ABSTRACT
Canada; 2Active Healthy Kids Canada, Toronto, Ontario, Canada 40.1 INTRODUCTION There is growing evidence and concern that the health of Canadian children has deteriorated in the past few decades and physical inactivity is a powerful contributor. Mass media health promotion campaigns are conducted to influence social norms around health behaviours, including physical activity (PA) (Cavill and Bauman, 2004). Active Healthy Kids Canada (AHKC; www.activehealthykids.ca) was established in 1994 as a national not-for-profit organization with a mission to inspire the nation to engage all children and youth in PA by providing expertise and direction to policy-makers and the public on how to increase, and effectively allocate resources and attention towards PA for Canadian children and youth. Annually for the past 5 years, the AHKC Report Card (AHKC 2005-2009) has consolidated and translated research knowledge to drive social action for policy change relating to PA among children and youth. To achieve this, the Report Card is in a format that can be easily accessed by media, governments, nongovernmental organizations, practitioners and researchers. The Report Card provides a comprehensive assessment of indicators relating to school, family, community and the built environment, and policy that contribute to the PA levels of Canadian children and youth. 40.2 METHODS 40.2.1 Development of indicators The development of the Report Card began in 2004 when AHKC hosted a symposium with leading issue experts. The purpose of the symposium was to identify key indicators/measures that could be included in the inaugural Report Card. Since 2004, the broad categories of the Report Card have remained consistent however iterations in the indicators within each of these have changed
depending on data availability and to reflect the evolving landscape of the issues relating to PA in Canadian children and youth. 40.2.2 Collation of data and information AHKC works closely with a research work group consisting of experts from across Canada. This work group serves a number of roles including contributing unique data sources, informing the grade assignment process and critically reviewing the Report Card content. The Healthy Active Living and Obesity Research Group (HALO) was established as a research team within the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute in 2007 and serves as the knowledge partner for the development and writing of the Report Card. 40.2.3 The grade assignment process The research work group is brought together to evaluate the summation of the evidence each year. Using the framework outlined in Table 40.1, each indicator is evaluated individually and a grade consensus is reached. Key considerations include trends over time, international comparisons, and the presence of disparities (e.g., children with disabilities, geographic differences, socio-economic differences, etc.).
