Evaluating physical activity

Physical activity as a public health intervention is still a relatively new concept and although the health benefits of activity are widely acknowledged (1) there is still no consensus as to the most effective way of getting people to become more active. This has led to calls for ‘properly designed’ evaluation studies (2) and has elevated the importance of finding out what works. This article examines evaluation methods and looks at the dilemmas and some of the successful approaches experienced by the author