ABSTRACT

Physical inactivity has been described as a global pandemic. It is, then, unsurprising that bold societal and government action has been recommended to make physical activity opportunities, such as sport and exercise, desirable and accessible for all groups. Although the health benefits of sport and exercise are well established, low sports participation rates and physical activity levels continue to be a public health concern around the globe. Foremost, evaluation provides an opportunity to identify effective interventions that enable people to adopt and maintain physical activity and reduce sedentary behavior. This is particularly relevant for underserved and hard-to-engage populations, some of whom have been shown to be unresponsive to traditional sport, exercise, and physical activity interventions. Evaluation provides the opportunity to identify interventions or the parts of interventions that are ineffective/less effective, in order that outcomes might inform future commissioning decisions around the investment of public health resources and the development of supportive policy for sport and physical activity.