European Union Physical Activity and Sport Monitoring System Plus

Background Eurobarometer surveys have been identifying in EU alarming physical inactivity rates.Recognizing the existence of heterogeneous methodologies among Member States, resulting in contradictory sedentary behavior, physical activity, and sport participation data, the Council has encouraged them to extend the cooperation between each other and with EC to share best practices to develop a comparable EU surveillance system.MS have replied to this call and developed the EUPASMOS Plus project accordingly. Objectives EUPASMOS Plus aims to implement a harmonized EU sedentary behavior, physical activity, and sport monitoring system, through the development of an integrated and shared methodological framework providing comparable, valid, and reliable data. This system will support MS, the European Commission, WHO, and other relevant organizations in the design, promotion, implementation, and surveillance of effective evidence-based HEPA and sport policies and strategies across different governance levels. Implementation Based on the extensive literature review developed by EUPASMOS to identify the existing monitoring systems and the methods available to measure sedentary behavior, PA, and sport prevalence in EU MS, a new monitoring framework was developed describing the project implementation, data collection methodology, and key results expected. Extensive data collection fieldwork was conducted. Data were analyzed and results were presented on the website. The toolkit developed is also publicly available. Achievements Major sedentary behavior, physical activity, and sport participation results from each partner are presented on the website, including in a geo-reference perspective. Summary results factsheets are also available. The extensive work developed by the project partners gave support to the creation of this new EU-validated, reliable, and comparable sedentary behavior, PA, and sport surveillance mechanism which can work complementary to the Eurobarometer and support EUROSTAT surveys on PA and health.