Physical Activity and Lifestyle Program - Essay Example

Note: If you need anything, please just send me a message. Thanks! Case Study Report Beat it: Physical Activity and Lifestyle Program 1. Background of the Project Beat It! is the result of Australian government’s Communities Initiative or HCI which is also a part of the National Partnership on Preventive Health all over Australia. HCI awarded the Australian Diabetes Council a National Programs Grant to deliver BEAT IT train the trainer courses in LGAs. This HCI’s National Programs Grants is exclusive to programs with good records of accomplishment in relation to obesity and chronic disease reduction and prevention (Australian Diabetes Council, 2009). “Beat it” is generally a health development and promotion that promotes healthy lifestyle through awareness, physical activity, and lifestyle management program. This project has two important components – Exercise program for consumers and accreditation course for fitness leaders. The first component is specifically designed for people with or at risk of diabetes. As an evidenced-based health development and promotion project, Beat It include identified best practices in exercise, lifestyle, diabetes prevention, management and behaviour change interventions (Australian Diabetes Council, 2009). The following sections discusses this project’s structure, aims and objectives, target population, approaches and strategies, evaluation procedures and techniques, outcomes, and analysis of strength, weakness, innovative activities, and best practices. 2. Aims and Objectives The primary aim of Beat It is to assist those at risk of diabetes or living with diabetes, heart disease, and other chronic illnesses through innovative physical activity and lifestyle management program. Its objectives include encouraging the entire population to take part in Beat It classes offering aerobic and resistance training exercises, and life-long skills training and confidence building. In relation to these classes, Beat It is also encouraging participation of health professionals in its Trainer Program such as a two-day training course that can help exercise and health practitioners provide safe and effective group-based physical activity programs to people with or without lifestyle-related chronic diseases (Australian Diabetes Council, 2009). 3. Target Population Beat It is open to all and there is no age restrictions to participate. However, participants are required to secure a medical clearance for a General Practitioner since exercise, although recommended for managing and preventing chronic diseases, can be detrimental to people with respiratory or lung associated disease. In its pilot project in 2009, Beat It recruited potential participants through various means such as local media, mail, and other existing communication pathways such local health professionals, local health care and support groups. Out of 2050 invited potential participants, 294 expressed their interest in the program that eventually underwent a series of screening such as physical activity safety survey or the PASS form and medical clearance. They are also required to sign an informed consent but to ensure consistency and relevance, those with sever diabetes related complications and other similar health concerns were excluded (Australian Diabetes Council, 2009, p.4). As a second component of the program, Beat It is seeking participation from exercise and health professionals in its Trainer Program. For this reason, eight qualified trainers with Cert IV in Personal Training are recruited to handle four pilot sites that include the Bay & Basin Leisure Centre in Vincentia, Solar Springs Health Retreat in Bundanoon, Canterbury Aquatic & Fitness Centre, and the Peninsula Leisure Centre in Woy Woy (Australian Diabetes Council, 2009). 4. Strategies employed to achieve aims and objectives Beat It! is designed by the Australian Diabetes Council as a 12 week physical activity and lifestyle program with emphasis on safe and effective exercise. It has two important components namely “Beat It! Exercise program for consumers” and “Accreditation course for fitness leaders”. The components are in line with Beat It strategy to encourage physical activity or exercise among the population and support them with appropriately qualified professional accredited by the Australian Diabetes Council. The program was initially designed for group-based physical activity and lifestyle program to reduce cost for participants but since it has no restrictions on age and condition of individual, it cannot accommodate all and has to train health professionals to handle other groups or individual sessions (Australian Diabetes Council, 2009). a. Beat It! Exercise Program The Beat It! Exercise program is an innovative project that everyone can participate. It has individualized group program consisting of progressive resistance and aerobic training, individual initial assessment and lifestyle modification, flexible classes, and individualized program modification for each participant. Aside from being enjoyable, safe, and supportive of participants, one good thing about this strategy is its ability to provide life skills that can be use by participants independently outside the program. This is because once a participant entered the program, the Beat It trainer, typically an ADC accredited qualified professional with Certificate IV in Fitness or Exercise scientist, physiologist, physiotherapists, and so on, will indentify the participant needs and eventually customized the program to suit his or her health and lifestyle. Availability of this program is not a problem since there are a number of accredited Beat It! providers in New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, Western Australia, and other part of Australia (Australia Diabetes Council, 2009). This program is open to all who want to get active in a supportive environment but it is more suitable for people with weight problems, with or at risk of diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, arthritis, and osteoporosis. Its main advantage is the fact that its activities are based on latest evidence for exercise in chronic disease prevention and management that include not only physical but also social and psychological health. b. Beat It! Accreditation Course The “Beat It! Accreditation Course” is offering a two full days training program for interested exercise and health professional that covers almost all aspects of diabetes and exercise related education including prevention, treatment, management. Since recipients of the National Programs Grant such as the Australian Diabetes Council is adequately funded, they are able to provide free training to 10 eligible exercise and health professionals per training course (Australian Diabetes Council, 2009). To ensure effective intervention, this component includes different considerations for client with diabetes and other chronic disease. It promotes awareness of appropriate exercises for participants with diabetes through recommendations, guidelines, diabetes management and prevention related safety precautions. These include specific exercises for clients with long-term and musculoskeletal diabetic complications, self-management of chronic disease, and motivational interviewing techniques aiming to encourage behavioural change. Participants taking the course are also oriented on the program’s administration, legal, ethical, and safety requirements (Australian Diabetes Council, 2009). “Supporting You to Support Others” (Australian Diabetes Council, 2009, p.2). Since the strategy is to have appropriately trained professionals that can support and manage Beat It exercise program participants all over Australia, the course provides full support to its successful participants. These include training and implementation manual, a CD Rom with all program implementation documents and forms, fact and consumer information sheets, Type 2 Diabetes Risk Reduction Book, and three education seminars. (Australian Diabetes Council, 2009, p.3). 5. Evaluation technique and procedures used There are two related evaluation technique and as far as the Healthy Communities Initiative or HCI which is under the Australian Government’s National Partnership on Preventive Health, they key performance indicator of HCI will be the guiding evaluation procedure. As key performance indicators of those program funded by HCI, the Australian Diabetes Council should (Department of Health and Ageing, 2011, p.6): a. Increase people’s awareness of the importance of physical activity and health eating and lifestyle. b. Increase the availability of proven and appropriate physical activity, healthy eating and lifestyle programs. c. Increase participation in community based programs for adults predominantly not in the paid workforce. d. Utilize resources currently available through local government, the community, non-government and not-for-profit sectors, and industry. Interested participants entering the program will undertake an individual initial assessment to measure and record health and fitness parameters known to have an effect o cardiovascular risk, chronic disease risk, health, well being and quality of life. These parameters include physical activity levels, cardiovascular fitness, musculoskeletal strength, anthropmetrical, biological and physiological measures of health, general health and well-being. These parameters will then be used to conduct a final assessment at the end of the 12-week program by comparing initial assessment values to end of program values. Accredited Beat It trainers will also need to undertake a six month post program assessment of participants using the initial and final assessment values to measure their progress in terms of behavioural and lifestyle change (Department of Health and Ageing, 2011, p.32). At the national level, these grant recipients is required to submit a report as stated in Clause 11 of the Standard Funding Agreement. These requirements and expectations from the Department of Health and Ageing include detailed implementation, progress reports containing both qualitative and quantitative achievements including program outcomes and impact. According to Department of Health and Ageing, to achieve the aim of Healthy Communities Initiative and to measure short and medium term outcomes, Beat It should satisfy the following (Department of Health and Ageing, 2011, p.52): a. Capacity to support healthier lifestyles for the target population b. Evidence of effective engagement of the target population c. Evidence of people’s interest and continuous participation in the program d. Evidence of program’s beneficial effect to participants e. Qualitative or Quantitative evidence of behavioural change and levels of physical activity and healthy lifestyle, levels of overweight and obesity. The other evaluation technique is being applied by the Australian Diabetes Council, which is intended to measure the general health and well-being. Using RAND SF-36 Health and Well-being Survey, the program participants’ health and well-being is evaluated while the physical activity levels are measured using International Physical Activity Questionnaire or IPAQ. The RAND SF-36 survey measures physical functioning, role limitations due to physical and emotional health problems, energy and fatigue, pain, social functions, general health perceptions. Participants with higher score in any of the above are assumed to have a more favourable health status than those with lower score. The IPAQ on the other hand evaluates the physical changes in physical activity levels that include leisure time, domestic and gardening activities, work and transport related activities. In some cases HADS or Hospital Anxiety & Depression Scale is used to screen participants against level of depression and anxiety where eight is a positive score (Australian Diabetes Council, 2009). 