Large and forgotten in rural Australia: assessment, attitudes and possible approaches to losing weight in young adult males

BMC Public Health

Katharine Steinbeck¹  Anthony Brown³  Joseph Canalese³  Rick McLean³  Jason Yelverton⁴  Karen Hyland³  Karen Paxton³  Tanya Forster³  Kumara Mendis² 

[1] Discipline of Paediatrics & Child Health, Children’s Hospital, Westmead, Australia;Bathurst Rural Clinical School, School of Medicine, University of Western Sydney, Bathurst, Australia;School of Rural Health, University of Sydney, Dubbo, Australia;Dubbo City Council, Dubbo, Australia

关键词: SMS;    Text messaging;    Incentives;    Quantitative and qualitative research;    Rural health;    Weight loss;    Obesity;    Overweight;    Male;   

Others  :  1131967
DOI  :  10.1186/1471-2458-14-243

 received in 2013-07-30, accepted in 2014-02-28,  发布年份 2014

【 摘 要 】

Background

Young Adult Males (YAMs) in rural Australia are poorly studied with respect to overweight and obesity. Firstly, we explored the feasibility of recruiting 17–25 year old YAMs to obtain baseline data on overweight and obesity rates, socio-demographics, nutrition, exercise and mobile phone usage. Secondly, we explored the views of YAMs with a waist measurement over 94 cm about using mobile phone text messages to promote weight loss and incentives to promote healthy lifestyles.

Methods

A two-staged, mixed-methods approach was used to study obesity and overweight issues in Dubbo, a regional city in New South Wales, Australia. In Phase I, socio-demographic, health behaviour and mobile phone usage data were collected using a questionnaire and anthropometric data collected by direct measurement. In Phase II, YAMs’ views were explored by focus group discussion using a semi-structured questionnaire.

Results

Phase I (145 participants): mean Body Mass Index (BMI) 25.06 ± 5.01; mean waist circumference 87.4 ± 15.4 cm. In total, 39.3% were obese (12.4%) or overweight (26.9%) and 24.1% had an increased risk of metabolic complications associated with obesity. 135 (93.1%) owned a mobile phone and sent on average 17 ± 25 text messages per day and received 18 ± 24.

Phase II (30 participants): YAMs acknowledged that overweight and obesity was a growing societal concern with many health related implications, but didn’t feel this was something that affected them personally at this stage of their lives. Motivation was therefore an issue. YAMs admitted that they would only be concerned about losing weight if something drastic occurred in their lives. Text messages would encourage and motivate them to adopt a healthy lifestyle if they were individually tailored. Gym memberships, not cash payments, seem to be the most favoured incentive.

Conclusion

There is a clear need for an effective health promotion strategy for the almost 40% overweight or obese Dubbo YAMs. The high rate of text message usage makes it feasible to recruit YAMs for a prospective study in which personalized text messages are used to promote healthy behaviours. It may be important to target motivation specifically in any weight-related intervention in this group with incentives such as gym membership vouchers.

【 授权许可】

   
2014 Mendis et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

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