Practice, policy and advocacy reports

Track 1 - Stemming the tide: innovations in prevention and screening

Policy development in cancer prevention

2016WCC/PPAR-1828

Pathways to Policy: Local level physical activity and built environment policy change learnings from Coalitions Linking Action and Science for Prevention (CLASP)

Christopher Politis¹, Deb Keen^{* 1}

¹Primary Prevention, Canadian Partnership Against Cancer, Toronto, Canada

Background and context: Coalitions Linking Action and Science for Prevention, or CLASP, is an initiative of the Canadian Partnership Against Cancer that aims to reduce the risk of cancer for Canadians. The CLASP approach is multi-jurisdictional, multi-disciplinary. 12 CLASP projects have been funded between 2009 and 2016 with diverse focuses on addressing physical inactivity, unhealthy eating, unsupportive built environments, tobacco use, alcohol consumption, and UV exposure in a variety of clinical, community, school, and workplace settings. Policy change has been a key approach to sustaining CLASP outcomes and ensuring a population-based impact. To date, seven CLASP projects have been responsible for over 230 documented policy changes.

Aim: Many theoretical frameworks exist to describe the policy process; however in practice, policy development is often considered a complex and unfamiliar mechanism to the cancer prevention and health promotion community. While CLASP projects have been successful in utilizing policy change to sustain their efforts, the underlying mechanisms behind this policy intervention success have not been understood. The ‘Pathways to Policy’ analysis examined nearly 100 physical activity and built environment policy interventions resulting from four CLASP projects to understand the lessons learned from the policy process experience. By gaining a better understanding of the CLASP policy lessons learned, it is hoped that the lessons learned can inform the scaling up of CLASP policy success to the broader Canadian and international cancer prevention communities.

Strategy/Tactics: Over 180 CLASP knowledge products and evaluation documents were reviewed to identify 92 local physical activity and built environment policy interventions that mapped to four categories (Community-scale Urban Design and Land Use; Street-scale Urban Design and Land Use; Transportation and Travel; and Enhanced Access to Places for Physical Activity). The key lessons learned related to these policy interventions were also extracted and grouped into themes through a qualitative analysis. Eight key informant interviews with key CLASP partners were conducted to confirm and provide additional insight into the lessons learned themes.

Outcomes: The CLASP ‘Pathways to Policy’ analysis identified 14 themes (or critical success factors) that were grouped into three overarching categories: People, Tools, and Approaches to Ways of Working.

What was learned: The CLASP ‘Pathways to Policy’ are widely applicable critical success factors in the development and implementation of cancer prevention policy interventions. While emerging from local physical activity and built environment contexts, they are relevant to a much broader audience aiming to influence policy change relevant to cancer prevention.

Disclosure of Interest: None Declared

Keywords: Physical Activity, Policy, Policymakers, Primary Prevention