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Energy companies are drilling for natural gas using highly controversial methods of extraction known as hydraulic fracturing. In the Marcellus Shale, one of the most active drilling formations in the country, grassroots environmental advocacy groups, nonprofit service providers, and academic researchers have partnered to establish surface water monitoring programs to assess potential changes in water quality that might result from shale gas extraction. This dissertation research project examined the activities of these networks and their use of advanced technologies such as sensors, databases, and GIS tools for collecting, managing, and interpreting environmental data. The project used mixed research methods including: A) qualitative interviews with key informants in monitoring groups, advocacy organizations, research institutions, and regulatory agencies; B) participant observation of training sessions, monitoring events, strategic planning meetings, and data management workshops; and C) comparative case studies of four monitoring organization networks and two data management projects. The study showed that environmental monitoring tools can empower communities when they are deployed as part of projects in which concerned citizens and scientists collaborate as equal partners. Such partnerships enable the public to advocate for more nuanced uses of data, to create meaningful narratives with water quality data, and to critique status-quo environmental governance. Findings from the study were made available to the public through a series of peer reviewed journal articles as well as in a completed doctoral dissertation.
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Background Triage and clinical consultations increasingly occur remotely. We aimed to learn why safety incidents occur in remote encounters and how to prevent them.
Setting and sample UK primary care. 95 safety incidents (complaints, settled indemnity claims and reports) involving remote interactions. Separately, 12 general practices followed 2021–2023.
Methods Multimethod qualitative study. We explored causes of real safety incidents retrospectively (‘Safety I’ analysis). In a prospective longitudinal study, we used interviews and ethnographic observation to produce individual, organisational and system-level explanations for why safety and near-miss incidents (rarely) occurred and why they did not occur more often (‘Safety II’ analysis). Data were analysed thematically. An interpretive synthesis of why safety incidents occur, and why they do not occur more often, was refined following member checking with safety experts and lived experience experts.
Results Safety incidents were characterised by inappropriate modality, poor rapport building, inadequate information gathering, limited clinical assessment, inappropriate pathway (eg, wrong algorithm) and inadequate attention to social circumstances. These resulted in missed, inaccurate or delayed diagnoses, underestimation of severity or urgency, delayed referral, incorrect or delayed treatment, poor safety netting and inadequate follow-up. Patients with complex pre-existing conditions, cardiac or abdominal emergencies, vague or generalised symptoms, safeguarding issues, failure to respond to previous treatment or difficulty communicating seemed especially vulnerable. General practices were facing resource constraints, understaffing and high demand. Triage and care pathways were complex, hard to navigate and involved multiple staff. In this context, patient safety often depended on individual staff taking initiative, speaking up or personalising solutions.
Conclusion While safety incidents are extremely rare in remote primary care, deaths and serious harms have resulted. We offer suggestions for patient, staff and system-level mitigations.
Data are available upon reasonable request. Details of real safety incidents are not available for patient confidentiality reasons. Requests for data on other aspects of the study from other researchers will be considered.
This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported (CC BY 4.0) license, which permits others to copy, redistribute, remix, transform and build upon this work for any purpose, provided the original work is properly cited, a link to the licence is given, and indication of whether changes were made. See: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ .
https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjqs-2023-016674
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Safety incidents are extremely rare in primary care but they do happen. Concerns have been raised about the safety of remote triage and remote consultations.
Rare safety incidents (involving death or serious harm) in remote encounters can be traced back to various clinical, communicative, technical and logistical causes. Telephone and video encounters in general practice are occurring in a high-risk (extremely busy and sometimes understaffed) context in which remote workflows may not be optimised. Front-line staff use creativity and judgement to help make care safer.
As remote modalities become mainstreamed in primary care, staff should be trained in the upstream causes of safety incidents and how they can be mitigated. The subtle and creative ways in which front-line staff already contribute to safety culture should be recognised and supported.
In early 2020, remote triage and remote consultations (together, ‘remote encounters’), in which the patient is in a different physical location from the clinician or support staff member, were rapidly expanded as a safety measure in many countries because they eliminated the risk of transmitting COVID-19. 1–4 But by mid-2021, remote encounters had begun to be depicted as potentially unsafe because they had come to be associated with stories of patient harm, including avoidable deaths and missed cancers. 5–8
Providing triage and clinical care remotely is sometimes depicted as a partial solution to the system pressures facing primary healthcare in many countries, 9–11 including rising levels of need or demand, the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and workforce challenges (especially short-term or longer-term understaffing). In this context, remote encounters may be an important component of a mixed-modality health service when used appropriately alongside in-person contacts. 12 13 But this begs the question of what ‘appropriate’ and ‘safe’ use of remote modalities in a primary care context is. Safety incidents (defined as ‘any unintended or unexpected incident which could have, or did, lead to harm for one or more patients receiving healthcare 14 ’) are extremely rare in primary healthcare consultations generally, 15 16 in-hours general practice telephone triage 17 and out-of-hours primary care. 18 But the recent widespread expansion of remote triage and remote consulting in primary care means that a wider range of patients and conditions are managed remotely, making it imperative to re-examine where the risks lie.
Theoretical approaches to safety in healthcare fall broadly into two traditions. 19 ‘Safety I’ studies focus on what went wrong. Incident reports are analysed to identify ‘root causes’ and ‘safety gaps’, and recommendations are made to reduce the chance that further similar incidents will happen in the future. 20 Such studies, undertaken in isolation, tend to lead to a tightening of rules, procedures and protocols. ‘Safety II’ studies focus on why, most of the time, things do not go wrong. Ethnography and other qualitative methods are employed to study how humans respond creatively to unique and unforeseen situations, thereby preventing safety incidents most of the time. 19 Such studies tend to show that actions which achieve safety are highly context specific, may entail judiciously breaking the rules and require human qualities such as courage, initiative and adaptability. 21 Few previous studies have combined both approaches.
In this study, we aimed to use Safety I methods to learn why safety incidents occur (although rarely) in remote primary care encounters and also apply Safety II methods to examine the kinds of creative actions taken by front-line staff that contribute to a safety culture and thereby prevent such incidents.
Multimethod qualitative study across UK, including incident analysis, longitudinal ethnography and national stakeholder interviews.
The idea for this safety study began during a longitudinal ethnographic study of 12 general practices across England, Scotland and Wales as they introduced (and, in some cases, subsequently withdrew) various remote and digital modalities. Practices were selected for maximum diversity in geographical location, population served and digital maturity and followed from mid-2021 to end 2023 using staff and patient interviews and in-person ethnographic visits. The study protocol, 22 baseline findings 23 and a training needs analysis 24 have been published. To provide context for our ethnography, we interviewed a sample of national stakeholders in remote and digital primary care, including out-of-hours providers running telephone-led services, and held four online multistakeholder workshops, one of which was on the theme of safety, for policymakers, clinicians, patients and other parties. Early data from this detailed qualitative work revealed staff and patient concerns about the safety of remote encounters but no actual examples of harm.
To explore the safety theme further, we decided to take a dual approach. First, following Safety I methodology for the study of rare harms, 20 we set out to identify and analyse a sample of safety incidents involving remote encounters. These were sourced from arm’s-length bodies (NHS England, NHS Resolution, Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch) and providers of healthcare at scale (health boards, integrated care systems and telephone advice services), since our own small sample had not identified any of these rare occurrences. Second, we extended our longitudinal ethnographic design to more explicitly incorporate Safety II methodology, 19 allowing us to examine safety culture and safety practices in our 12 participating general practices, especially the adaptive work done by staff to avert potential safety incidents.
Table 1 summarises the data sources.
Summary of data sources
The Safety I dataset (rows 2-5) consisted of 95 specific incident reports, including complaints submitted to the main arm’s-length NHS body in England, NHS England, between 2020 and 2023 (n=69), closed indemnity claims that had been submitted to a national indemnity body, NHS Resolution, between 2015 and 2023 (n=16), reports from an urgent care telephone service in Wales (NHS 111 Wales) between 2020 and 2023 (n=6) and a report on an investigation of telephone advice during the COVID-19 crisis between 2020 and 2022 7 (n=4). These 95 incidents were organised using Microsoft Excel spreadsheets.
The Safety II dataset (rows 6-10) consisted of extracts from fieldnotes, workshop transcripts and interviews collected over 2 years, stored and coded on NVivo qualitative software. These were identified by searching for text words and codes (e.g. ‘risk’, ‘safety’, ‘incident’) and by asking researchers-in-residence, who were closely familiar with practices, to highlight safety incidents involving harm and examples of safety-conscious work practices. This dataset included over 100 formal interviews and numerous on-the-job interviews with practice staff, plus interviews with a sample of 10 GP (general practitioner) trainers and 10 GP trainees (penultimate row of table 1 ) and with six clinical safety experts identified through purposive sampling from government, arm’s-length bodies and health boards (bottom row of table 1 ).
We analysed incident reports, interview data and ethnographic fieldnotes using thematic analysis as described by Braun and Clarke. 25 These authors define a theme as an important, broad pattern in a set of qualitative data, which can (where necessary) be further refined using coding.
Themes in the incident dataset were identified by five steps. First, two researchers (both medically qualified) read each source repeatedly to gain familiarity. Second, those researchers worked independently using Braun and Clarke’s criterion (‘whether it captures something important in relation to the overall research question’—p 82 25 ) to identify themes. Third, they discussed their initial interpretations with each other and resolved differences through discussion. Fourth, they extracted evidence from the data sources to illustrate and refine each theme. Finally, they presented their list of themes along with illustrative examples to the wider team. Cases used to illustrate themes were systematically fictionalised by changing age, randomly allocating gender and altering clinical details. 26 For example, an acute appendicitis could be changed to acute diverticulitis if the issue was a missed acute abdomen.
These safety themes were then used to sensitise us to seek relevant (confirming and disconfirming) material from our ethnographic and interview datasets. For example, the theme ‘poor communication’ (and subthemes such as ‘failure to seek further clarification’ within this) promoted us to look for examples in our stakeholder interviews of poor communication offered as a cause of safety incidents and examples in our ethnographic notes of good communication (including someone seeking clarification). We used these wider data to add nuance to the initial list of themes.
As a final sense-checking step, the draft findings from this study were shown to each of the six safety experts in our sample and refined in the light of their comments (in some cases, for example, they considered the case to have been overfictionalised, thereby losing key clinical messages; they also gave additional examples to illustrate some of the themes we had identified, which underlined the importance of those themes).
