Publication of a special issue in the European Journal of Public Health as part of the Policy Evaluation Networks (PEN) project

December 2022 – As part of the Joint Programming Initiative on a Healthy Diet for a Healthy Life (JPI HDHL), members of the Public Health & Prevention team at TUM and the Institute of Epidemiology at Helmholtz Munich together with 27 research institutes from seven European countries and New Zealand combined their expertise to form PEN. The network’s vision is to provide Europe with tools to identify, evaluate and benchmark policies designed to directly or indirectly address physical inactivity, unhealthy diets and sedentary behaviour while accounting for existing health inequities. Until now, systematic research of this field across Europe was sparse.

The existing body of evidence on the topic has substantially changed with PEN’s special issue of the European Journal of Public Health. The journal supplement comprises thirteen manuscripts that are output from the PEN project. Topics examined include new theoretical models to advance our understanding of the policy process and its evaluation. It provides an overview of priority public policies and policy areas most likely to sustainably reduce physical inactivity, unhealthy diets and sedentary behaviour. It explores the first steps in a bespoke policy monitoring and health surveillance system for Europe, and a refinement of our knowledge of appropriate research designs and methods for the quantification of policy impact. PEN scientists illustrate how best to evaluate the implementation and impact of policy in order to yield the best results for a healthy life of European citizens. Importantly, PEN has provided recommendations on equity and diversity to ensure that policy actions are inclusive as opposed to exclusive.