Physical Activity and Lifestyle Program in Inner North Canberra - Term Paper Example

ASSESSING COMMUNITY NEEDS BEAT IT Physical Activity and Lifestyle Program in Inner North Canberra Executive Summary The 2008 report of the Australian Bureau of Statistics suggest that obesity is widespread in Australia. Obesity in men increased by about 4% while 6% for women. The 2007 and 2008 ABS report shows 600,000 obese children aged 5 to 17 years. About 68% of men and 76% of women in Australia are living in sedentary lifestyle and vulnerable to obesity and chronic diseases. In 2009, weight-related diseases took 119 Australian lives while 90% of population are at risk due to lack of proper diet and exercise. There are a number of programs running in Inner North Canberra but those that promote physical activity and nutrition failed to recognize the actual community needs and preferences. A thorough search of government and NGO data assessing the health issues, significance, current services, and programs will be conducted in order to assess the target population needs, promote, and sustain active and healthy lifestyle even to the disadvantaged members of the community. 1. Introduction ABS 2008 statistics suggest that obesity is widespread in Australia. In North Canberra around 16, 522 people are overweight or obese while 1,208 of them are affected by Type 2 diabetes in 2005 alone. There a significant number of physical activity and lifestyle program in Inner North Canberra but they seem unable to realize their goals because of poor understanding of actual community needs. It is therefore necessary to conduct a need assessment to support implementation of BEAT IT program in Canberra where the target group are the disadvantaged or people with low-income status. These include identifying needs, barriers, enablers, and different NGOs that can support the modified physical activity and lifestyle program. The following sections discusses the health issues and priorities, existing intervention and target groups, evaluation techniques and performance indicators, proposed data collection method, and recommendations. 2. Background of Health Issue 2.1 The Health Problem and Priorities The 2008 report of the Australian Bureau of Statistics suggest that obesity is widespread in Australia. For instance, the number of obese people in the country rose by 5% from 1995 to 2008. Obesity in men increased by about 4% while 6% for women and with a total annual cost of around 58 billion dollars. In 2007 and 2008, ABS found around 600,000 obese children aged 5 to 17 years. The figure for these children also rose from 5.2% to 7.5% or around 2.3% increase from 1995 to 2008. The report noted the significant health, social, and economic impacts of obesity and emphasized the importance of exercise and diet. For instance, acquisition of chronic diseases such as Type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease, and others can be prevented through exercise and proper diet. However, statistics shows that about 68% of men and 76% of women in Australia have sedentary lifestyle and vulnerable to risk or conditions such as obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and others (ABS, 2011a, p.1-2). Unhealthy lifestyle is the major cause of ill health but unlike age, sex, and genetics, such behaviour is changeable. The 2004 – 2005 statistics shows that around 90% of adults do not consume the right amount of fruit and vegetable while 70% are sedentary with significantly low level of exercise. Although most women have adequate fruit and vegetable intake, almost half of them live a sedentary lifestyle (ABS, 2008, Chapter 4). In the ABS’s national summary for health shows that heart disease and diabetes were responsible for 119 deaths in 2009 alone while lack of proper diet and exercise contributed to risks factors of over 90% for both male and female (ABS, 2011b, p. 1). 2.2 Local Intervention and Target Group Responding to this problem, LGAs are receiving support from the Australian Government in order to promote and deliver community-based physical activity and dietary programs from 2010-2013. The Australian Capital Territory or ACT Healthy Communities Initiative or HCI aims to reduce obesity through exercise and proper diet. HCI funded the community health intervention for Inner North Canberra. The pilot phase started July 2010 and ended last June 2011 with activities including a baseline survey and reporting, community forum, “FOODcents” (a program for training community service workers, “Heartmoves” (exercise groups), and cycling skills training program. The extension phase are planned activities focusing on nutrition such as education and promotion of community gardens, lifestyle modification and exercises, community partnership development, and encouraging marketing messages (ACT, 2011b, p.1). Heartmoves target population is open to everyone willing to exercise under the supervision of accredited exercise professionals. However, restrictions may be applied to participants with diagnosed health problems. The aim is to lower participants’ blood pressure, cholesterol level, manage weight and diabetes, and improve wellbeing and quality of life (Heart Foundation, 2011, p.1). FOODcents of the Department of Health on the other hand is an education program for families who want to have a healthy but less costly diet. The idea is to buy and eat nutritious food or “Shop Smart” (Department of Health, 2011, p.1). Recently, a new BEAT IT physical activity and lifestyle program is introduced at the Centre for Health, Community and Wellbeing at Canberra Institute of Technology. It is a weekly event designed to improve health of those at risk of or living with diabetes and other chronic illness. BEAT IT is evidenced-base program promoting health through awareness and physical activities delivered by Australian Diabetes Council accredited and qualified professional (ACT, 2012, p.1). 