The dataset ( table 1 ) consisted of 95 incident reports (see fictionalised examples in box 1 ), plus approximately 400 pages of extracts from interviews, ethnographic fieldnotes and workshop discussions, including situated safety practices (see examples in box 2 ), plus strategic insights relating to policy, organisation and planning of services. Notably, almost all incidents related to telephone calls.
All these cases have been systematically fictionalised as explained in the text.
Case 1 (death)
A woman in her 70s experiencing sudden breathlessness called her GP (general practitioner) surgery. The receptionist answered the phone and informed her that she would place her on the doctor’s list for an emergency call-back. The receptionist was distracted by a patient in the waiting room and did not do so. The patient deteriorated and died at home that afternoon.—NHS Resolution case, pre-2020
Case 2 (death)
An elderly woman contacted her GP after a telephone contact with the out-of-hours service, where constipation had been diagnosed. The GP prescribed laxatives without seeing the patient. The patient self-presented to the emergency department (ED) the following day in obstruction secondary to an incarcerated hernia and died in the operating theatre.—NHS Resolution case, pre-2020
Case 3 (risk to vulnerable patients)
A daughter complained that her elderly father was unable to access his GP surgery as he could not navigate the online triage system. When he phoned the surgery directly, he was directed back to the online system and told to get a relative to complete the form for him.—Complaint to NHS England, 2021
Case 4 (harm)
A woman in her first pregnancy at 28 weeks’ gestation experiencing urinary incontinence called NHS 111. She was taken down by a ‘urinary problems’ algorithm. Both the call handler and the subsequent clinician failed to recognise that she had experienced premature rupture of membranes. She later presented to the maternity department in active labour, and the opportunity to give early steroids to the premature infant was missed.—NHS Resolution case, pre-2020
Case 5 (death)
A doctor called about a 16-year-old girl with lethargy, shaking, fever and poor oral intake who had been unwell for 5 days. The doctor spoke to her older sister and advised that the child had likely glandular fever and should rest. When the parents arrived home, they called an ambulance but the child died of sepsis in the ED.—NHS Resolution case, pre-2020
Case 6 (death)
A 40-year-old woman, 6 weeks after caesarean section, contacted her GP due to shortness of breath, increased heart rate and dry cough. She was advised to get a COVID test and to dial 111 if she developed a productive cough, fever or pain. The following day she collapsed and died at home. The postmortem revealed a large pulmonary embolus. On reviewing the case, her GP surgery felt that had she been seen face to face, her oxygen saturations would have been measured and may have led to suspicion of the diagnosis.—NHS Resolution case, 2020
Case 7 (death)
A son complained that his father with diabetes and chronic kidney disease did not receive any in-person appointments over a period of 1 year. His father went on to die following a leg amputation arising from a complication of his diabetes.—Complaint to NHS England, 2021
Case 8 (death)
A 73-year-old diabetic woman with throat pain and fatigue called the surgery. She was diagnosed with a viral illness and given self-care advice. Over the next few days, she developed worsening breathlessness and was advised to do a COVID test and was given a pulse oximeter. She was found dead at home 4 days later. Postmortem found a blocked coronary artery and a large amount of pulmonary oedema. The cause of death was myocardial infarction and heart failure.—NHS Resolution case, pre-2020
Case 9 (harm)
A patient with a history of successfully treated cervical cancer developed vaginal bleeding. A diagnosis of fibroids was made and the patient received routine care by telephone over the next few months until a scan revealed a local recurrence of the original cancer.—Complaint to NHS England, 2020
Case 10 (death)
A 65-year-old female smoker with chronic cough and breathlessness presented to her GP. She was diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and monitored via telephone. She did not respond to inhalers or antibiotics but continued to receive telephone monitoring without further investigation. Her symptoms continued to worsen and she called an ambulance. In the ED, she was diagnosed with heart failure and died soon after.—Complaint to NHS England, 2021
Case 11 (harm)
A 30-year-old woman presented with intermittent episodes of severe dysuria over a period of 2 years. She was given repeated courses of antibiotics but no urine was sent for culture and she was not examined. After 4 months of symptoms, she saw a private GP and was diagnosed with genital herpes.—Complaint to NHS England, 2021
Case 12 (harm)
There were repeated telephone consultations about a baby whose parents were concerned that the child was having a funny colour when feeding or crying. The 6-week check was done by telephone and at no stage was the child seen in person. Photos were sent in, but the child’s dark skin colour meant that cyanosis was not easily apparent to the reviewing clinician. The child was subsequently admitted by emergency ambulance where a significant congenital cardiac abnormality was found.—Complaint to NHS England, 2020 1
Case 13 (harm)
A 35-year-old woman in her third trimester of pregnancy had a telephone appointment with her GP about a breast lump. She was informed that this was likely due to antenatal breast changes and was not offered an in-person appointment. She attended after delivery and was referred to a breast clinic where a cancer was diagnosed.—Complaint to NHS England, 2020
Case 14 (harm)
A 63-year-old woman with a variety of physical symptoms including diarrhoea, hip girdle pain, palpitations, light-headedness and insomnia called her surgery on multiple occasions. She was told her symptoms were likely due to anxiety, but was diagnosed with stage 4 ovarian cancer and died soon after.—Complaint to NHS England, 2021
Case 15 (death)
A man with COPD with worsening shortness of breath called his GP surgery. The staff asked him if it was an emergency, and when the patient said no, scheduled him for 2 weeks later. The patient died before the appointment.—Complaint to NHS England, 2021
Case 16 (safety incident averted by switching to video call for a sick child)
‘I’ve remembered one father that called up. Really didn’t seem to be too concerned. And was very much under-playing it and then when I did a video call, you know this child… had intercostal recession… looked really, really poorly. And it was quite scary actually that, you know, you’d had the conversation and if you’d just listened to what Dad was saying, actually, you probably wouldn’t be concerned.’—GP (general practitioner) interview 2022
Case 17 (‘red flag’ spotted by support staff member)
A receptionist was processing routine ‘administrative’ encounters sent in by patients using AccuRx (text messaging software). She became concerned about a sick note renewal request from a patient with a mental health condition. The free text included a reference to feeling suicidal, so the receptionist moved the request to the ‘red’ (urgent call-back) list. In interviews with staff, it became apparent that there had recently been heated discussion in the practice about whether support staff were adding ‘too many’ patients to the red list. After discussing cases, the doctors concluded that it should be them, not the support staff, who should absorb the risk in uncertain cases. The receptionist said that they had been told: ‘if in doubt, put it down as urgent and then the duty doctor can make a decision.’—Ethnographic fieldnotes from general practice 2023
Case 18 (‘check-in’ phone call added on busy day)
A duty doctor was working through a very busy Monday morning ‘urgent’ list. One patient had acute abdominal pain, which would normally have triggered an in-person appointment, but there were no slots and hard decisions were being made. This patient had had the pain already for a week, so the doctor judged that the general rule of in-person examination could probably be over-ridden. But instead of simply allocating to a call-back, the doctor asked a support staff member to phone the patient, ask ‘are you OK to wait until tomorrow?’ and offer basic safety-netting advice.—Ethnographic fieldnotes from general practice 2023
Case 19 (receptionist advocating on behalf of ‘angry’ walk-in patient)
A young Afghan man with limited English walked into a GP surgery on a very busy day, ignoring the prevailing policy of ‘total triage’ (make contact by phone or online in the first instance). He indicated that he wanted a same-day in-person appointment for a problem he perceived as urgent. A heated exchange occurred with the first receptionist, and the patient accused her of ‘racism’. A second receptionist of non-white ethnicity herself noted the man’s distress and suspected that there may indeed be an urgent problem. She asked the first receptionist to leave the scene, saying she wanted to ‘have a chat’ with the patient (‘the colour of my skin probably calmed him down more than anything’). Through talking to the patient and looking through his record, she ascertained that he had an acute infection that likely needed prompt attention. She tried to ‘bend the rules’ and persuade the duty doctor to see the patient, conveying the clinical information but deliberately omitting the altercation. But the first receptionist complained to the doctor (‘he called us racists’) and the doctor decided that the patient would not therefore be offered a same-day appointment. The second receptionist challenged the doctor (‘that’s not a reason to block him from getting care’). At this point, the patient cried and the second receptionist also became upset (‘this must be serious, you know’). On this occasion, despite her advocacy the patient was not given an immediate appointment.—Ethnographic fieldnotes from general practice 2022
Case 20 (long-term condition nurse visits ‘unengaged’ patients at home)
An advanced nurse practitioner talks of two older patients, each with a long-term condition, who are ‘unengaged’ and lacking a telephone. In this practice, all long-term condition reviews are routinely done by phone. She reflects that some people ‘choose not to have avenues of communication’ (ie, are deliberately not contactable), and that there may be reasons for this (‘maybe health anxiety or just old’). She has, on occasion, ‘turned up’ unannounced at the patient’s home and asked to come in and do the review, including bloods and other tests. She reflects that while most patients engage well with the service, ‘half my job is these patients who don’t engage very well.’—Ethnographic fieldnotes from digitally advanced general practice 2022
Case 21 (doctor over-riding patient’s request for telephone prescribing)
A GP trainee described a case of a 53-year-old first-generation immigrant from Pakistan, a known smoker with hypertension and diabetes. He had booked a telephone call for vomiting and sinus pain. There was no interpreter available but the man spoke some English. He said he had awoken in the night with pain in his sinuses and vomiting. All he wanted was painkillers for his sinuses. The story did not quite make sense, and the man ‘sounded unwell’. The GP told him he needed to come in and be examined. The patient initially resisted but was persuaded to come in. When the GP went to call him in, the man was visibly unwell and lying down in the waiting room. When seen in person, he admitted to shoulder pain. The GP sent him to accident and emergency (A&E) where a myocardial infarction was diagnosed.—Trainee interview 2023
Below, we describe the main themes that were evident in the safety incidents: a challenging organisational and system context, poor communication compounded by remote modalities, limited clinical information, patient and carer burden and inadequate training. Many safety incidents illustrated multiple themes—for example, poor communication and failures of clinical assessment or judgement and patient complexity and system pressures. In the detailed findings below, we illustrate why safety incidents occasionally occur and why they are usually avoided.
