Challenges of social change: The 2021 Republic of Slovenia report card on physical activity of children and adolescents.

Background: Slovenian children are facing considerable health challenges from the rapid social changes that influence their opportunity to engage in daily physical activity. Objective: To overlay the social changes to the established Report Card model as a means of contextualising the extreme changes in physical activity and fitness observed over several years. Methods: Benchmarks were graded for 10 core indicators, plus two (Sleep, Seasonal Variations). Active Healthy Kids Slovenia members met (predominantly via zoom) liaising with team leader(s) on a flexible, individual basis, based on coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) regulations, over the ∼2-year assessment period of the project. Data were separated to the years prior to, 'pre' 2018-2020, and 'during' the global pandemic (2020-2021). Where sufficient data existed for both timeframes, grades were averaged to produce an overall grade. Results: Grade results are expressed as pre/during/final grade, where the final grade (bolded) is a straight average of the two preceding time epochs: Overall Physical Activity (A-/A-/A-), Organized Sport and Physical Activity (C+/C/C), Active Play (D/C+/C), Active Transport (C/INC/C), Sedentary Behaviour (B/C/C+), Physical Fitness (A+/A-/A), Family and Peers (B+/INC/B+), Schools (A/A/A), Community and Environment (A+/A+/A+), Government (A/F/D), Sleep (D-/INC/D-), Seasonal Variations (D/C-/D+). Conclusion: Although Slovenia has some of the most consistently physically-active children in the world, the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic exerted significant reductions in physical activity opportunities, and especially when coupled with funding re-distributions, resulted in the steepest decline of child physical fitness observed within the >35-year history of Slovenia's well-established national fitness surveillance system.

Results From the Republic of Slovenia's 2016 Report Card on Physical Activity for Children and Youth.

BACKGROUND: This is the first assessment of the Republic of Slovenia's efforts to synthesize and report physical activity (PA) standards for children and youth following the Active Healthy Kids Global Alliance grading system model. METHODS: The Republic of Slovenia Report Card relies on research findings published in peer-reviewed journals, data compiled from national databases, and government initiatives which have been monitoring physical fitness standards in schools for the past 34 years (SLOfit and ACDSi). The Report Card initiative has been jointly coordinated by the University of Primorska and the University of Ljubljana. A Research Work Group consisting of 12 representatives from various aspects of Slovenia's public, private, and government sectors convened to evaluate evidence and assign grades for each PA indicator. RESULTS: Grades (A, highest, to F, lowest; INC, incomplete) for Slovenia are as follows: Overall Physical Activity (A-), Organized Sport Participation (B-), Active Play (D), Active Transportation (C), Sedentary Behaviors (B+), Family and Peers (INC), Schools (A), Community and the Built Environment (INC), and Government (B+). CONCLUSIONS: This inclusive PA report indicates that overall physical activity minutes remain high in Slovenian children and youth; however, more research is needed to determine the effects of family life, peer influences, and the built environment on active play behaviors.

The role of open space in urban neighbourhoods for health-related lifestyle.

The research reported in this paper addresses the relationship between quality of open space and health related lifestyle in urban residential areas. The research was performed in the residential developments in Ljubljana, Slovenia, dating from the time of political and economic changes in the early nineties. Compared to the older neighborhoods, these are typically single-use residential areas, with small open spaces and poor landscape design. The research is concerned with the quality of life in these areas, especially from the perspective of the vulnerable users, like the elderly and children. Both depend on easily accessible green areas in close proximity to their homes. The hypothesis is that the poor open space quality affects their health-related behavior and their perceived health status. The research has three methodological phases: (1) a comparison between urban residential areas by criteria describing their physical characteristics; (2) behavior observation and mapping and (3) a resident opinion survey. The results confirm differences between open spaces of the selected residential areas as well as their relation with outdoor activities: a lack of outdoor programs correlates with poor variety of outdoor activities, limited to transition type, less time spent outdoors and lower satisfaction with their home environment. The survey also disclosed a strong influence of a set of socio-economic variables such as education and economic status on physical activity and self-perceived health status of people. The results therefore confirm the hypothesis especially for less affluent and educated; i.e., vulnerable groups.

Territorial impact assessment: integrating territorial aspects in sectoral policies.

Territorial impact assessment has recently gained attention as a tool to improve the coherence of sector policies with territorial cohesion objectives. The paper presents a method for territorial impact assessment and the results of applying this method on Slovenian energy policy. A two phase approach first disaggregates the problem into a three-dimensional matrix, consisting of policy measures, territorial objectives and territorial units. The synthesis phase aggregates measures and objectives in physical, economic or socio-cultural groups and observes their interrelation through an input-output matrix. The results have shown that such a two level approach is required to obtain complete and useful information for policy developers. In contrast to the relatively favourable evaluation of individual measures on the first level of assessment, the synthesis has revealed substantial and systemic weaknesses: considerable imbalance of energy policy favouring territorial effectiveness and mainly neglecting territorial identity as well as its counterproductiveness in reducing regional disparities.