3. Literature Review of Current Interventions A number of physical activity and lifestyle education programs are actually introduced under HCI to counter the effect of obesity. These include the AustCyle of Cycling Australia, Heartmoves of the National Heart Foundation of Australia, HEAL of Macarthur Division of General Practices, Lift for Life of Fitness Australia, Beat It of the Australian Diabetes Council, and Heart Foundation Walking Groups of the National Heart Foundation of Australia (ACT, 2011b, p.1). AustCycle is a joint project of Cycling Australia and the Amy Gillett Foundation promoting active and healthy lifestyle through cycling or bike ride. It is open to all and trains people of all ages and backgrounds including those who never experienced riding a bike (Cycling Australia, 2011, p. 1). Heartmoves as discussed earlier is actually a gentle physical activity program designed safe and suitable for people with stable health conditions such as heart diseases, diabetes, and obesity. The Heartmoves intervention does not limit itself to fitness centres and regular sessions as it also produces session videos, exercise and training DVDs for people who wants to exercise in their own phase while in the comfort and privacy of their homes or office (Heart Foundation, 2011a, p.1). HEAL stands for Healthy Eating, Activity, and Lifestyle Program. It is an evidenced-based lifestyle education and physical activity program under the Macarthur Division of General Practice and Exercise & Sports Science Australia. The objective of this program is to provide an eight two-hour sessions lifestyle education to adults who are overweight or obese and at risk of developing heart disease and Type 2 diabetes. These include sessions focusing on nutrition, exercise, and behaviour modification delivered by highly competent HEAL facilitator trained and accredited as either Exercise Physiologist or Practicing Dietitian (Australian General Practice Network, 2011, p.1). A program of Fitness Australia, Lift for Life on the other hand is also an evidence-based program under the Baker IDI Heart ad Diabetes Institute but with specific target population. Lift for Life focus on strength training for diabetic and obese using an eight weeks supervised programs for small group of participants. The basis for Lift for Life is the result of the study conducted by the International Diabetes Institute or IDI suggesting ways to control blood glucose production (Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute, 2011, p.1). The Walking Group is another Heart Foundation’s initiative but this time the focus is healthy eating and active living. The program highlighted the heath consequences of sitting for long periods of time and the changes that can be made to improve health. The program is open for all regardless of age and in its physical activity program, it encourages people to be active, sit less, and find fun in walking. In relation to active life, the program also encourages people to eat healthy foods and avoid gaining too much wait. This part of the program educates participants on food and nutrition, food choices, facts about fats and cholesterol, and food preparation (Heart Foundation, 2011b, p.1). The evaluation process for these public health interventions does not vary significantly, as they are following the National Partnership Agreement on Preventive Health and HCI Evaluation Guide as recipients of LGA grants. The guide requires two levels of evaluation – local and national. The LGAs and National Program Grant Recipients conduct local Evaluation while the National Evaluation is conducted by KPMG, an independent auditing firm. However, both evaluations employ a common quantitative measures corresponding to each domain and outcome area as shown in the summarized table below (Department of Health and Ageing, 2010, p.2). Domain Outcome Area Quantitative Measures Engagement of the target group Target group participation in programs Number of participants Sustained participation Ongoing participation in programs Number of participants sustaining ongoing participation. Benefit of participation Increased awareness Number of participants self-reporting awareness of risk factors associated with poor diet and low levels of physical activity. Behaviour change Increased physical activity/ fruit and vegetable consumption Average number of minutes engaged in physical activity every week. Number of participants meeting fruit and vegetable intake