A pilot study of Aboriginal health promotion from an ecological perspective

BMC Public Health

Research Article

Rachel E Reilly¹  Kevin G Rowley¹  Bradley R Firebrace²  Gemma van den Tol³  Joyce Doyle³  Margaret Cargo⁴  Marion Cincotta⁵  Denise Morgan-Bulled⁶ 

[1] Onemda VicHealth Koori Health Unit, Centre for Health and Society, School of Population Health, the University of Melbourne, 3010, VIC, Australia;Onemda VicHealth Koori Health Unit, Centre for Health and Society, School of Population Health, the University of Melbourne, 3010, VIC, Australia;Rumbalara Football Netball Club, 3630, Shepparton, VIC, Australia;Rumbalara Aboriginal Co-operative, 3629, Mooroopna, VIC, Australia;School of Health Sciences, University of South Australia, 5001, Adelaide, SA, Australia;Victorian Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation, 3065, Fitzroy, VIC, Australia;Viney Morgan Aboriginal Medical Service, 3639, via Barmah, VIC, Australia;

关键词: Aboriginal People;    Dietary Quality;    Sport Club;    Health Promotion Program;    Health Promotion Activity;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1471-2458-11-749

 received in 2011-01-27, accepted in 2011-09-30,  发布年份 2011

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundFor health promotion to be effective in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Communities, interventions (and their evaluation) need to work within a complex social environment and respect Indigenous knowledge, culture and social systems. At present, there is a lack of culturally appropriate evaluation methods available to practitioners that are capable of capturing this complexity. As an initial response to this problem, we used two non-invasive methods to evaluate a community-directed health promotion program, which aimed to improve nutrition and physical activity for members of the Aboriginal community of the Goulburn-Murray region of northern Victoria, Australia. The study addressed two main questions. First, for members of an Aboriginal sporting club, what changes were made to the nutrition environment in which they meet and how is this related to national guidelines for minimising the risk of chronic disease? Second, to what degree was the overall health promotion program aligned with an ecological model of health promotion that addresses physical, social and policy environments as well as individual knowledge and behaviour?MethodsRather than monitoring individual outcomes, evaluation methods reported on here assessed change in the nutrition environment (sports club food supply) as a facilitator of dietary change and the 'ecological' nature of the overall program (that is, its complexity with respect to numbers of targets, settings and strategies).ResultsThere were favourable changes towards the provision of a food supply consistent with Australian guidelines at the sports club. The ecological analysis indicated that the design and implementation of the program were consistent with an ecological model of health promotion.ConclusionsThe evaluation was useful for assessing the impact of the program on the nutrition environment and for understanding the ecological nature of program activities.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© Reilly et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2011