Introduction of remote triage and expansion of remote consultations in UK primary care occurred at a time of unprecedented system stress (an understaffed and chronically under-resourced primary care sector, attempting to cope with a pandemic). 23 Many organisations had insufficient telephone lines or call handlers, so patients struggled to access services (eg, half of all calls to the emergency COVID-19 telephone service in March 2020 were never answered 7 ). Most remote consultations were by telephone. 27
Our safety incident dataset included examples of technically complex access routes which patients found difficult or impossible to navigate (case 3 in box 1 ) and which required non-clinical staff to make clinical or clinically related judgements (cases 4 and 15). Our ethnographic dataset contained examples of inflexible application of triage rules (eg, no face-to-face consultation unless the patient had already had a telephone call), though in other practices these rules could be over-ridden by staff using their judgement or asking colleagues. Some practices had a high rate of failed telephone call-backs (patient unobtainable).
High demand, staff shortages and high turnover of clinical and support staff made the context for remote encounters inherently risky. Several incidents were linked to a busy staff member becoming distracted (case 1). Telephone consultations, which tend to be shorter, were sometimes used in the hope of improving efficiency. Some safety incidents suggested perfunctory and transactional telephone consultations, with flawed decisions made on the basis of incomplete information (eg, case 2).
Many practices had shifted—at least to some extent—from a demand-driven system (in which every request for an appointment was met) to a capacity-driven one (in which, if a set capacity was exceeded, patients were advised to seek care elsewhere), though the latter was often used flexibly rather than rigidly with an expectation that some patients would be ‘squeezed in’. In some practices, capacity limits had been introduced to respond to escalation of demand linked to overuse of triage templates (eg, to inquire about minor symptoms).
As a result of task redistribution and new staff roles, a single episode of care for one problem often involved multiple encounters or tasks distributed among clinical and non-clinical staff (often in different locations and sometimes also across in-hours and out-of-hours providers). Capacity constraints in onward services placed pressure on primary care to manage risk in the community, leading in some cases to failure to escalate care appropriately (case 6).
Some safety incidents were linked to organisational routines that had not adapted sufficiently to remote—for example, a prescription might be issued but (for various reasons) it could not be transmitted electronically to the pharmacy. Certain urgent referrals were delayed if the consultation occurred remotely (a referral for suspected colon cancer, for example, would not be accepted without a faecal immunochemical test).
Training, supervising and inducting staff was more difficult when many were working remotely. If teams saw each other less frequently, relationship-building encounters and ‘corridor’ conversations were reduced, with knock-on impacts for individual and team learning and patient care. Those supervising trainees or allied professionals reported loss of non-verbal cues (eg, more difficult to assess how confident or distressed the trainee was).
Clinical and support staff regularly used initiative and situated judgement to compensate for an overall lack of system resilience ( box 1 ). Many practices had introduced additional safety measures such as lists of patients who, while not obviously urgent, needed timely review by a clinician. Case 17 illustrates how a rule of thumb ‘if in doubt, put it down as urgent’ was introduced and then applied to avert a potentially serious mental health outcome. Case 18 illustrates how, in the context of insufficient in-person slots to accommodate all high-risk cases, a unique safety-netting measure was customised for a patient.
Because sense data (eg, sight, touch, smell) are missing, 28 remote consultations rely heavily on the history. Many safety incidents were characterised by insufficient or inaccurate information for various reasons. Sometimes (cases 2, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10 and 11), the telephone consultation was too short to do justice to the problem; the clinician asked few or no questions to build rapport, obtain a full history, probe the patient’s answers for additional detail, confirm or exclude associated symptoms and inquire about comorbidities and medication. Video provided some visual cues but these were often limited to head and shoulders, and photographs were sometimes of poor quality.
Cases 2, 4, 5 and 9 illustrate the dangers of relying on information provided by a third party (another staff member or a relative). A key omission (eg, in case 5) was failing to ask why the patient was unable to come to the phone or answer questions directly.
Some remote triage conversations were conducted using an inappropriate algorithm. In case 4, for example, the call handler accepted a pregnant patient’s assumption that leaking fluid was urine when the problem was actually ruptured membranes. The wrong pathway was selected; vital questions remained unasked; and a skewed history was passed to (and accepted by) the clinician. In case 8, the patient’s complaint of ‘throat’ pain was taken literally and led to ‘viral illness’ advice, overlooking a myocardial infarction.
The cases in box 2 illustrate how staff compensated for communication challenges. In case 16, a GP plays a hunch that a father’s account of his child’s asthma may be inaccurate and converts a phone encounter to video, revealing the child’s respiratory distress. In case 19 (an in-person encounter but relevant because the altercation occurs partly because remote triage is the default modality), one receptionist correctly surmises that the patient’s angry demeanour may indicate urgency and uses her initiative and interpersonal skills to obtain additional clinical information. In case 20, a long-term condition nurse develops a labour-intensive workaround to overcome her elderly patients’ ‘lack of engagement’. More generally, we observed numerous examples of staff using both formal tools (eg, see ‘red list’ in case 17) and informal measures (eg, corridor chats) to pass on what they believed to be crucial information.
Cases 2 and 4–14 all describe serious conditions including congenital cyanotic heart disease, pulmonary oedema, sepsis, cancer and diabetic foot which would likely have been readily diagnosed with an in-person examination. While patients often uploaded still images of skin lesions, these were not always of sufficient quality to make a confident diagnosis.
Several safety incidents involved clinicians assuming that a diagnosis made on a remote consultation was definitive rather than provisional. Especially when subsequent consultations were remote, such errors could become ingrained, leading to diagnostic overshadowing and missed or delayed diagnosis (cases 2, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 13). Patients with pre-existing conditions (especially if multiple or progressive), the very young and the elderly were particularly difficult to assess by telephone (cases 1, 2, 8, 10, 12 and 16). Clinical conditions difficult to assess remotely included possible cardiac pain (case 8), acute abdomen (case 2), breathing difficulties (cases 1, 6 and 10), vague and generalised symptoms (cases 5 and 14) and symptoms which progressed despite treatment (cases 9, 10 and 11). All these categories came up repeatedly in interviews and workshops as clinically risky.
Subtle aspects of the consultation which may have contributed to safety incidents in a telephone consultation included the inability to fully appraise the patient’s overall health and well-being (including indicators relevant to mental health such as affect, eye contact, personal hygiene and evidence of self-harm), general demeanour, level of agitation and concern, and clues such as walking speed and gait (cases 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 12 and 14). Our interviews included stories of missed cases of new-onset frailty and dementia in elderly patients assessed by telephone.
In most practices we studied, most long-term condition management was undertaken by telephone. This may be appropriate (and indeed welcome) when the patient is well and confident and a physical examination is not needed. But diabetes reviews, for example, require foot examination. Case 7 describes the deterioration and death of a patient with diabetes whose routine check-ups had been entirely by telephone. We also heard stories of delayed diagnosis of new diabetes in children when an initial telephone assessment failed to pick up lethargy, weight loss and smell of ketones, and point-of-care tests of blood or urine were not possible.
Nurses observed that remote consultations limit opportunities for demonstrating or checking the patient’s technique in using a device for monitoring or treating their condition such as an inhaler, oximeter or blood pressure machine.
Safety netting was inadequate in many remote safety incidents, even when provided by a clinician (cases 2, 5, 6, 8, 10, 12 and 13) but especially when conveyed by a non-clinician (case 15). Expert interviewees identified that making life-changing diagnoses remotely and starting patients on long-term medication without an in-person appointment was also risky.
Our ethnographic data showed that various measures were used to compensate for limited clinical information, including converting a phone consultation to video (case 16), asking the patient if they felt they could wait until an in-person slot was available (case 18), visiting the patient at home (case 20) and enacting a ‘if the history doesn’t make sense, bring the patient in for an in-person assessment’ rule of thumb (case 21). Out-of-hours providers added examples of rules of thumb that their services had developed over years of providing remote services, including ‘see a child face-to-face if the parent rings back’, ‘be cautious about third-party histories’, ‘visit a palliative care patient before starting a syringe driver’ and ‘do not assess abdominal pain remotely’.
Given the greater importance of the history in remote consultations, patients who lacked the ability to communicate and respond in line with clinicians’ expectations were at a significant disadvantage. Several safety incidents were linked to patients’ limited fluency in the language and culture of the clinician or to specific vulnerabilities such as learning disability, cognitive impairment, hearing impairment or neurodiversity. Those with complex medical histories and comorbidities, and those with inadequate technical set-up and skills (case 3), faced additional challenges.
In many practices, in-person appointments were strictly limited according to more or less rigid triage criteria. Some patients were unable to answer the question ‘is this an emergency?’ correctly, leading to their condition being deprioritised (case 15). Some had learnt to ‘game’ the triage system (eg, online templates 29 ) by adapting their story to obtain the in-person appointment they felt they needed. This could create distrust and lead to inaccurate information on the patient record.
Our ethnographic dataset contained many examples of clinical and support staff using initiative to compensate for vulnerable patients’ inability or unwillingness to take on the additional burden of remote modalities (cases 19 and 20 in Box 2 30 31 ).
Safety incidents highlighted various training needs for support staff members (eg, customer care skills, risks of making clinical judgements) and clinicians (eg, limitations of different modalities, risks of diagnostic overshadowing). Whereas out-of-hours providers gave thorough training to novice GPs (covering such things as attentiveness, rapport building, history taking, probing, attending to contextual cues and safety netting) in telephone consultations, 32–34 many in-hours clinicians had never been formally taught to consult by telephone. Case 17 illustrates how on-the-job training based on acknowledgement of contextual pressures and judicious use of rules of thumb may be very effective in averting safety incidents.
An important overall finding from this study is that examples of deaths or serious harms associated with remote encounters in primary care were extremely rare, amounting to fewer than 100 despite an extensive search going back several years.
Analysis of these 95 safety incidents, drawn from multiple complementary sources, along with rich qualitative data from ethnography, interviews and workshops has clarified where the key risks lie in remote primary care. Remote triage and consultations expanded rapidly in the context of the COVID-19 crisis; they were occurring in the context of resource constraints, understaffing and high demand. Triage and care pathways were complex, multilayered and hard to navigate; some involved distributed work among multiple clinical and non-clinical staff. In some cases, multiple remote encounters preceded (and delayed) a needed in-person assessment.