guidelines. Average vegetables and fruit served and consumed by participants per day. Health outcomes Reduced BMI/ Reduced Waist circumference Average BMI for all participants/ Lowest and highest BMI calculated/Number of participants whose BMI has reduced or increased/No change in BMI/Average, lowest, highest male and female waists circumference measured. Aside from the Heart Foundation’s Walking Program, national evaluation result and outcomes for most interventions is not available online thus it may be necessary to inquire directly from respective grant recipient and implementers of the programs. Heart Foundation’s Walking program was launched in 2007 when only 50% of Australians were reported doing adequate physical activity. In 2009, HFW reported a number of population groups that have been attracted and retained by the program. 80% of women are now physically active, 29% of older people aged 45-64 years and 43 % aged over 65 are now actively participating, 38% of participants are from low socio-economic group while 23% are people who live alone (Heart Foundation, 2011, p1). 4. Plans for Secondary Data Collection Overweight and obesity is a major issue in Australia and as discussed earlier, the last National Health Survey shows 42.1% of adult males and 30.9% of adult females are overweight or with BMI between 25 and 30 kg/m2. Moreover, there are 25.6 of males and 24% of females with more than 30 kg/m2 BMI. The problem is not obesity itself but the deadly consequences of such condition to many Australians who may be already suffering or likely to be affected by cardiovascular disease, diabetes, hypertension, and other chronic disease. These health problems are therefore preventable and if a particular community health program successfully encouraged more people to adopt a healthy and active lifestyle and stay within acceptable BMI then more Australian lives will be saved (Department of Health and Ageing, 2011). In North Canberra for instance, the 2004-2005 Population Health Profiles reveal that around 16, 522 people are overweight or obese while 1,208 of them are affected by Type 2 diabetes (North Canberra Council, 2011). These figures are more likely higher today as 2007-2008 statistics from ABS shows a significant increase in the number of overweight adults followed by the national summary for health in 2009 suggesting lack of proper diet and exercise as risk factors of over 90% of the population (ABS, 2011a). The National Bureau of Statistics, National Heart Foundation, and others are good sources of information about this issue but they are too general and may not help much in the assessment of community needs particular those that are affected by HCI programs. Secondly, actual assessment of the population is too great considering the size of the sample and various interventions in health and nutrition currently taking place in each community. For this reason, it may be necessary to conduct a thorough search of government and NGO data assessing the health issue, its significance, current services and programs. It may be data assessed from different HCI programs indicating variations in needs and services. 5. Recommendations for the Nutrition Intervention Obese individuals according to Bagaric & Vrachnas (2006) have around 50 to 100% chances of acquiring chronic disease and risk of premature death (p.18). In Australia, some study suggests that obesity is to become the biggest health problem in near future while weight-related diabetes will affect a quarter of the population by 2013 (ibid). Similarly, ABS reported an increase in the number of obese adults in 2008 while the Australian government responded with a national survey to measure nutrition, physical activity, and chronic disease risk factors in the Australian population. The problem with obesity and associated chronic diseases is real thus a national partnership was formed and with HCI grants, the Australian government hoped to address the prevalence of lifestyle related chronic disease by encouraging everyone to be act and get involved in physical activity and healthy diet (Department of Health and Ageing, 2011). These include a number of government funded national and local programs aiming to reduce the obese population and prevent chronic disease. However, reduction of obese people in the Australian population is more than just statistics and funding as health promotion is all about creating a healthy community rather than a health initiative responding only when the problem occurs. Similarly, health and lifestyle programs is not limited to awareness and promotion since uncovering the actual community needs is also important so it can act and strengthen itself using its own resources (Homan, 2010, p.129). A needs assessment must be conducted in order to define the unmet needs or deeper problems of the community and provide a more suitable assistance. The community in Inner North Canberra is privileged to have a significant number of health programs and services ranging from mental health, drug prevention and rehabilitation, gardening, to physical activity and nutrition. However, the HCI community forum last June 2010 identified some gaps in the areas of physical