Periodic Reporting for period 1 - INDEEP (INtervention on the DEterminants of, and Expertise in, Physical activity behaviours)
Okres sprawozdawczy: 2024-02-01 do 2026-01-31
Physical Activity (PA) positively impacts a broad range of markers for health (King et al., 2019) and reduces the risk of mortality (Ekelund et al., 2026). The World Health Organisation (WHO) outline that almost 500 million people will develop noncommunicable diseases attributable to physical inactivity between 2020 and 2030 (WHO, 2022), with a global cost of $47·6 billion annually if urgent action is not taken by governments (Santos et al., 2023). Only 29% of European children and adolescents are currently sufficiently active (Steene-Johannessen et al., 2020), with 27.5% of the worlds adults not achieving global recommendations (Guthold et al., 2020). It is now well established that European and Global society are largely physically inactive (Strain et al. 2024).
Physical Activity levels track from youth into adulthood (Hayes et al., 2019) and current trends suggest youth participation is not increasing (Guthold et al., 2018). This highlights a substantial public health issue, as early incidence of risk factors for chronic disease associated with physical activity behaviours (PABs) are on the rise (Lascar et al., 2018, Song et al., 2019). The Lancet commission and the WHO Global Accelerated Action for the Health of Adolescents have highlighted a triple benefit to investment in youth health – immediate, lifelong and intergenerational, referencing PA as a research priority (Patton et al., 2016, WHO, 2017).
Expert consensus indicates that “a whole systems approach, with radical change at social, environmental, and systems levels, through multidisciplinary and cross-sectorial collaboration” is required (van Sluijs et al., 2021). The DEterminants of DIet and Physical Activity Knowledge Hub (DEDIPAC-KH) consortium identified major gaps in the depth, breadth and quality of data on multi-level and multidisciplinary determinants of PABs, limiting effective policy and intervention development (Brug et al., 2017; De Craemer et al., 2018).INDEEP addresses this by advancing our understanding of the determinants to inform targeted and effective interventions, policies and infrastructures (Pratt et al., 2023).
There is an immediate need to train a new generation of multidisciplinary Doctoral Candidates (DCs) who can examine best existing evidence on PAB determinants and map this knowledge onto the design of interventions and policy, helping to reshape the PAB system favourably (Rutter et al., 2017) and improve effectiveness and return on investment (Ding et al., 2019, Conner and Norman, 2017).
Consequently, the research objectives of INDEEP are:
1. Develop an innovative methodology to generate new knowledge on the biological, intrapersonal, interpersonal, social, environmental, and policy determinants of PABs by exploiting European large-scale cohort studies and a concept proof in a sample of European youths (12-14 years) from five European countries.
2. Identify vulnerable groups most likely to benefit from PAB interventions and policies.
3. Apply a comprehensive determinants system to identify key determinants to target when designing PAB interventions
4. Develop a co-creative Toolbox for practitioners grounded in behaviour change theory.
These objectives will deliver a harmonised multi-site dataset of PABs and associated determinants, supporting evidence-informed interventions and responding to gaps identified by WHO (2019) and the research community (Bauman et al., 2012; van Sluijs et al., 2021).
The methodologies developed will inform an INDEEP Toolbox to support the translation of research into real-world practice. Interdisciplinary training for Doctoral Candidates, combined with strong international expertise and collaboration, will help ensure the efficacy and impact of INDEEP outputs, and advance the state of the art.
Physical Activity levels track from youth into adulthood (Hayes et al., 2019) and current trends suggest youth participation is not increasing (Guthold et al., 2018). This highlights a substantial public health issue, as early incidence of risk factors for chronic disease associated with physical activity behaviours (PABs) are on the rise (Lascar et al., 2018, Song et al., 2019). The Lancet commission and the WHO Global Accelerated Action for the Health of Adolescents have highlighted a triple benefit to investment in youth health – immediate, lifelong and intergenerational, referencing PA as a research priority (Patton et al., 2016, WHO, 2017).
Expert consensus indicates that “a whole systems approach, with radical change at social, environmental, and systems levels, through multidisciplinary and cross-sectorial collaboration” is required (van Sluijs et al., 2021). The DEterminants of DIet and Physical Activity Knowledge Hub (DEDIPAC-KH) consortium identified major gaps in the depth, breadth and quality of data on multi-level and multidisciplinary determinants of PABs, limiting effective policy and intervention development (Brug et al., 2017; De Craemer et al., 2018).INDEEP addresses this by advancing our understanding of the determinants to inform targeted and effective interventions, policies and infrastructures (Pratt et al., 2023).
There is an immediate need to train a new generation of multidisciplinary Doctoral Candidates (DCs) who can examine best existing evidence on PAB determinants and map this knowledge onto the design of interventions and policy, helping to reshape the PAB system favourably (Rutter et al., 2017) and improve effectiveness and return on investment (Ding et al., 2019, Conner and Norman, 2017).
Consequently, the research objectives of INDEEP are:
1. Develop an innovative methodology to generate new knowledge on the biological, intrapersonal, interpersonal, social, environmental, and policy determinants of PABs by exploiting European large-scale cohort studies and a concept proof in a sample of European youths (12-14 years) from five European countries.