In this high-risk context, safety incidents involving death or serious harm were rare, but those that occurred were characterised by a combination of inappropriate choice of modality, poor rapport building, inadequate information gathering, limited clinical assessment, inappropriate clinical pathway (eg, wrong algorithm) and failure to take account of social circumstances. These led to missed, inaccurate or delayed diagnoses, underestimation of severity or urgency, delayed referral, incorrect or delayed treatment, poor safety netting and inadequate follow-up. Patients with complex or multiple pre-existing conditions, cardiac or abdominal emergencies, vague or generalised symptoms, safeguarding issues and failure to respond to previous treatment, and those who (for any reason) had difficulty communicating, seemed particularly at risk.
The main strength of this study was that it combined the largest Safety I study undertaken to date of safety incidents in remote primary care (using datasets which have not previously been tapped for research), with a large, UK-wide ethnographic Safety II analysis of general practice as well as stakeholder interviews and workshops. Limitations of the safety incident sample (see final column in table 1 ) include that it was skewed towards very rare cases of death and serious harm, with relatively few opportunities for learning that did not result in serious harm. Most sources were retrospective and may have suffered from biases in documentation and recall. We also failed to obtain examples of safeguarding incidents (which would likely turn up in social care audits). While all cases involved a remote modality (or a patient who would not or could not use one), it is impossible to definitively attribute the harm to that modality.
This study has affirmed previous findings that processes, workflows and training in in-hours general practice have not adapted adequately to the booking, delivery and follow-up of remote consultations. 24 35 36 Safety issues can arise, for example, from how the remote consultation interfaces with other key practice routines (eg, for making urgent referrals for possible cancer). The sheer complexity and fragmentation of much remote and digital work underscores the findings from a systematic review of the importance of relational coordination (defined as ‘a mutually reinforcing process of communicating and relating for the purpose of task integration ’ (p 3) 37 ) and psychological safety (defined as ‘people’s perceptions of the consequences of taking interpersonal risks in a particular context such as a workplace ’ (p 23) 38 ) in building organisational resilience and assuring safety.
The additional workload and complexity associated with running remote appointments alongside in-person ones is cognitively demanding for staff and requires additional skills for which not all are adequately trained. 24 39 40 We have written separately about the loss of traditional continuity of care as primary care services become digitised, 41–43 and about the unmet training needs of both clinical and support staff for managing remote and digital encounters. 24
Our findings also resonate with research showing that remote modalities can interfere with communicative tasks such as rapport building, establishing a therapeutic relationship and identifying non-verbal cues such as tearfulness 35 36 44 ; that remote consultations tend to be shorter and feature less discussion, information gathering and safety netting 45–48 ; and that clinical assessment in remote encounters may be challenging, 27 49 50 especially when physical examination is needed. 35 36 51 These factors may rarely contribute to incorrect or delayed diagnoses, underestimation of the seriousness or urgency of a case, and failure to identify a deteriorating trajectory. 35 36 52–54
Even when systems seem adequate, patients may struggle to navigate them. 23 30 31 This finding aligns with an important recent review of cognitive load theory in the context of remote and digital health services: because such services are more cognitively demanding for patients, they may widen inequities of access. 55 Some patients lack navigating and negotiating skills, access to key technologies 13 36 or confidence in using them. 30 35 The remote encounter may require the patient to have a sophisticated understanding of access and cross-referral pathways, interpret their own symptoms (including making judgements about severity and urgency), obtain and use self-monitoring technologies (such as a blood pressure machine or oximeter) and convey these data in medically meaningful ways (eg, by completing algorithmic triage forms or via a telephone conversation). 30 56 Furthermore, the remote environment may afford fewer opportunities for holistically evaluating, supporting or safeguarding the vulnerable patient, leading to widening inequities. 13 35 57 Previous work has also shown that patients with pre-existing illness, complex comorbidities or high-risk states, 58 59 language non-concordance, 13 35 inability to describe their symptoms (eg, due to autism 60 ), extremes of age 61 and those with low health or system literacy 30 are more difficult to assess remotely.
Many of the contributory factors to safety incidents in remote encounters have been suggested previously, 35 36 and align broadly with factors that explain safety incidents more generally. 53 62 63 This new study has systematically traced how upstream factors may, very rarely, combine to contribute to avoidable human tragedies—and also how primary care teams develop local safety practices and cultures to help avoid them. Our study provides some important messages for practices and policymakers.
First, remote encounters in general practice are mostly occurring in a system designed for in-person encounters, so processes and workflows may work less well.
Second, because the remote encounter depends more on history taking and dialogue, verbal communication is even more mission critical. Working remotely under system pressures and optimising verbal communication should both be priorities for staff training.
Third, the remote environment may increase existing inequities as patients’ various vulnerabilities (eg, extremes of age, poverty, language and literacy barriers, comorbidities) make remote communication and assessment more difficult. Our study has revealed impressive efforts from staff to overcome these inequities on an individual basis; some of these workarounds may become normalised and increase efficiency, but others are labour intensive and not scalable.
A final message from this study is that clinical assessment provides less information when a physical examination (and even a basic visual overview) is not possible. Hence, the remote consultation has a higher degree of inherent uncertainty. Even when processes have been optimised (eg, using high-quality triage to allocate modality), but especially when they have not, diagnoses and assessments of severity or urgency should be treated as more provisional and revisited accordingly. We have given examples in the Results section of how local adaptation and rule breaking bring flexibility into the system and may become normalised over time, leading to the creation of locally understood ‘rules of thumb’ which increase safety.
Overall, these findings underscore the need to share learning and develop guidance about the drivers of risk, how these play out in different kinds of remote encounters and how to develop and strengthen Safety II approaches to mitigate those risks. Table 2 shows proposed mitigations at staff, process and system levels, as well as a preliminary list of suggestions for patients, which could be refined with patient input using codesign methods. 64
Reducing safety incidents in remote primary care
This study has helped explain where the key risks lie in remote primary care encounters, which in our dataset were almost all by telephone. It has revealed examples of how front-line staff create and maintain a safety culture, thereby helping to prevent such incidents. We suggest four key avenues for further research. First, additional ethnographic studies in general practice might extend these findings and focus on specific subquestions (eg, how practices identify, capture and learn from near-miss incidents). Second, ethnographic studies of out-of-hours services, which are mostly telephone by default, may reveal additional elements of safety culture from which in-hours general practice could learn. Third, the rise in asynchronous e-consultations (in which patients complete an online template and receive a response by email) raises questions about the safety of this new modality which could be explored in mixed-methods studies including quantitative analysis of what kinds of conditions these consultations cover and qualitative analysis of the content and dynamics of the interaction. Finally, our findings suggest that the safety of new clinically related ‘assistant’ roles in general practice should be urgently evaluated, especially when such staff are undertaking remote assessment or remote triage.
Patient consent for publication.
Not applicable.
Ethical approval was granted by the East Midlands—Leicester South Research Ethics Committee and UK Health Research Authority (September 2021, 21/EM/0170 and subsequent amendments). Access to the NHS Resolution dataset was obtained by secondment of the RP via honorary employment contract, where she worked with staff to de-identify and fictionalise relevant cases. The Remote by Default 2 study (referenced in main text) was co-designed by patients and lay people; it includes a diverse patient panel. Oversight was provided by an independent external advisory group with a lay chair and patient representation. A person with lived experience of a healthcare safety incident (NS) is a co-author on this paper and provided input to data analysis and writing up, especially the recommendations for patients in table 2 .
We thank the participating organisations for cooperating with this study and giving permission to use fictionalised safety incidents. We thank the participants in the ethnographic study (patients, practice staff, policymakers, other informants) who gave generously of their time and members of the study advisory group.
X @dakinfrancesca, @trishgreenhalgh
Contributors RP led the Safety I analysis with support from AC. The Safety II analysis was part of a wider ethnographic study led by TG and SS, on which all other authors undertook fieldwork and contributed data. TG and RP wrote the paper, with all other authors contributing refinements. All authors checked and approved the final manuscript. RP is guarantor.
Funding Funding was from NIHR HS&DR (grant number 132807) (Remote by Default 2 study) and NIHR School for Primary Care Research (grant number 594) (ModCons study), plus an NIHR In-Practice Fellowship for RP.
Competing interests RP was National Professional Advisor, Care Quality Commission 2017–2022, where her role included investigation of safety issues.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.
Health Research Policy and Systems volume 22 , Article number: 111 ( 2024 ) Cite this article
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Countries in the Middle East have some of the lowest rates of physical activity and some of the highest rates of obesity in the world. Policies can influence population levels of physical activity. However, there is a dearth of research on physical activity policies in the Gulf region. This qualitative study analyses cross-sectoral barriers and facilitators for the development, implementation and evaluation of physical activity policies in Saudi Arabia and Oman, two of the largest countries in the region.
Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 19 senior policymakers from the Ministries of Health, Education, and Sport in Saudi Arabia and Oman, and were examined using thematic analysis.
We identified seven themes related to physical activity policies in Saudi Arabia and Oman: leadership; existing policies; physical activity programs related to policies; private sector policies; challenges; data/monitoring; and future opportunities. Both countries have a central document that guides policy-makers in promoting physical activity, and the available policies in both countries are implemented via multiple programs and initiatives to increase physical activity. Compared with Oman, in Saudi Arabia, programs from the non-profit sector, represented by community groups, play a more significant role in promoting physical activity outside the government framework. The private sector has contributed to promoting physical activity in both countries, but interviewees stated that more financial support is required. Policy limitations differ between Saudi Arabia and Oman: intersectoral collaboration in Oman is limited and mainly based on individuals’ own initiative, while the health transformation in Saudi Arabia tends to slow down policy implementation in relevant areas. Physical education in Saudi Arabia and Oman is similar; however, increased support and collaboration between government agencies and the private sector for out-of-school sports academies are needed.
This study addresses key gaps in analysing physical activity policies in Gulf Cooperation Council countries. Our study highlights the importance of increasing financial support, improving collaboration between governmental agencies and between them and the private sector and consolidating efforts to back physical activity policies and dismantle cross-sectoral barriers in Saudi Arabia and Oman. Educational institutions in Saudi Arabia and Oman play a crucial role in promoting physical activity from early childhood to young adults. Our insights assist policy-makers, public health officials and stakeholders in shaping effective physical activity-promoting policies, programs and interventions to prevent non-communicable diseases. Challenges identified in Saudi Arabia and Oman's policies will inform their future development.
