Policy Analysis of the Integration of Sports and Medicine against the Backdrop of “Healthy China”: A Qualitative Study Using NVivo

Abstract

In China, the aim of integrating sports and medicine is part of a national health promotion policy. It is important to clarify the relevant policy points, policy practice distribution, and practical tools, as well as to find the weak links in the policy. In the study, there are 34 primary child nodes, 12 secondary child nodes and four parent nodes that were formed. In this study NVivo 11 software was used to analyze the content of 15 national guidelines in terms of integrating sports and medicine. From 2014 to 2021, the policy development of the integration of sports and medicine went through the beginning and growth stages. The evolutionary logic presents an inverse relationship between the policy practice’s duration and the degree of state intervention. In the sequential developmental phases, policy tools were set up in an orderly transition from a single mandatory policy tool to a voluntary or hybrid policy tool, supplemented by essential policy tools. With respect to the policy content, the attention to specific service groups and sports risk assessment is insufficient. In the future, we should actively focus on the division of particular service groups and their service supply, pay closer attention to the social needs and value manifestation of sports risk assessment, and balance the proportion of policy tools in the development of the integration of sports and medicine.