activity and nutrition where 37 projects are operating and involving almost all members of the community. Considering the number of services running in this particular community, it is important to note that none of these interventions takes into account the importance of early intervention work for children, the possibility of short-term attendance, a centralized information point, connecting the schools to the community, transporting participants to and from activities, and consultation with the target group. Similarly, they are not responding to factors affecting attendance and strategies that could encourage people to use the services. They are also not aware that some programs for nutrition are creating dependency rather than self-reliance and empowerment (ACT, 2010, p. 4-6). By analysis, some of these programs failed to consider the connection between obesity and actual community needs, identify what is meaningful for the community, understand of who are actually most at risk, relevance of the program to community interest and motivation, and community ownership. It may be more fruitful if these programs consider the fact the promoting healthier lifestyles and changing bad habits is more effective when it is simple and easy to follow, the whole family is involved (O’Dea & Eriksen, 2010, p.254), community is constantly consulted, well funded, and sensitive to the circumstances of different community members (ACT, 2010, p.14). To promote and sustain active and healthy lifestyle in Inner North Canberra, it may best to launch a program based on the specific needs of the community particularly from those who cannot possibly participate due to socio-economic circumstances. BEAT IT is government funded and sustainable since it also promotes and encourage professionals to become a trainer and support the physical activity needs of the community themselves. It charges no fees for training and no cost for LGA to run. However, participants may be charge by their trainer a maximum of $6 dollars per session (Australian Diabetes Council, 2011, p.2). Although this arrangement is not too difficult for some, it is relatively discouraging for the target group considering transportation to and from the venue and other expenses. At this point, some modification may be necessary to ensure higher participation and beneficial outcome. NGOs and other relevant stakeholders can help reduce the burden and support the needs of disadvantage people who are willing to attend the healthy lifestyle program. NGOs from the transport sector can provide transportation while volunteer groups, schools, youth organization, and so on disseminate BEAT IT marketing messages to the target population. Local authorities may provide venues for the program such as public recreational facilities while program provider fee may be arranged and supported by funds coming from sponsors such as national or local businesses that may be interested in promoting their products and services along with the program. 6. References ACT, (2010), Healthy Communities Initiative- Inner North Canberra: Community Forum 1 Report, Australia, ACT Health ABS, (2011a), Measures of Australia’s Progress: Obesity, available online at http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/by%20Subject/1370.0~2010~Chapter~Obesity%20(4.1.6.6.3) ABS, (2011b), Overweight and Obesity in Adults, available online at http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Latestproducts/4719.0Main%20Features52004-05?opendocument&tabname=Summary&prodno=4719.0&issue=2004-05&num=&view= Australian Diabetes Council, (2011), BEAT IT : Physical Activity and Lifestyle Program, Australia, ADC Australian General Practice Network, (2011), Healthy Eating, Activity and Lifestyle Program (HEAL), available online at http://www.agpn.com.au/programs/chronic-disease-prevention-and-management2/healthy-communities-national-program-grants/healthy-eating,-activity-and-lifestyle-program-heal Bagaric M. & Vrachnas J, (2006), Migration and refuges law in Australia: Case and Commentary, Australia: Cambridge University Press Cycling Australia, (2011), AustCycle: Cycle Training for all Australians, available online at http://www.austcycle.com.au/ Department of Health and Ageing, (2010), Evaluation of the Healthy Communities Initiative Pilot Phase: Evaluation Guide, DHA, pp.1-18 Department of Health and Ageing, (2011), Healthy Community Initiative: Phase 3 Program Guidelines, Australia: DHA Department of Health (2011), FOODcents, available online at http://www.foodcentsprogram.com.au/about-foodcents/ Heart Foundation, (2011), Building community capacity to increase participation in regular and social physical activity, available online at http://www.heartfoundation.org.au/SiteCollectionDocuments/HFW-Conference-Poster.pdf Homan M, (2010), Promoting Community Change: Making it happen in the real world, US: Cengage Learning North Canberra Council, (2011), Government Measure Up Campaign, available online at http://www.northcanberra.org.au/category/home/2009/government-measure-up-campaign/ O’Dea J. & Eriksen M, (2010), Childhood Obesity Prevention: International Research, Controversies, and Interventions, UK: Oxford Univesity Read More