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Despite the health benefits of physical activity [ 1 , 2 , 3 ], in most countries, large proportions of the population remain insufficiently active [ 4 , 5 ]. In line with social–ecological models of health [ 6 ], the need for policies to increase population levels of physical activity has been highlighted [ 7 , 8 ]. Physical activity policy is defined as any formal or informal legislative or regulatory action or organized guidance provided by governments and organizations [ 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 ]. Policies can be cross-sectoral and encompass access to various forms of physical activity, including walking and cycling, regulate and promote programs and initiatives, and provide a comprehensive framework for the design, funding and implementation of diverse physical activity interventions [ 9 , 13 , 14 ].
Countries in the Middle East have amongst the lowest levels of physical activity and some of the highest rates of overweight and obesity in the world [ 4 , 15 ]. In Saudi Arabia and Oman, only 29.7% and 25.6% of the adult population, respectively, meet the physical activity recommendations. For the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region the rate is 38.5% and the global average is 31.3% [ 4 ]. Moreover, in 2020 in Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, more than 80% of teenagers and 55% of adults (45% of men and 65% of women) were not sufficiently active [ 16 ]. In Saudi Arabia and Oman, dietary patterns are shifting due to increased consumption of processed foods, leading to higher rates of obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. Traditional diets rich in fruits, vegetables and lean meats are being replaced by fast food and sugary drinks. Moreover, reduced physical activity and increasingly sedentary lifestyles are major determinants of the obesity epidemic [ 17 , 18 ]. Therefore, there is an urgent need in this region for action on physical activity, including policy development, implementation and evaluation.
The 2014 report from the WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean on promoting physical activity in the region included a policy mapping exercise on national policy and action on physical activity in all 22 member states [ 19 ]. National physical activity policies were reported for most countries, including all members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), a political and economic alliance of six Middle Eastern countries [Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Qatar, Bahrain and Oman] that share a similar cultural, social and economic background. According to WHO’s recent Global Status Report on Physical Activity [ 16 ], only 11 of the 22 countries in the Eastern Mediterranean Region had a national physical activity strategy, while all GCC countries had one. The report also identified some partnerships to promote physical activity between various ministries in the Gulf states, particularly across the health, sports and education sectors.
In a systematic scoping review, Klepac Pogrmilovic et al. examined the academic literature on physical activity policy and identified 163 papers, covering 168 countries, including all 6 GCC members [ 20 ]. Few papers on physical activity policy across the Eastern Mediterranean region were identified, thus, the findings for the region were largely based on the 2014 report of the WHO Regional Office [ 20 ]. In another study by Klepac Pogrmilovic and colleagues, a survey on national physical activity policies was completed by representatives of 76 countries. However, this only included three of the 22 countries from the Eastern Mediterranean Region. The authors also emphasized that although national policies and strategies exist in all GCC countries, implementation is lacking. The authors recommended that further research be undertaken into physical activity and sedentary behaviour policy in the region [ 8 ]. It is essential to contextualize these findings with regard to physical activity policies in the Gulf region, including disparities and challenges in their implementation.
Recently, Albujulaya et al. analysed physical activity policy initiatives in Saudi Arabia by conducting semi-structured interviews with three policy-makers from the Ministries of Education and Sports and with six Saudi academics working in this field [ 21 ]. Surprisingly, they did not interview anyone from the Ministry of Health. They concluded that while physical activity amongst Saudis overall has increased, levels among women are still low. While Albujulaya et al. analysed aspects of physical activity policy development, implementation and evaluation in Saudi Arabia, they did not address potential cross-sectoral barriers and facilitators for these processes.
The primary objective of the present study was to analyse cross-sectoral barriers and facilitators for physical activity policy development, implementation and evaluation in GCC countries. The best research paradigm for this study is qualitative research. We chose interpretivist research to describe complex social realities, explore new or under-researched subjects and generate hypotheses for future quantitative research. This approach allows for a detailed examination of phenomena, which is difficult with quantitative methods. Practically, we also lacked a large, easily accessible sample to survey quantitatively. Therefore, interpretivism is particularly effective for understanding stakeholder perspectives on physical activity policies in unique cultural settings, such as those in Saudi Arabia and Oman, providing deep insights into subjective experiences and nuanced views. To achieve this, we interviewed policy-makers from the Ministries of Health, Sport and Education in Saudi Arabia and Oman, the two largest countries in the GCC. We picked these three ministries as previous research highlights that they are chiefly responsible for promoting physical activity and implementing related policies in the Gulf region [ 22 , 23 , 24 ].
This is a qualitative study using the interpretivist research paradigm [ 25 ], comprising semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders in physical activity policy-making in Saudi Arabia and Oman. We utilized the COREQ checklist to ensure the rigour and transparency of our qualitative methods (Appendix 1).
We defined stakeholders as those that are directly involved in the development, implementation and evaluation of physical activity policies. We initially sought to conduct interviews with stakeholders in all six GCC countries. We attempted to reach a contact in the Ministry of Health (MoH) in each GCC country by writing to the official email address of the ministries to introduce the study and request the contact details of relevant stakeholders. Despite following up with non-responders, we did not receive any replies from Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates. Therefore, we narrowed the scope to Saudi Arabia and Oman, the two largest countries of the six, with 36.4 million and 4.6 million inhabitants, respectively, accounting for 70% of the GCC’s population [ 26 ]. After obtaining contact details of key stakeholders from the ministries, the participants were contacted directly via email or telephone. To recruit additional participants, we used snowball sampling by asking interviewees to provide contact details of other relevant stakeholders in their organization. Because of the documented previous involvement of the sports and education sectors in promoting physical activity in the Gulf States [ 19 ], we also asked participants to identify relevant stakeholders in the Ministries of Sports and Education in Saudi Arabia and Oman. Our study focussed on the Ministries of Sports, Health and Education as they are significantly involved in promoting physical activity within Gulf Cooperation Council countries [ 22 , 23 , 24 ]. Attempts to contact the ministers directly were unsuccessful. However, we managed to reach senior staff in the ministries and in university sports federations which belong to the Ministries of Education. Additionally, we employed different strategies to engage participants from the non-governmental sector in both countries, including networking through professional contacts of the first author, utilizing online platforms such as Twitter and Facebook and forums and capitalizing on established partnerships with both non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and governmental sectors.
Participants were provided with information on the study, and all gave written consent to participate. Additionally, participants were informed at the beginning of the interview that they could withdraw from the study at any time if they chose not to continue participating. An interview guide, based on a review of previous literature [ 22 , 24 ] and collaborative input from the authors, was developed (Appendix 2). In the interviews, we explored stakeholders’ perspectives and opinions regarding existing physical activity policy documents from the Ministries of Health, Education and Sport in their country, as well as facilitators and barriers to physical activity policy development, implementation and evaluation, with field notes made during the interviews. A.A. conducted the interviews via Zoom due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic between December 2021 and February 2022. Interviews were conducted in Arabic, were audio-recorded with permission obtained from the participants and transcribed verbatim, and lasted between 10 min and 45 min. Repeat interviews were not carried out. The following personal information was collected from each participant: name, organization, position, age, gender and previous work experience. The participants were provided with an opportunity to review the Arabic transcripts for accuracy, and the final transcripts were translated to English. Monitoring of data saturation, an ongoing process based on the notion of informational redundancy [ 27 ], was conducted to ensure that comprehensive insights were obtained. The determination of the number of samples needed to reach data saturation was done separately in each country.
Authors A.A., A.B. and P.G. reviewed the transcripts to familiarize themselves with the content, after which thematic analysis was jointly undertaken by A.A., A.B. and P.G. to code each transcript. Themes were subsequently developed through a partially deductive approach: Main categories in Table 1 were derived from existing frameworks of the policy process, such as the HARDWIRED framework [ 28 ] (covering aspects such as development process, partnerships, resources, communication, evaluation and evidence-base) and CAPPA criteria [ 29 ] (including sectors/institutions involved, implementation, legal status, target groups, goals and targets, timeframe, budget and evaluation/surveillance). Subsequently, sub-categories were added via an inductive process conducted by A.A. during the thematic exploration stage, involving a comprehensive review of all codes within the combined dataset encompassing both Saudi Arabia and Oman. A.A., A.B. and P.G. discussed the coding and the preliminary interpretations to cross-validate the findings. These themes were informed by a comprehensive analysis of the extant literature and relevant findings from previous studies [ 22 , 24 ]. As a medical doctor at King Faisal Medical City in the southern region of Saudi Arabia, the lead author’s professional background informed his approach to data analysis in this qualitative study.
The study was approved by the Human Research Ethics Committee of the University of Technology Sydney (UTS HREC ref. no. ETH21-6428).
Interviews were conducted with 19 high-level stakeholders in physical activity policy; 12 from Saudi Arabia and 7 from Oman. A total of four of the participants (two from each country) were women. In Saudi Arabia, four participants were from the Ministry of Health (MoH, including one from an NGO that is supervised by the MoH), five were from the Ministry of Education (MoE) and three represented the Ministry of Sport (MoS). In Oman, one participant represented the Ministry of Health, three were from the Ministry of Education and three were from the Ministry of Sport.
We generated six themes regarding physical activity policies in Saudi Arabia and Oman: leadership; existing policy documents; implementation of physical activity policies; challenges; data/monitoring for physical activity policies; and future opportunities. The theme non-profit sector/community groups was generated only for Saudi Arabia. Table 1 provides an overview of the derived main themes and findings.
Participants from the Saudi MoH and MoS stated that the leadership in the legislation, regulation, and evaluation of physical activity policies is divided between the two ministries. They also collaborate with other government agencies, including the MoE and the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs, to increase physical activity opportunities in schools, workplaces and communities. Two participants from the MoE mentioned that the University Affairs Council and the Supreme Economic Council also work in the promotion of physical activity by regulating the implementation of programs in their sectors according to policy documents from the MoH and MoE.
According to the participant from the NGO supervised by the MoH, the non-profit sector is instrumental in promoting physical activity through walking groups. These have been established throughout the country to provide opportunities for people to engage in physical activity and to socialize, and which are co-organized by various stakeholders, including local businesses, schools, healthcare providers and government agencies: “I firmly believe that the non-profit sector plays a pivotal role in advocating for physical activity in Saudi Arabia” (NGO participant).
Participants from the Saudi MoH underlined that Health in All Policies is one of the main objectives in the new health care transformation in the kingdom. Most participants from the three ministries identified a certain level of cooperation between different stakeholders, particularly between the Ministries of Health, Sport and Education.
