Promoting Physical Activity and Active Communities

Promoting Physical Activity and Active Communities

In recent years, obesity has become a major global problem that is associated with a wide range of adverse physical and psychosocial healthcare outcomes. In developed nations such as Australia, childhood and adolescent obesity has assumed near-epidemic levels as a result of poor nutritional habits and an increasingly sedentary lifestyle, but other socioeconomic factors have been shown to play a role in the prevalence of obesity as well. Therefore, identifying current trends and best practices represents a timely and valuable enterprise, the significance of which is discussed further below.

Significance of the Health Issue in Australia

Because the healthcare needs of populations change over time, formulating effective health promotion interventions is a challenging endeavor, but such interventions are needed to help contribute to a framework in which a wide range of individuals, groups and sectors of society can receive the social support services they need (Developing a new framework for promoting health and well-being in Victoria, 2007). Among the more prominent healthcare needs of the Australian population is the alarming prevalence of obesity across the country. Indeed, today, obesity is regarded as a major healthcare problem for Australia that has been associated with various physical and psychosocial health problems (Coveney, 2008). According to Pescud and Pettigrew (2008), although all age groups are affected, overweight and obesity among Australian children is a particularly troubling public health problem. Moreover, governments in many jurisdictions of Australia have taken steps to address the obesity issue in recent years, but with mixed results (Coveney, 2008). In this environment, identifying potential causal factors is an important step in formulating effective interventions, and three such determinants of obesity are discussed further below.

Three Determinants of Obesity

Although every individual is unique and the exact causes of obesity will vary from person to person, the three determinants of obesity discussed further below have been found to be applicable to developed nations such as Australia in particular.

Inadequate/Inappropriate Nutritional Practices. Across the board, poor nutritional choices and eating patterns are cited as being among the most significant determinants of childhood obesity (Pescud & Pettigrew, 2010). According to these researchers, "There is a positive association between family meals spent together and better dietary choices, illustrating that family meals play an important role in children's diets" (Pescud & Pettigrew, 2010, p. 2). In fact, studies have shown that families that eat even a single meal together each day tend to experience a lower incidence of obesity among family members compared to those that do not (Pescud & Pettigrew, 2010). In this regard, Pescud and Pettigrew add that, "It has been also suggested that family meals can positively contribute to the psychosocial development of children. For example, regular participation in family meals is associated with a lower incidence of eating disorders and better coping skills later in life" (2010, p. 2).

Socioeconomic Factors. At present, obesity in Australia is most prevalent in the least-educated population groups with the lowest incomes; however, the precise relationship between socioeconomic factors remains unclear but seems to vary for women and men based on different socioeconomic factors (Broom, 2008). According to Broom, in Australia, "Women with low education levels and low income are clearly more liable than other women to be obese, and men with less education are also more prone to be obese then better educated men. The possible sex difference appears in the suggestion of a direct relationship between male obesity prevalence and income, although this not consistent" (2008, p. 12).

Although there is a growing body of evidence that supports a link between education level and obesity for Australia men and women alike, the relationship between obesity and income level remains less clear. For instance, Broom adds that, "Education appears to operate similarly for both sexes, perhaps because it enables the person to access and understand information on healthy diet and physical activity. Income is more ambiguously related to obesity, as it permits high level consumption, including consumption of food and leisure activity that may encourage or discourage healthy weight" (2008, p. 13). Based on the findings that emerged from a series of surveys conducted in Australia, higher income levels were related to a reduced prevalence of obesity among women but not among the males surveyed, attributed by this researcher to the likelihood that body image and other factors influenced the manner in which disposable income among these groups was prioritized (Broom, 2008).

Sedentary Lifestyles. The so-called Millennial Generation enjoys a cornucopia of high-tech devices -- including Internet-enabled computers and sophisticated video game platforms -- that may prevent them from engaging in physical fitness-related activities from time to time or entirely (Coveney, 2008). Likewise, the virtual ubiquity of television programming targeting children that is sponsored by the fast food industry represents yet another determinant of obesity in Australia. For instance, Coveney cites the "the ability of television to lure innocent children in to unhealthy habits has found a natural home in current public health research which has looked at the effects of television in creating children as consumers who feast on the forms of edible merchandise marketed to them" (2008, p. 200). A natural concomitant of the increasing proliferation of high-tech computer devices that keep children indoors has been a decline in their participation in activities that promote physical fitness. In this regard, Silcox (2010) recently observed that, "While we spend less time participating in sports and developing social attachments, we are actually spending more time and money watching sports now than we did a few decades ago. The cost of obesity in Australia is estimated to be some $58 billion a year" (p. 23).

Two existing strategies/interventions that are relevant to the prevention of the health issue.