf, Kwok Ng, Sven Messing
The 2024 International Society for Physical Activity and Health (ISPAH) Conference brought together world-leading experts and provided a platform for the exchange of cutting-edge research to promote physical activity globally. The Physical Activity for Health (PAfH) Research Centre was well represented by its leadership team, research staff and postgraduate members who attended the conference and contributed to pre-conference workshops and several oral and poster presentations.
Pre-conference workshops
In alignment with the overall theme of the conference – “Accelerating policy and practice to ensure physical activity for all” – Prof. Catherine Woods chaired a pre-conference workshop on physical activity policy implementation. The workshop aimed to share learnings from the Policy Evaluation Network, a four million, seven country, 28-Research Centre project in Europe. Specifically, the workshop provided attendees with knowledge, skills and experience of how to use a tool to assess the implementation of public policies, the Physical Activity Environment Policy Index. Dr. Kevin Volf and Dr. Sven Messing supported the organisation of this workshop through presentations and the facilitation of interactive sessions.
A parallel workshop run by the ISPAH Sedentary Behaviour Council was attended by Dr Kwok Ng who is a member of the council. Presentations covered the latest evidence on sedentary behaviour and discussions about how to improve the guidelines were had. Take home messages included that medical doctors have very little time to discuss lifestyle behaviours (minus 1 minute to be exact). This leaves them wondering whether they should focus on discussing limiting sedentary behaviour or promoting physical activity. Additionally, the inclusivity of messages such as ‘sit less’ was questioned and suggestions included the use of ‘move more’ which may be more applicable to a wider audience. Finally, accelerometers are not objective measures of physical activity or sedentary behaviour they are simply measures of movement that are then calculated to determine the time spent in different postures. In conclusion, a lot of work on measurement, messages and programmes is needed before we are confident in sedentary behaviour guidelines.
Insights from Keynote speakers
On the first day, Isabella Burczak, explored the potential of leveraging sports mega-events, such as the Paris 2024 Olympics, to inspire physical activity. She emphasised how these global events, while captivating worldwide attention, can leave a lasting public health legacy by encouraging infrastructural investments and widespread behaviour change which often is not realised. Her presentation specifically highlighted large-scale cycling events and means in which the infrastructure can have positive impacts on the nation’s health. On the second day, Kent Buse discussed the political landscape of physical activity promotion, stressing the importance of integrating physical activity into broader public health agendas. Drawing parallels with successful campaigns like tobacco control, he called for stronger political support to ensure that physical activity gains the same level of priority and funding as other public health issues. Following this, Robert Harle, addressed the dual-edged nature of using consumer devices for physical activity surveillance. He highlighted the pros and cons of various measurement tools including smartwatch brands – emphasising ethical considerations and data protection when choosing devices for research. On the third day, Evelyne de Leeuw discussed the challenges arising when implementing physical activity policies. She specifically spoke considering minority groups and tailoring urban design when developing and implementing interventions and policies to promote physical activity.
PAfH research group presentations
The PAfH research group had a strong presence across the congress programme with contributions spanning across posters, 3-minute pitch orals, 8-minute orals, symposia and the pre-conference workshop mentioned earlier.
The first day of the congress was a busy one. Prof Woods, Prof Donnelly and Caera Grady presented their work simultaneously, in three parallel sessions. Prof Woods joined an international symposium to discuss the role of the physical activity community in meeting the challenges policy interventions require to be successful. Meanwhile, Prof Donnelly and other WEALTH project leaders (Wearable Sensor Assessment of Physical and Eating Behaviours) highlighted the innovations in physical activity measurement. At the same time in the co-creating interventions room, Caera Grady presented her co-design work with adolescents to improve the communication of physical activity in schools. Later that day, Aoife Noonan shared insights from the Healthy UL study on students' physical activity patterns in the University of Limerick.
Across the four-day event, Dr Kwok Ng presented two posters. The first poster explored associations between gaming and adolescents’ physical activity in Finland and the second focused on the Children’s Sport Participation and Physical Activity (CSPPA) study in Ireland.
On day two, the PAfH post-doctoral “policy duo” in Dr Messing and Dr Volf participated in the policy short oral session. Dr Messing’s presentation focused on local level physical activity policy monitoring and Dr Volf provided a rapid overview of the IMPAQT project. Prof Woods concluded the PAfH presentations on the final day of the conference by discussing the role of the Physical Activity Environmental Policy Index (PA-EPI) expert coalition and citizen council in the implementation of physical activity policies.
Networking
The conference also provided many opportunities for networking and catching up with colleagues in other Universities. From coffee breaks, ISPAH’s extra-curriculars and exploring Paris’s tourist attractions there were plenty of chances to meet our fellow experts in the field.
Overall, the ISPAH 2024 Conference was an excellent opportunity for PAfH members to learn about cutting-edge research and its impact on the real world, to expand UL’s international network by establishing new connections, and to share current findings with the scientific community.