Evaluation of physical activity programmes for the elderly - exploring the lessons from other sectors and examining the general characteristics of the programmes

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>In Portugal, there are several physical activity (PA) programmes for elderly people developed by the local government. The importance of these programmes has been increasing since the evidence has shown that this type of health promotion interventions may reduce the deleterious effects of the ageing process. However, no study has already identified the general characteristics of these programmes nor if they use any scheme to assess the quality of the service provided. A widely-used scheme is the EFQM Excellence Model, which will be in the core of our present work. Thus, the main aims of this preliminary study were 1) to identify the general characteristics of the PA programmes developed by the Portuguese Local Public Administration 2) to determine the extent of implementation of quality initiatives in these programmes.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Data were collected by an on-line questionnaire sent to all Continental Municipalities (n = 278). Categorical data were expressed as absolute counts and percentages. Continuous data were expressed as the mean and SD. An open-ended question was analysed using qualitative content analysis with QSR NVivo software. Associations between categorical variables were tested by the use of contingency tables and the calculation of chi-square tests. Significance level was set at p ≤ 0.05.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Results showed: i) a total of 125 PA programmes were identified in the 18 districts of the Portugal mainland; ii) the main goal of the majority (95.2%) was the participants' health promotion; iii) different characteristics of the programmes were found according to different regions of the country; iv) certain characteristics of the programmes were associated to the existence of other features; v) only one PA programme developed quality initiatives.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>In conclusion, although there are many PA programmes for elderly people spread throughout the country, aiming at improving the health of participants, the overwhelming majority does not adopt quality control initiatives. Considering that the quality of a service increases customer satisfaction, the continuous quality improvement of the PA programmes for elderly people should therefore be implemented since they can be useful and critical for elderly satisfaction and adherence.</p

Development of MSPs for the Case Study Testing the EU Solidarity Fund for Eastern Europe/Romania

Large parts of both public and private disaster losses in Europe are not insured, which outs significant financial pressure to the victims themselves and the national and regional governments as well. The economic vulnerability generated by natural disasters can be already catastrophic for some (especially Eastern European) Member States and recent estimations suggest that without robust disaster risk management, even wealthier MS can face financial challenges in the future. This case study investigates multi-sector partnerships at different levels aiming to manage the financial risks associated with natural disasters. Our primary objective is to explore possibilities for a potential EU-wide partnership that would enhance the financial resilience of EU Member States against earthquakes and floods that are among the most costly disasters in Europe. One of the partnerships examined in this case study is a potential (currently non-existing) EU-wide partnership that can be established by reorienting the European Union's main post-disaster instrument, the European Solidarity Fund (EUSF). EU policy-making bodies including DG Regional and Urban Policy and DG Internal Market and Services are one of the key partners in the partnership since they have the relevant expert knowledge concerning the EUSF and the insurance market. Primary insurance companies, reinsurers (with a special attention to Europe Re) are also important partners due to their key role in disaster risk financing arrangements. National governments are also important because they have both implicit and explicit liabilities in the context of natural disasters, and in addition they play an important role in risk reduction. The second partnership in this case study deals with the financial risks associated with earthquake and flood events in Romania. Important elements of this partnership are the insurance companies that provide mandatory and facultative insurance policies to homeowners covering flood and earthquake risks, the national government and the local authorities which have key roles in disaster management including the responsibility of making available the necessary resources after disasters. ENHANCE will provide support to the above described two partnerships by delivering risk assessments and developing different options to enhance the financial resilience of EU Member States against flood and earthquake risks. Copula approaches are applied to derive at country loss distributions which are used to estimate the risk of selected MSP to current and future threats. The results will also be used for Romania on flood risk and an extreme value approach applied for earthquake risk. These results will provide the basis for exploring possibilities to increase the use of risk financing instruments with risk reduction measures. This analysis will include both quantitative risk management approaches as well as embed it within the current policy contexts within Europe and Romania and investigates the policy challenges under current legislative changes for risk financing and risk reduction policies

Evaluation of physical activity programmes for elderly people - a descriptive study using the EFQM' criteria

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>In the past years, there has been a growing concern in designing physical activity (PA) programmes for elderly people, because evidence suggests that such health promotion interventions may reduce the deleterious effects of the ageing process. Quality is an important issue when designing a PA programme for older people. Some studies support the Excellence Model of the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) as an operational framework for evaluating the quality of an organization. Within this context, the aim of this study was to characterize the quality management models of the PA programmes developed by Portuguese Local Administration to enhance quality of life for elderly people, according to the criteria of the EFQM Excellence Model.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A methodological triangulation was conducted in 26 PA programmes using questionnaire surveys, semi-structured interviews and document analysis. We used standard approaches to the statistical analysis of data including frequencies and percentages for the categorical data.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Results showed that Processes (65,38%), Leadership (61,03%), Customer results (58,46) and People (51,28%) had high percentage occurrences of quality practices. In contrast, Partnerships and resources (45,77%), People results (41,03%), Policy and strategy (37,91%), Key performance results (19,23%) and Society results (19,23%) had lower percentage occurrences.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Our findings suggest that although there are some good practices in PA programmes, there are still relevant areas that require improvement.</p