Evaluation of community readiness for change prior to a participatory physical activity intervention in Germany

Abstract

A lack of communities’ readiness for change is reported as a major barrier toward an effective imple- mentation of health promoting interventions in community settings. Adding an alternative readiness assessment approach to existing research practice, this study aimed to investigate how a selected community could be evaluated in-depth regarding its readiness for change based on multiple key in- formant perspectives, with the intention of using this knowledge for the preparation of improved local physical activity (PA) interventions for men above 50 years of age. We conducted semi-structured face-to-face key informant interviews with stakeholders and relevant persons from a local German community (N ¼ 15). The interview guide was based on a comprehensive summary of community readiness dimensions. After verbatim transcription, we conducted thematic analysis to synthesize the complex results regarding community readiness related to PA. The data supported that the commu- nity disposed of a variety of resources regarding PA and showed signs of readiness for change. However, a certain degree of saturation regarding PA programs existed. The need for health enhanc- ing PA interventions for men was only partly recognized. The local authority considered PA to be par- ticularly important in the context of mobility and traffic safety. Including multiple stakeholders contrib- uted to a balanced and in-depth assessment of community readiness and was helpful for determining starting points for tailored PA interventions due to the detection of complex relationships and struc- tures. The study delivers preliminary evidence that a qualitative multi-perspective community readi- ness assessment adds value to quantified single-perspective readiness assessment research practice.