6. Project Outcomes The Australian Diabetes Council final report on Beat It suggest positive improvements in general health and well-being as shown below. Figure 1- Outcomes using RAND SF-36 (Australian Diabetes Council, 2009) Figure 2 - Outcomes using IPAQ (Australian Diabetes Council, 2009) Figure 3 - Outcomes for Trainers Participants of the Beat It! program experienced considerable improvement in their physical activity levels, strength, flexibility, and quality of life. It has successfully met its key objectives and program aims, which is to provide a safe and supportive exercise program and facilities. Trainers trained and accredited by the Council also shows significant support and enthusiastic in delivering the program. Lifestyle related risk factors are significantly reduced due to improvements in cardiovascular health, fitness and reduction in blood pressure (Australian Diabetes Council, 2009). 7. Strength, Weaknesses, Innovation, and Best Practices A number of literature suggest that decreased physical activity often lead to disability and functional loss among people thus lifestyle interventions and changes in physical activity play a major role (Cox, 2005). The Beat It program is undoubtedly one of these practical and useful health interventions and its primary strength comes from the fact that sedentary lifestyle is responsible for multidimensional disorders and the only way to eliminate it is through increased physical activity, behavioural and lifestyle changes (McNamee, 2005). Beat It is well funded and apparently this had help the program pursue its activities in the right manner. Beat It can easily acquire the right facilities, equipment, and education materials for the program. In terms of strategy, Beat It approach is simple but with great impact and this report considers it one of the strongest aspects of the program. For instance, the Beat It exercise program is a national wide campaign and obviously, a single agency cannot handle it alone. However, probably due to the support provided by national government, the Australia Diabetes Council formulated an innovative strategy of integrating the exercise program with the training and accreditation program. The phrase “Supporting You to Support Others” (Australian Diabetes Council, 2009, p.2) is innovative in the sense that such support can multiply and expand continuously. For instance, once an exercise or health professional is trained and accredited he or she will have access to over 50,000 people with diabetes through Diabetes Australia’s membership base. Eventually, those who will participate under the supervision of these duly accredited trainers will soon become trainers themselves affecting and changing the behaviour and lifestyle of others. Another good aspect of Beat It is being an evidence-based intervention with approaches based on current research findings of successful exercise, lifestyle, diabetes prevention, management and behaviour change interventions (Australian Diabetes Council, 2009). Clearly, these approaches are more accurate and practical since they are based on real-world experiences rather than theory and assumption. According to Enguidanos (2006), evidence-based programs offer better tools to address real-world challenges such as demands for improved outcomes, cost effectiveness, and customer satisfaction. Moreover, it can also help health providers deliver high quality services, as they are well aware of the issues and requirements of the target population (p.2). As evidenced by the Australian Diabetes Council’s approach to HCI’s Beat It initiative, problems, issues, and necessary interventions are clearly identified and pursued. For instance, specific exercises were designed to special cases such as those suffering from short or long-term diabetes complications. Implementation of initial and final assessment as well as six-month post-program assessment. Training exercise and health professionals to support the exercise program, and application of different evidenced-based practices particularly in measuring the level of participation and outcomes. The program seems to have no weakness may be because its procedures and outcome measures were pre-determined by HCI and further improved by the Australian Diabetes Council. Moreover, ADC employed a number of evaluation technique from RAND SF-36 to correlation analysis thus possibility of inaccuracies is reduced significantly. 8. Reflection Well thought and strongly supported health intervention often result to implementation of innovative approaches and best practices and for this reason, ADC’s Beat It program managed to realized its aims and objectives and satisfy national government expected outcomes. ADC’s implementation of Beat It is quite exceptional considering the scope of such nationwide program. The best part of Beat It is mutual support between related program where trainers were trained, educated, and specialized on the essential requirements of another equally important component – the exercise program. Note that this relationship is a continuous and improving process that will certainly benefit a significant number of people with or without diabetes. The evaluation techniques and outcomes measures used are all relevant and necessary thus, the outcome is reliable. In general, Beat It, as implemented by the Australian Diabetes Council is innovative, practical, reliable, and a model of good practice in contemporary health development and promotion. 9. Reference List Australian Department of Health and Ageing, (2011), National Partnership Agreement on Preventive Health, HCI Local Government Area Grants, Australia: ADHA, pp.1-52 Australian Diabetes Council, (2009), Beat It: Diabetes Lifestyle & Physical Activity Program, Australia: Australian Diabetes Council, p.1-20 Cox C, (2005), Community care for an aging society: issues, policies, and services, US: Springer Publishing Company Enguidanos S, (2006), Evidence-based interventions for community dwelling older adults, UK: Routledge McNamee M, (2005), Philosophy and the sciences of exercise, health and sport: critical perspectives on research methods, UK: Routledge Read More