Melanie Pescud

The extent and nature of alcohol advertising on Australian television.

INTRODUCTION AND AIMS Current alcohol guidelines in Australia recommend minimising alcohol consumption, especially among minors. This study investigated (i) the extent to which children and the general population are exposed to television advertisements that endorse alcohol consumption and (ii) the themes used in these advertisements. DESIGN AND METHODS A content analysis was conducted on alcohol advertisements aired over two months in major Australian cities. The advertisements were coded according to the products that were promoted, the themes that were employed, and the time of exposure. Advertising placement expenditure was also captured. RESULTS In total, 2810 alcohol advertisements were aired, representing one in 10 beverage advertisements. Advertisement placement expenditure for alcohol products in the five cities over the two months was

Factors influencing overweight children's commencement of and continuation in a resistance training program

15.8 million. Around half of all alcohol advertisements appeared during childrens popular viewing times. The most common themes used were humour, friendship/mateship and value for money. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS Children and adults are regularly exposed to advertisements that depict alcohol consumption as fun, social and inexpensive. Such messages may reinforce existing alcohol-related cultural norms that prevent many Australians from meeting current intake guidelines.

The Salience of Food Labeling Among Low-income Families With Overweight Children

BackgroundIn light of the child overweight and obesity problem in Australia, resistance training programs have been trialled as an innovative way of assisting children increase lean body mass and reduce body fat. The purpose of this study was to investigate the factors influencing overweight childrens participation in a resistance training trial program.MethodParent-child pairs who participated in the trial program were invited to take part in a follow-up individual interview to discuss their program experiences. In total, 22 semi-structured interviews were conducted with 11 parent-child pairs.ResultsThe factors found to be most relevant to program commencement among parents were a desire for their child to lose weight and gain confidence, the proximity of the venue, and no cost for participation. For children, the most relevant factors were the opportunity to build strength and improve fitness and having supportive parents who facilitated program initiation. The factors most relevant to continuation for parents were the quality of the program management, being able to stay for the sessions, the childs improved weight status, coordination, and confidence, and no cost for participation. Weight loss and improved confidence were also motivators for continuation among the children, along with pleasant social interaction with peers and trainers and ongoing parental support.ConclusionDifferent factors variably influence program commencement and program continuation in both parents and children. This has important implications for future interventions that aim to successfully recruit and retain intervention participants.

Traffic light food labelling in schools and beyond

OBJECTIVE To explore the role of food labeling among low-income families with overweight children. DESIGN A longitudinal, qualitative study involving interviews, focus groups, and self-introspections. SETTING Perth, Western Australia. PARTICIPANTS Thirty-seven low-income parents (35 mothers, 2 fathers) of overweight children. Recruitment was performed by a social research company to access low-income parents residing across Perth. PHENOMENON OF INTEREST Extent to which disadvantaged parents of overweight children engage with nutrition labeling on food products. ANALYSIS Transcripts were imported into NVivo 9 for coding and analysis. RESULTS Nutrition labeling had low salience for most study participants when purchasing food for their overweight children. Few recognized that their children had a weight problem, and as such they experienced little motivation to access or use nutrition labeling when purchasing foods for their children. An exception was apparent among some parents who were particularly concerned about food additives and actively interrogated ingredients lists to facilitate avoiding products containing contraindicated additives. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS Policy makers seeking to address obesity through food labeling may need to address low levels of salience among disadvantaged families, who are more likely to suffer weight problems and are thus most in need of effective food labeling.

Employers’ views on the promotion of workplace health and wellbeing: a qualitative study

Objective: The present study investigated stakeholders’ reactions to the introduction of a traffic light food classification system in primary and secondary school canteens. Design: Interviews and focus groups were conducted with stakeholders approximately 18 months after the introduction of the traffic light system, followed by telephone and web-based surveys. Setting: The context of the study was Western Australia, where a comprehensive healthy food policy was recently introduced in government schools. Method: Stakeholder groups included parents, principals, teachers, canteen managers, and representatives of parents and citizens committees. Results: Participants reported high levels of acceptance of the traffic light system and supported its extension to nutrition education programmes targeting children and parents. Conclusion: The results suggest that there is likely to be considerable support for an extension of the traffic light policy to the health curriculum in schools and into other food provision contexts.