The Omani MoH leads the policies and programs to promote physical activity. Participant 1 from the MoH said that their non-communicable disease (NCD) and Health Committees are crucial for leading policy-making and promoting physical activity related to the National Policy for Prevention and Control of NCDs document [ 30 ].
Regarding Health in All Policies, all participants from Oman stated that there is cooperation between the different ministries, but that it is limited and based on individual agencies’ own initiatives rather than combined efforts or a policy imprimatur: “Partnerships exist, but they are limited and based on individual initiatives” (participant 2 from the MoS).
Most of the participants from all three ministries in Saudi Arabia referred to the Quality of Life document [ 31 ], an economic and social reform blueprint that is part of the government’s overarching Saudi Vision 2030 development program [ 32 ]. The Quality of Life document includes the most important physical activity policies implemented by the three ministries: “There is no doubt that the 2030 Vision is our basic guidance” (participant 3 from the MoH). “Before 2017 there were no clear policies. Everyone works on vision files, and everyone has to achieve the [Vision 2030] target to increase the quality of life of the Saudi community” (participant 2 from the MoE). The Quality of Life document emphasizes the need to enhance public health and healthcare services, promote healthy behaviours, and provide opportunities for physical activity and sports participation.
Interviewees from the MoE highlighted that the University Sports Federation strategy promotes physical activity and sport in tertiary education [ 33 ]. Some important miscellaneous policy documents were identified by staff of the three ministries, such as the National Strategy for Healthy Food and Physical Activity 2015–2025 [ 34 ], the Physical Activity Guidelines for Health Practitioners [ 35 ], the 24-Hour Movement Guidelines [ 36 ] (all by the MoH) and the annual report of the Sport for All Federation by the MoS [ 37 ].
Almost all participants across all three ministries stated that the government of Oman’s overarching Vision 2040 [ 38 ] is currently the most important policy document. Participants from the MoE reported that the Vision 2040 guides the promotion of student physical activity, with support from related documents such as the student learning calendar, education document, standards document and the school sports curriculum. These policy documents aim to promote physical activity among students by better integrating physical education (PE) classes into the overall curriculum to encourage regular physical activity and healthy habits. According to participant 1 from the MoH, the Education Document is a comprehensive strategy, including PE and promotion of physical activity in schools and universities. The document outlines various initiatives, policies and guidelines to ensure that education includes a focus on physical health and fitness [ 39 ]. Three participants from the three different Omani ministries referred to the National Policy for Prevention and Control of NCDs [ 30 ], published by the MoH, as the central policy document for physical activity promotion in Oman. Three study participants from the MoS suggested that the Omani Sports Strategy [ 40 ] is important for guiding the promotion of physical activity for different segments of society.
(a) physical activity programs.
The MoH and MoE collaborate on a range of health-related issues (obesity, diabetes, mental health and visual acuity) to improve the overall health of school students and to detect problems at an early stage [ 41 ]. This led to the development of the Rashaka initiative, a large-scale multi-component school-based obesity prevention program, which started in 2016 and involved nearly 1000 schools across the country. In 2020, Rashaka was replaced by an annual program composed of screening of students for early signs of chronic diseases and lectures highlighting the significance of physical activity and a healthy diet.
Participants 3 and 4 of the Saudi MoH mentioned the Walk 30 Minutes initiative, which was implemented in 2021 and intends to increase physical activity through mass media and social media, and forms part of the National Strategy for Healthy Food and Physical Activity 2015–2025 of the MoH. An initiative by the University Sports Federation [ 33 ] (related to policies from the MoS), aiming to support sports facilities and clubs for girls and women, was mentioned by three participants from the MoS, and one participant highlighted the MoS’s Talent Support Program to identify and develop talented athletes in different sports.
Participant 3 of the Saudi MoH and participant 5 of the MoE mentioned the Healthy Mall Campaign and the Healthy Campus Project to promote physical activity in air-conditioned malls and universities. These initiatives are related to policies of the National Strategy for Healthy Food and Physical Activity (MoH and MoE). Despite challenges, the study participants considered the Saudi physical activity programs to be effective.
Participants 1 and 2 of the MoE identified programs related to PE policies from the Education Document, which include increasing the number of PE classes per week and organizing tournaments in different sports. According to participants from the three different ministries, a range of physical activity programs took place during the COVID-19 pandemic, including campaigns calling for physical activity at home using apps with exercise videos. These initiatives, as reported by the participants, align with and are supported by the physical activity policy documents from the Ministries of Health, Sport and Education, that is, the National Policy for Prevention and Control of NCDs [ 30 ] and the Oman Sport Strategy [ 40 ].
According to multiple participants, several community-based initiatives were underway in Oman, such as Active Community, Healthy Cities and Healthy Villages and The Green Playgrounds Project. These initiatives had been set up in all Omani cities to make the built environment more activity friendly, for example, by improving neighbourhood walkability, which is also based on the National Policy for Prevention and Control of NCDs [ 30 ].
According to most of the participants, the private sector makes important contributions to physical activity promotion in Saudi Arabia by being directly involved in the policy development process. The Tatweer Educational Company, a private holding dedicated to implementing the government's education reform initiative, has developed programs to promote physical activity in schools, aligning with its commitment to a holistic education system. In line with the conceptualization of active travel as physical activity, the Red Sea Company drives the development of Saudi Arabia’s west coast and aims to improve neighbourhood walkability. Participants from the MoE were unanimous in the view that private universities make significant contributions to the promotion of physical activity among staff and students on the basis of financial support from their funders. International and local investors in the education sector are urging private universities to promote physical activity to enhance the universities’ reputation and to be more attractive for prospective students.
According to participant 1 from the Ministry of Health, walking and hiking groups supported by the Health Promotion Center [ 42 ] (a non-profit charitable organization under the umbrella of the Saudi Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs) play an important role in promoting physical activity in Saudi Arabia. This is despite a lack of governmental support, with influencers and celebrities utilizing social media platforms for the promotion of physical activity. This organization has internal policies for the promotion of physical activity through different programs: “The fact is that community groups working to spread this culture of walking have no ceilings, no limits, and no bureaucracy” (participant 1 from the MoH).
In contrast to Saudi Arabia, participants in Oman stated that more support from the private sector is needed to promote physical activity in the country. However, participant 3 from the MoE mentioned an agreement between the MoE and Muscat Pharmacy & Stores limited liability company (LLC) to hold a football tournament for elementary school students. Nevertheless, it is important to highlight that there is a prevailing perception that physical activity cannot be easily monetized. This contributes to the private sector’s limited interest in supporting such initiatives in the Gulf countries, as it is not perceived to yield immediate profits. Overall, the participants from both Saudi Arabia and Oman stated that, unlike in government-supported programs, in the private sector there are no performance indicators to track the progress of physical activity programs.
Two participants from the Saudi MoH and MoE mentioned challenges in relation to physical activity monitoring, as each of the three involved ministries independently conducts surveys on physical activity with different methodologies and tools, which may yield conflicting results in monitoring the effects or end-product of physical activity policies. Furthermore, participants from all three ministries confirmed the existence of national surveys for physical activity and emphasized their importance in assessing activity levels. They also shared insights about how they monitor the implementation of physical activity policies and evaluate the effectiveness of various initiatives in their respective sectors: “We follow and evaluate health through periodic national surveys, but each ministry has its own survey with different results. It is not clear how widely these data are utilized in different sectors, such as education, and sports, to inform policies and interventions” (participant 2 from the MoH).
Participants from the MoH and MoS stated that participation rates, policy compliance, budget allocation and health outcomes are being tracked to assess the effectiveness and progress of physical activity policies, with a specific focus on regular reports and data analysis. Furthermore, one participant from the MoE said that there is no monitoring happening for their education-specific policies.
Participant 4 from the MoH suggested that limited policy implementation is likely until the health transformation process is completed by 2030. The health transformation in Saudi Arabia is a recent, prominent project that aims to restructure the health sector to make it more comprehensive, effective and integrated. The transformation is mainly focussed on the prevention of chronic diseases and the promotion of a healthy lifestyle through physical activity and a nutritious diet. On the ground, this transformation entails significant changes in healthcare infrastructure, delivery and accessibility, as well as increased awareness campaigns and the implementation of various programs aimed at improving public health and wellbeing [ 43 ]. To expedite the health transformation in Saudi Arabia, the respondent considered it essential to implement the policies from the Quality of Life document, which is part of the Kingdom’s Vision 2030. This particularly involves promoting physical activity and healthy lifestyles. By fostering these habits, the country could achieve significant improvements in public health and wellbeing. Participant 3 suggested that bureaucracy is a limitation, as new policies and regulations take a long time to implement under different administrations. Moreover, participants from the MoH and MoE declared that a lack of sustainability of physical activity programs and funding were major limitations due to changes in administrations over short periods. Most participants representing the three Saudi ministries stated that a lack of collaboration and cooperation between government departments was a major challenge. For instance, some policies from the MoH need to be implemented by the MoE, such as the screening program of school students [ 41 ]. The hot climate and the desert environment in the Gulf region also present challenges when it comes to implementing physical activity policies.
According to most participants, a lack of funding for the promotion of physical activity was a common challenge in Saudi Arabia because health budgets are mostly allocated to hospitals and curative services rather than to NCD prevention, including physical activity promotion. A lack of facilities (e.g. sports fields, recreation centres, indoor and outdoor courts and multi-use sporting hubs) is a further challenge according to most Saudi respondents. Moreover, negative societal attitudes towards physical activity were highlighted by one participant, citing challenges such as the prevalence of social norms that prioritize sedentary pastimes and leisure activities, thereby reinforcing a culture that tends to discourage physical activity [ 44 ].
According to most participants, insufficient collaboration between different stakeholders, as well as a lack of government funding and support from the private sector, were the most important barriers to physical activity promotion. Like in Saudi Arabia, participants from Oman said that the hot climate and desert environment in the Gulf region, a lack of facilities and/or a lack of access to them and negative attitudes in the population towards physical activity (social norms that prioritize sedentary pastimes and leisure activities) all pose obstacles to physical activity. Some participants from the MoE stated that a lack of support for PE facilities in schools has been a major obstacle to increasing students’ physical activity. Like in Saudi Arabia, respondents from Oman felt that the country should rapidly implement the provisions of the Vision 2040, specifically those related to the prevention of chronic diseases through the promotion of a healthy lifestyle and physical activity. Furthermore, an increase in government funding dedicated to promoting physical activity would be desirable.
