Category: Featured Blogs

Promoting physical activity for older people: a toolkit for action

The world Health Organization has recently released a document titled ” Promoting physical activity for older people: a toolkit for action”. This toolkit is one of a series to help countries develop and implement policy actions to effectively increase the proportion of people participating in physical activity. It is underpinned by the Global Action Plan on…
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Assessing the implementation of physical activity-promoting public policies in the Republic of Ireland using the Physical Activity Environment Policy Index (PA-EPI)

In this featured blog, PhD Student Kevin Volf provides an overview of a recently published study, of which he is lead author, which is the first to apply the Physical Activity Environment Policy Index (PA-EPI) monitoring framework to assess the extent of implementation of government policies and actions: If you’re reading this you probably agree…
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Shining light on interdisciplinary walking promotion partnerships using social network analysis

Get Ireland Walking, in collaboration with a research team from South East Technological University, set out to investigate how useful systems approaches can be to Get Ireland Walking’s national and local walking promotion work in Ireland. This blog outlines one research study conducted by Dylan Power, Dr Barry Lambe, and Prof Niamh Murphy which investigates…
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Ireland’s Active School Flag featured in ISPAH Community of Practice Hub

Whole-of-school physical activity initiatives have been identified by the International Society for Physical Activity and Health (ISPAH) as one of the eight investments that work for physical activity. However, research shows that they can be challenging to design and to implement, particularly at scale. Ireland’s Active School Flag (ASF) programme is a whole-of-school physical activity initiative…
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Using systems thinking to understand and enhance walking promotion in Ireland

Whole-of-systems approaches – involving communication and alignment between organisations working across sectors and disciplines – are increasingly prominent in public health and health promotion. Notably, The World Health Organisation’s Global Action Plan for Physical Activity (GAPPA) is a global call to action for governments to adopt whole-of-systems approaches to address physical inactivity. Get Ireland Walking –…
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Research showcases ‘The Enjoyment Gap’

Sport England’s research highlights “The Enjoyment Gap”, which limits women’s involvement in physical activity. This research shows that the pandemic and cost of-living crisis have had a disproportionate impact on women. As a result, women have less to spend on weekly budgets and less time to spend on themselves, which has impacted negatively their physical…
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World Day for Physical Activity – April 6th 2023

April 6th marks World Day for Physical Activity. The World Day for Physical Activity is promoted through the WHO and Agita Mundo – World Physical Activity Network, a group of international governmental and non-governmental institutions who strive to disseminate the benefits of adopting a more active and healthy lifestyle by doing some physical activity daily.…
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Reflections from I-PARC 2023 Conference

The field of physical activity (PA) and sport is gradually growing in terms of knowledge and good practice. There is a clear example of this in the research and actions put into practice in Ireland in recent years. Furthermore, there is a rich collaboration between different experts that allows the creation of a national network.…
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Walk21 Ireland – the 22nd International Walk21 Conference- 19-23 Sept 2022

The Walk21 Conference series is the leading conference on walking and walkability in the world. From London to Sydney, New York to Hong Kong, Bogota and Vancouver, great cities have made their communities better for walking and hosted the conference. Technological University Dublin (TU Dublin), in partnership with the Government of Ireland, is proud to…
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Featured Blog – “Barriers and facilitators to implementing community-based physical activity interventions: a qualitative systematic review”

A qualitative systematic review from I-PARC was published in the International Journal for Behavioural Nutrition and Physical Activity in September 2021. The aim of the review was to report on facilitators and barriers of implementation for interventions which promote physical activity in community-based settings. A secondary aim was to provide recommendations to improve implementation identified…
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