Improving parents' child‐feeding practices: a social marketing challenge

BackgroundThe evidence surrounding the value of workplace health promotion in positively influencing employees’ health and wellbeing via changes to their health behaviours is growing. The aim of the study was to explore employers’ views on the promotion of workplace health and wellbeing and the factors affecting these views.MethodsUsing a qualitative phenomenological approach, 10 focus groups were conducted with employers selected from a range of industries and geographical locations within Western Australia. The total sample size was 79.ResultsThree factors were identified: employers’ conceptualization of workplace health and wellbeing; employers’ descriptions of (un)healthy workers and perceptions surrounding the importance of healthy workers; and employers’ beliefs around the role the workplace should play in influencing health.ConclusionsProgress may be viable in promoting health and wellbeing if a multifaceted approach is employed taking into account the complex factors influencing employers’ views. This could include an education campaign providing information about what constitutes health and wellbeing beyond the scope of occupational health and safety paradigms along with information on the benefits of workplace health and wellbeing aligned with perceptions relating to healthy and unhealthy workers.

Using systems science to understand the determinants of inequities in healthy eating

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the ability of a social marketing intervention to provide families with specific nutrition information, stimulate family discussions on the topic of nutrition, and encourage parents to make changes in their child‐feeding practices.Design/methodology/approach – A postcard intervention was administered to families with children aged five to 12 years at three primary schools in Western Australia. Approximately two months later, an evaluation questionnaire was administered to the three intervention schools and a control school.Findings – In total, 229 usable questionnaires were returned, representing a 22 percent response rate. In the intervention schools, almost half of the respondents reported discussing the contents of the postcards with their children and a third reported giving the cards to their children to read. The intervention was successful in encouraging a majority (60 percent) of respondents to make at least one favourable change to their child‐fe...

Can the sociology of social problems help us to understand and manage ‘lifestyle drift’?

Introduction Systems thinking has emerged in recent years as a promising approach to understanding and acting on the prevention and amelioration of non-communicable disease. However, the evidence on inequities in non-communicable diseases and their risks factors, particularly diet, has not been examined from a systems perspective. We report on an approach to developing a system oriented policy actor perspective on the multiple causes of inequities in healthy eating. Methods Collaborative conceptual modelling workshops were held in 2015 with an expert group of representatives from government, non-government health organisations and academia in Australia. The expert group built a systems model using a system dynamics theoretical perspective. The model developed from individual mind maps to pair blended maps, before being finalised as a causal loop diagram. Results The work of the expert stakeholders generated a comprehensive causal loop diagram of the determinants of inequity in healthy eating (the HE2 Diagram). This complex dynamic system has seven sub-systems: (1) food supply and environment; (2) transport; (3) housing and the built environment; (4) employment; (5) social protection; (6) health literacy; and (7) food preferences. Discussion The HE2 causal loop diagram illustrates the complexity of determinants of inequities in healthy eating. This approach, both the process of construction and the final visualisation, can provide the basis for planning the prevention and amelioration of inequities in healthy eating that engages with multiple levels of causes and existing policies and programs.

Factors Affecting Indigenous West Australians’ Health Behavior Indigenous Perspectives

Lifestyle drift is increasingly seen as a barrier to broad action on the social determinants of health. The term is currently used in the population health literature to describe how broad policy initiatives for tackling inequalities in health that start off with social determinants (upstream) approach drift downstream to largely individual lifestyle factors, as well as the general trend of investing a the individual level. Lifestyle drift occurs despite the on-going efforts of public health advocates, such as anti-obesity campaigners, to draw attention to the social factors which shape health behavior and outcomes. In this article, we explore whether the sociology of social problems can help understand lifestyle drift in the context of obesity. Specifically, we apply Jamrozik and Nocellas residualist conversion model to the problem of obesity in order to explore whether such an approach can provide greater insight into the processes that underpin lifestyle drift and inform our attempts to mitigate it.

Parents’ experiences with hiding vegetables as a strategy for improving children's diets

The factors driving the disparity in health outcomes between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians include socio-economic factors, racism, and history. The current study focused on exploring Indigenous participants’ perspectives of the factors that affect the health behavior of their community members. Participatory action research methodology and a grounded theory approach were utilized. In total, 120 members of two urban West Australian Indigenous communities participated in focus group discussions. There was substantial similarity between the themes that emerged within the discussions held in the two communities. Factors relating to culture, social connections, racism, communication, and personal aspects were particularly salient to health behavior of the participants. Several of the themes including culture, racism, communication, and distrust highlight the tension caused by being a member of a minority cultural group that has been marginalized by the practices and attitudes of the dominant cultural group. Personal choice was sometimes prioritized over health.