Participant 3 from the Saudi MoH stated that future policies might include investment in technology, such as developing smartphone apps for the promotion of physical activity during pandemics, and these could contribute to future physical activity programs. However, this requires direct support from the government, both financially and technically, by providing technical expertise, developing and implementing technology-based solutions and ensuring privacy and security. Furthermore, participant 1 from the MoS and participant 3 of the MoE claimed that programs, such as out-of- school academies for talented young athletes, could further encourage physical activity and foster athletic talent. Three participants from the MoE pointed out that unifying efforts between different stakeholders would be important. Moreover, more support in terms of funding, infrastructure, a skilled workforce, and research are considered promising opportunities by most participants from the three ministries.
Participants from the three ministries stated that community participation, such as activating schools as centres for physical activity promotion in the community, would be a great opportunity in the future if cooperation between different ministries is enhanced. Three participants from the Omani MoS and MoE said that improvements to facilities and the skills of the workforce (e.g. PE teachers, coaches, gym instructors, etc.) are required to increase activity levels. Despite the existence of the national plan for physical activity promotion in Oman [ 45 ], all participants emphasized that the lack of partnerships between the government and other relevant parties, such as schools, sports clubs and community organizations, is a common and significant obstacle. Furthermore, participant 1 from the MoS and participant 3 from the MoE said that more support for out-of-school sport academies, including improved collaboration between governmental agencies and the private sector, and supporting physical education as a part of the Omani education strategy, would be great opportunities.
Participants from the Ministries of Education of Saudi Arabia and Oman highlighted that physical education is crucial for the future in both countries, fostering healthy habits essential for a productive workforce. Integrating physical education into the curriculum promotes wellness and prevents lifestyle-related diseases, contributing to various sectors [ 39 ]. As both nations progress, emphasizing physical education will enhance individual health and serve as a strategic investment in a robust, dynamic workforce.
This study examined cross-sectoral barriers and facilitators for physical activity policy development, implementation and evaluation in Saudi Arabia and Oman by interviewing high-level stakeholders from their Ministries of Health, Sports and Education. Oman established a national policy framework for physical activity in 2014 [ 18 ] under the umbrella of the Oman Vision 2040 [ 38 ], 3 years before Saudi Arabia introduced its Quality of Life Program [ 46 ] under the umbrella of the Saudi Vision 2030 [ 31 ]. Many programs and initiatives to enhance physical activity in both countries were identified, particularly sports initiatives. However, it is worth noting that these efforts often lack comprehensiveness, encompassing a broad range of activities and demographics, and face challenges in effective implementation – observations that are in line with findings from a survey on national physical activity policies by Klepac Pogrmilovic et al. [ 8 ]. The programs and initiatives are predominantly focussed on urban areas and may neglect rural communities [ 44 , 47 ]. Interest in promoting gender equity in physical activity in Oman was prominent, with several programs for female participants [ 24 ]; there was less focus on gender equity in Saudi Arabia, although a positive development was the introduction of PE classes for female students in primary and secondary education in 2018. Policies for promoting physical activity should also support individuals with special needs, patients and the elderly by implementing community programs targeted at these groups, such as walking groups and fitness classes for older adults, and programs targeting people with chronic conditions. Additionally, it is important to focus on policies and programs that support gender equality in physical activity and health.
Our finding regarding insufficient backing of policy interventions to create environments supportive of physical activity in both countries aligns with a study by Allender et al., who interviewed stakeholders in local government in Victoria, Australia, to analyse physical activity policies and initiatives. Similar to our findings from Saudi Arabia and Oman, they identified a lack of relevance and competing priorities (i.e. promoting healthy eating environments was not considered a priority above food safety) as reasons for the lack of support towards creating supportive environments for physical activity and healthy eating [ 48 ].
Health in All Policies has been embraced in Saudi Arabia by integrating the promotion of physical activity into policy development across various areas such as education, sports and the private sector. However, while this integration is mentioned in the respective documents, challenges in implementation may have arisen due to limited cooperation between sectors. Many partnerships have been established with multiple parties in the Kingdom (MoH, MoS, MoE, and the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs) to further develop physical activity policies in each sector and to remove obstacles to the implementation of physical activity programs. According to a WHO report from 2017, promoting Health in All Policies in Saudi Arabia has been identified as a national priority, monitored by the Ministry of Health [ 49 ]. Intersectoral collaboration in Oman is apparently less developed than in Saudi Arabia, hindering the integration of physical activity policies across sectors. Unlike Saudi Arabia’s comprehensive approach of Health in All Policies, Oman relies more on individual agency initiatives. However, there is potential for improvement in Oman to strengthen intersectoral collaboration and enhance the integration of physical activity policies by establishing a comprehensive policy framework and promoting coordinated efforts among sectors. For instance, the Omani government could create an intersectoral task force or committee dedicated to fostering collaboration.
In Saudi Arabia, the non-profit sector, represented by community groups, plays a significant role in promoting physical activity outside of the government framework, aided by the promotion of physical activity by influencers and celebrities through social media platforms [ 42 ]. By contrast, our study participants did not mention any significant involvement of the non-profit sector in physical activity promotion in Oman, either because these types of organizations do not play a role or because their role is not valued by the government stakeholders who we interviewed. The private sector contributes to promoting physical activity in both countries, with particularly strong partnerships with the governmental sector in Saudi Arabia. This may be because tax benefits exist for companies that encourage and promote physical activity in Saudi Arabia [ 31 ]. There are previous examples of these types of partnerships in Oman, such as a collaboration between the education and private sector aiming to create a healthier environment and lifestyle in schools. These partnerships have been achieved through the provision of financial support and sponsorships, specifically targeting sports equipment, facilities and physical activity programs in schools [ 50 ]. However, insufficient budget allocation in this area was considered a challenge, which is consistent with our study, with most participants from the sultanate expressing the need for greater financial support from the private sector.
Policy limitations differ between both countries, mainly due to the health transformation in Saudi Arabia, specifically with the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 [ 51 ]. The slow pace of transformation in various Saudi public health, infrastructure, urban planning, sports and recreation policies may impact their likelihood of being fully implemented by 2030, potentially falling short of WHO’s target for increased physical activity by that year set in their Global Action Plan on Physical Activity [ 52 ]. One of the objectives of the health sector transformation and the Quality of Life Program is to decrease the proportion of the Saudi population who are not sufficiently physically active below (67%) by 2030 [ 51 ]. The government has taken proactive measures to promote physical activity, investing in initiatives that raise awareness about its importance and the associated health benefits. This includes campaigns, public awareness programs and the establishment of recreational facilities to facilitate physical activity. In Oman, more collaboration between political parties is essential to improve the implementation of physical activity policies. According to participant 1 from the Omani MoH, several meetings were recently held with all parties to create plans to better implement physical activity policies. These meetings have led to increased monitoring and stricter enforcement by the Omani government regarding the implementation of physical activity policies in all relevant ministries. Effective health system policies significantly depend on inter-institutional collaboration. While primary health institutions play a central role, the impact of related entities is equally crucial. Educational bodies, sports organizations and community health centres contribute significantly to decision-making processes. Their closer involvement would ensure a more comprehensive approach to promoting physical activity, enhancing wellness and preventing lifestyle-related diseases [ 53 ].
According to previous studies, insufficient funding for promoting physical activity, and more broadly for NCD prevention, is a challenge in both Saudi Arabia and Oman [ 23 , 24 ]. Similarly, in a US study, state public health practitioners were interviewed about the National Physical Activity Plan, who also identified implementation costs and the complexity of physical activity policies as significant challenges [ 54 ]. Financial incentives and private sector involvement, while valuable, do not ensure adequate funding for all aspects of public health initiatives. The private sector’s contribution is often focussed on areas aligned with their business interests or corporate social responsibility. Nevertheless, in Saudi Arabia, certain private sector companies run national programs, such as the Tatweer Educational Company, a private holding dedicated to implementing the government's education reform initiative [ 55 , 56 ]. Enhancing funding for the implementation of physical activity policies in the Gulf region holds great promise in advancing infrastructure, cultivating a proficient workforce, and fostering research initiatives. On the basis of the Saudi Quality of Life document 2030 [ 46 ], the budget of the Ministries of Health, Sport and Education for promoting physical activity will likely increase until 2030.
The monitoring and evaluation of policy implementation across ministries in both countries is challenging due to the absence of comprehensive and precise data on physical activity prevalence in key sectors such as health, sport and education. Therefore, there is an urgent need to address data quality issues, such as inconsistent measurement methods employed across different sectors, which make it difficult to compare and consolidate data, and the lack of standardized protocols which undermines the accuracy and reliability of prevalence estimates. To efficiently monitor policy implementation, the responsibility could, for instance, be entrusted to the MoH for coordination with all pertinent sectors, while the General Statistics Authority should be designated to collect data on physical activity.
Responsibility for ensuring data quality rests with various stakeholders involved in the data collection, including researchers, survey administrators, data analysts and policy-makers. These stakeholders must work collectively to implement robust data collection methodologies, appropriate sampling techniques, rigorous quality control measures and transparent reporting practices. Monitoring of the impact of policies on population levels of physical activity in Saudi Arabia and Oman has improved, but more work is needed, particularly in the education sector in Oman, which requires evaluation of the progress and impact of policies.
To create and implement comprehensive policies, programs and supporting environments, a variety of sectors must collaborate in both countries. This may include transport, urban planning, media, social work, religious and cultural affairs [ 23 ]. In Saudi Arabia, one of the most effective health-promoting practices is physician-recommended physical activity [ 57 ], which is recognized as one of the eight best investments for physical activity by the International Society for Physical Activity and Health [ 58 ]. Therefore, the primary healthcare system in the Gulf region has a critical role in the promotion of physical activity, and further policy development in this area would be promising [ 57 ]. In addition, physical education policies in schools play an integral part in the Gulf states [ 59 ]. Educational institutions in Saudi Arabia and Oman are crucial in promoting physical activity among various age groups. From childhood through adolescence to young adulthood, schools offer structured physical education programs, health education and gender-inclusive activities. Universities support these efforts by providing sports facilities and activities as well as by conducting research on active lifestyles. Coordinated national policies amplify the effectiveness of these initiatives [ 22 , 39 , 60 ]. Furthermore, active transport and urban design policies have not yet been developed sufficiently to become potential contributors to population levels of physical activity in these countries due to cultural, environmental and climatic differences [ 23 ].