For instance, acquisition of chronic diseases such as Type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease, and others can be prevented through exercise and proper diet. However, statistics shows that about 68% of men and 76% of women in Australia have sedentary lifestyle and vulnerable to risk or conditions such as obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and others (ABS, 2011a, p.1-2). Unhealthy lifestyle is the major cause of ill health but unlike age, sex, and genetics, such behaviour is changeable.

The 2004 – 2005 statistics shows that around 90% of adults do not consume the right amount of fruit and vegetable while 70% are sedentary with significantly low level of exercise. Although most women have adequate fruit and vegetable intake, almost half of them live a sedentary lifestyle (ABS, 2008, Chapter 4). In the ABS’s national summary for health shows that heart disease and diabetes were responsible for 119 deaths in 2009 alone while lack of proper diet and exercise contributed to risks factors of over 90% for both male and female (ABS, 2011b, p. 1). 2.

2 Local Intervention and Target Group Responding to this problem, LGAs are receiving support from the Australian Government in order to promote and deliver community-based physical activity and dietary programs from 2010-2013. The Australian Capital Territory or ACT Healthy Communities Initiative or HCI aims to reduce obesity through exercise and proper diet. HCI funded the community health intervention for Inner North Canberra. The pilot phase started July 2010 and ended last June 2011 with activities including a baseline survey and reporting, community forum, “FOODcents” (a program for training community service workers, “Heartmoves” (exercise groups), and cycling skills training program.

The extension phase are planned activities focusing on nutrition such as education and promotion of community gardens, lifestyle modification and exercises, community partnership development, and encouraging marketing messages (ACT, 2011b, p.1). Heartmoves target population is open to everyone willing to exercise under the supervision of accredited exercise professionals. However, restrictions may be applied to participants with diagnosed health problems. The aim is to lower participants’ blood pressure, cholesterol level, manage weight and diabetes, and improve wellbeing and quality of life (Heart Foundation, 2011, p.1). FOODcents of the Department of Health on the other hand is an education program for families who want to have a healthy but less costly diet.

The idea is to buy and eat nutritious food or “Shop Smart” (Department of Health, 2011, p.1). Recently, a new BEAT IT physical activity and lifestyle program is introduced at the Centre for Health, Community and Wellbeing at Canberra Institute of Technology. It is a weekly event designed to improve health of those at risk of or living with diabetes and other chronic illness. BEAT IT is evidenced-base program promoting health through awareness and physical activities delivered by Australian Diabetes Council accredited and qualified professional (ACT, 2012, p.1). 3.

Literature Review of Current Interventions A number of physical activity and lifestyle education programs are actually introduced under HCI to counter the effect of obesity. These include the AustCyle of Cycling Australia, Heartmoves of the National Heart Foundation of Australia, HEAL of Macarthur Division of General Practices, Lift for Life of Fitness Australia, Beat It of the Australian Diabetes Council, and Heart Foundation Walking Groups of the National Heart Foundation of Australia (ACT, 2011b, p.1). AustCycle is a joint project of Cycling Australia and the Amy Gillett Foundation promoting active and healthy lifestyle through cycling or bike ride.

It is open to all and trains people of all ages and backgrounds including those who never experienced riding a bike (Cycling Australia, 2011, p. 1). Heartmoves as discussed earlier is actually a gentle physical activity program designed safe and suitable for people with stable health conditions such as heart diseases, diabetes, and obesity.

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