2. Identify vulnerable groups most likely to benefit from PAB interventions and policies.
3. Apply a comprehensive determinants system to identify key determinants to target when designing PAB interventions
4. Develop a co-creative Toolbox for practitioners grounded in behaviour change theory.
These objectives will deliver a harmonised multi-site dataset of PABs and associated determinants, supporting evidence-informed interventions and responding to gaps identified by WHO (2019) and the research community (Bauman et al., 2012; van Sluijs et al., 2021).
The methodologies developed will inform an INDEEP Toolbox to support the translation of research into real-world practice. Interdisciplinary training for Doctoral Candidates, combined with strong international expertise and collaboration, will help ensure the efficacy and impact of INDEEP outputs, and advance the state of the art.
INDEEP is on track across all aspects of the project. All governance structures are established and operational, including the Supervisory Board, Research Coordination Committee, Doctoral Training Committee, Communications, Dissemination and Exloitation Committee, Doctoral Candidate Committee, and External Advisory Group. This structure supports effective communication and collaboration across the consortium.
All 10 DCs have been appointed and are progressing with their individual projects, while also contributing to core work of INDEEP (such as data collection). All milestones and deliverables to date have been achieved.
Two face-to-face Training Schools (Olomouc, Czechia – Oct 24 and Kristiansand, Norway – Sept 25) were successful delivered, supporting training, collaboration and the exploration of additional research outputs. Several DCs have completed international secondment, gaining experience in different research environments and sectors, while the remaining secondments are well advanced in their planning.
Main Achievements:
Significant progress has been made towards delivering scientific impact. All DCs are finalising their opening scientific publications (including literature reviews and retrospective analysis of existing datasets), and dissemination is ongoing through national and international conferences, including an accepted symposium at ISBNPA 2026.
INDEEP replies on two key interdependencies:
Development of a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) and ethical approvals, and
Completion of data collection and production of the harmonised multi-site dataset.
The SOP and ethical approvals have been achieved on schedule and data collection is now underway across all sites. The resulting dataset will provide new evidence on the determinants influencing PAB in young people and will inform the INDEEP Toolbox to support future public health interventions.
All 10 DCs have been appointed and are progressing with their individual projects, while also contributing to core work of INDEEP (such as data collection). All milestones and deliverables to date have been achieved.
Two face-to-face Training Schools (Olomouc, Czechia – Oct 24 and Kristiansand, Norway – Sept 25) were successful delivered, supporting training, collaboration and the exploration of additional research outputs. Several DCs have completed international secondment, gaining experience in different research environments and sectors, while the remaining secondments are well advanced in their planning.
Main Achievements:
Significant progress has been made towards delivering scientific impact. All DCs are finalising their opening scientific publications (including literature reviews and retrospective analysis of existing datasets), and dissemination is ongoing through national and international conferences, including an accepted symposium at ISBNPA 2026.
INDEEP replies on two key interdependencies:
Development of a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) and ethical approvals, and
Completion of data collection and production of the harmonised multi-site dataset.
The SOP and ethical approvals have been achieved on schedule and data collection is now underway across all sites. The resulting dataset will provide new evidence on the determinants influencing PAB in young people and will inform the INDEEP Toolbox to support future public health interventions.
The DCs are developing and refining methodologies to collect, process and analyse data for the INDEEP dataset. This includes identifying measures for PABs and their associated biological, intrapersonal, interpersonal, environmental and policy related determinants. Through scoping and systematic reviews, retrospective analysis of existing datasets, and qualitative investigations, the DCs have developed a state-of-the-art INDEEP Standard Operating Procedure for data collection. The findings from these investigations will be published in peer-reviewed journals in the coming months.
An example of the novel advances of INDEEP can be found in the implementation of process evaluation approaches. This includes a systematic review on the most effective approaches to conduct process evaluation when collecting multi-site data alongside a qualitative investigation from leading researchers on core considerations for such studies. This has produced two sets of novel findings, which will be synthesised to inform a process evaluation protocol to be implemented during INDEEP data collection. Similar approaches have been adopted across all DC projects, with systematic and scoping reviews forming a core foundation of this work.
An overall protocol on the development of the INDEEP SOP is also in preparation, providing a detailed justification of the methodologies and supporting wider adoption in other studies and settings.
The SOP is currently being implemented in five European countries (Ireland, Germany, Belgium, Norway, Portugal), where the family study is currently underway. This will produce a substantial, novel dataset that will be available for the DCs to exploit, further advancing the state-of-the-art and providing data for numerous novel outputs.
An example of the novel advances of INDEEP can be found in the implementation of process evaluation approaches. This includes a systematic review on the most effective approaches to conduct process evaluation when collecting multi-site data alongside a qualitative investigation from leading researchers on core considerations for such studies. This has produced two sets of novel findings, which will be synthesised to inform a process evaluation protocol to be implemented during INDEEP data collection. Similar approaches have been adopted across all DC projects, with systematic and scoping reviews forming a core foundation of this work.
An overall protocol on the development of the INDEEP SOP is also in preparation, providing a detailed justification of the methodologies and supporting wider adoption in other studies and settings.
The SOP is currently being implemented in five European countries (Ireland, Germany, Belgium, Norway, Portugal), where the family study is currently underway. This will produce a substantial, novel dataset that will be available for the DCs to exploit, further advancing the state-of-the-art and providing data for numerous novel outputs.