Strengths of this study include a sample of high-level stakeholders who are directly involved in the formulation of physical activity policies from three ministries in Saudi Arabia and Oman, the two largest countries in the GCC. Additionally, we recruited one prominent participant from an NGO that is supervised by the Saudi Ministry of Health. We were not able to reach participants from the non-governmental sector in Oman. The original research plan was targeted at all six member countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council, but we were not able to recruit participants from the other GCC states due to political sensitivities surrounding the subject and a lack of responsiveness from relevant authorities. This may limit the generalizability of our findings beyond these specific contexts. However, we managed to recruit senior participants from the two largest GCC countries, which account for 70% of the GCC population. As in many countries, governmental representatives may have been constrained in what they reported in these interviews. Regarding the limitation of interview responses, some participants spoke about the existence of physical activity policies but did not want to provide further information on how they are being implemented, and this kind of information is not easy to obtain from other sources either. Thus, these gaps constitute a need for future research. To ensure research quality based on Lincoln and Guba’s criteria [ 61 ], we implemented several strategies. For credibility, we used investigator triangulation (involving multiple researchers) and theoretical triangulation (utilizing multiple policy frameworks). We did not use methodological triangulation, as we only conducted interviews, nor data triangulation, relying solely on audio transcripts. To ensure dependability, we kept detailed records of data collection and assessed coding accuracy and reliability among our team. For transferability, we addressed inherent challenges by collecting data from two countries, Saudi Arabia and Oman, enhancing the applicability of our findings to similar contexts. Although achieving confirmability was challenging due to our focus on individual perceptions, we aimed for transparency and objectivity in documenting our procedures and decisions.
This study fills important gaps in the analysis of physical activity policies in the Gulf region. Understanding the unique challenges, barriers and successes in promoting physical activity in the GCC countries is essential for developing relevant policies and strategies in the future. Our study highlights the importance of increasing financial support, improving collaboration between governmental agencies and between them and the private sector, and consolidating efforts to back physical activity policies and dismantle cross-sectoral barriers in Saudi Arabia and Oman. Educational institutions in Saudi Arabia and Oman play a crucial role in promoting physical activity from early childhood to young adults. Schools offer structured physical education, health education and gender-inclusive activities, while universities provide sport facilities and conduct research on active lifestyles. Coordinated national policies enhance the effectiveness of these efforts.
Specifically, we recommend allocating dedicated funds, establishing a centralized task force for coordinated policy implementation, creating incentives for private sector investment, developing a national strategy with measurable targets and conducting comprehensive policy reviews to remove bureaucratic obstacles. These steps will facilitate sustained progress and broader engagement in physical activity initiatives.
Our findings provide valuable insights and evidence for policy-makers, public health officials and other stakeholders in the region to develop targeted policies, programs and interventions that promote physical activity and prevent non-communicable diseases. The identified challenges and limitations of physical activity policies in Saudi Arabia and Oman will guide their future development.
The datasets generated and/or analysed during the current study are not publicly available to maintain participants’ confidentiality. However, they can be obtained from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
Coronavirus disease 2019
Gulf Cooperation Council
Health in all policies
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Ministry of Education
Ministry of Health
Ministry of Sport
Non-communicable disease
Non-governmental organization
Physical education
United Arab Emirates
United States
World Health Organization
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We would like to express our sincere thanks to the policy-makers in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Oman for their participation in this research.
This project is kindly supported through a PhD scholarship from King Faisal Medical City in Saudi Arabia and PhD funding from the Faculty of Health of the University of Technology Sydney.
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A.A. recruited participants and conducted interviews with policy-makers. A.A., A.B. and P.G. collectively analysed the transcripts. K.G., A.B. and P.G. made significant contributions to the thorough review and editing of the manuscript.
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Alzahrani, A.A., Gelius, P., Bauman, A.E. et al. Physical activity policies in Saudi Arabia and Oman: a qualitative study using stakeholder interviews. Health Res Policy Sys 22 , 111 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12961-024-01192-w
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Received : 17 January 2024
Accepted : 20 July 2024
Published : 19 August 2024
DOI : https://doi.org/10.1186/s12961-024-01192-w
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ISSN: 1478-4505
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Undertaking interviews is potentially the most important step in the qualitative research process. If you don't collect useful, useable data in your interviews, you'll struggle through the rest of your dissertation or thesis. Having helped numerous students with their research over the years, we've noticed some common interviewing mistakes that first-time researchers make. In this post ...
You have performed qualitative research for your dissertation by conducting interviews that you now want to include: how do you do that? Chances are that this was never explained to you and you don't know what is expected. That's why in this article we describe how interviews can be included in, for instance, the discussion section of your dissertation and how they can be referenced.
Summary. The qualitative research interview is a powerful data-collection tool which affords researchers in medical education opportunities to explore unknown areas of education and practice within medicine. This paper articulates 12 tips for consideration when conducting qualitative research interviews, and outlines the qualitative research ...
A qualitative research of a single case was used to describe students' lived experiences and their own voices were used to highlight these experiences and reflections throughout the findings.
Learn how to conduct and analyze different types of interviews in research, with examples and tips from Scribbr experts.
Learn how to undertake interviews for qualitative research projects such as dissertations and theses.
Designing and structuring the interview Qualitative interviews can range from highly exploratory to addressing specific hypotheses. As a result, the structure of interviews can range from loose conversations to structured exchanges in which all interviewees are asked the exact same set of questions. Your choice of interview structure should reflect the goals and stage of your research. Less ...
This blog is part of a series for Evidence-Based Health Care MSc students undertaking their dissertations. Undertaking an MSc dissertation in Evidence-Based Health Care (EBHC) may be your first hands-on experience of doing qualitative research. I chatted to Dr. Veronika Williams, an experienced qualitative researcher, and tutor on the EBHC programme, to find out her top tips for producing a ...
Despite the significant importance of interviews to collect data in a research study, it may look challenging to design an effective interview that provides unbiased, enough and accurate data.
Learn how to write up the results chapter (aka findings chapter) for your qualitative dissertation or thesis. Step by step guide + examples.
This chapter looks at qualitative interviewing and how it compares to other types of collect-ing evidence in research, particularly structured interviewing and ethnography. It considers the process of conducting a qualitative interview, and best strategies for it. The chapter also looks at focus groups as a type of qualitative interviewing, and discusses the use of qualitative interview-ing in ...
Introduction. Interviewing people is at the heart of qualitative research. It is not merely a way to collect data but an intrinsically rewarding activity—an interaction between two people that holds the potential for greater understanding and interpersonal development. Unlike many of our daily interactions with others that are fairly shallow ...
Abstract For students and novice researchers, the choice of qualitative approach and subsequent alignment among problems, research questions, data collection, and data analysis can be particularly tricky. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to provide a concise explanation of four common qualitative approaches, case study, ethnography, narrative, and phenomenology, demonstrating how each ...
This is for PhD students working on a qualitative thesis who have completed their data collection and analysis and are at the stage of writing up.
Interviews Interviews can be defined as a qualitative research technique which involves "conducting intensive individual interviews with a small number of respondents to explore their perspectives on a particular idea, program or situation." [1]
InterViews by Steinar Kvale Interviewing is an essential tool in qualitative research and this introduction to interviewing outlines both the theoretical underpinnings and the practical aspects of the process. After examining the role of the interview in the research process, Steinar Kvale considers some of the key philosophical issues relating ...
Writing Research. Andrea Bingham. Reporting the findings from a qualitative study in a way that is interesting, meaningful, and trustworthy can be a struggle. Those new to qualitative research often find themselves trying to quantify everything to make it seem more "rigorous," or asking themselves, "Do I really need this much data to ...
The topic I take up today is one of the asking questions in qualitative inquiry. More specifically, I want to direct your attention to three different types of questioning activities: developing research questions, developing interview questions, and developing analytical questions for the purpose of analysis. At first blush, this distinction is so obvious it hardly warrants essay space ...
Recognizing and understanding research bias is crucial for determining the utility of study results and an essential aspect of evidence-based decision-making in the health professions. Research proposals and manuscripts that do not provide satisfactory detail on the mechanisms employed to minimize bias are unlikely to be viewed favorably. But what are the rules for qualitative research studies ...
43 Abstract Students conducting a piece of qualitative research frequently ask 'how many interviews is enough?' Early career researchers and established academics also consider this question when designing research projects. In this NCRM Methods Review paper we gather and review responses to the question of 'how many' from 14 renowned social scientists and 5 early career researchers ...
Qualitative research involves collecting and analyzing non-numerical data (e.g., text, video, or audio) to understand concepts, opinions, or experiences. It can be used to gather in-depth insights into a problem or generate new ideas for research. Qualitative research is the opposite of quantitative research, which involves collecting and ...
Qualitative research interviews are depth interviews. They elicit detailed feedback from your leads and customers. Unstructured interviews reveal why people react in a certain way or make certain decisions. According to The Hartford, qualitative research provides an anecdotal look into your business. That provides an important form of data.
Key Points Highlights that qualitative research is used increasingly in dentistry. Interviews and focus groups remain the most common qualitative methods of data collection. Suggests the advent of ...
To answer these questions, the research uses mixed-methods including qualitative interviews with members of multiple stakeholder groups, and participant observation of strategy sessions held between capacity building organizations. The study will contributes to STS literature on citizen science and a growing body of research on big-data ...
Additionally, we chose interviews to get an in-depth understanding of stakeholders' various perceptions, particularly regarding the challenges of institutionalizing the evidence-informed prioritization efforts in Iran. We utilized the Standards for Reporting Qualitative Research (SRQR) checklist to present this study.
Analysis of these 95 safety incidents, drawn from multiple complementary sources, along with rich qualitative data from ethnography, interviews and workshops has clarified where the key risks lie in remote primary care.
Study design. This is a qualitative study using the interpretivist research paradigm [], comprising semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders in physical activity policy-making in Saudi Arabia and Oman.We utilized the COREQ checklist to ensure the rigour and transparency of our qualitative methods (Appendix 1).
Qualitative research and evaluation methods: Integrating theory and practice (4th ed.). SAGE. ... A qualitative assessment of agency discourse and knowledge transmission using service provider literature and interviews with staff. UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones (p. 4457), ...