HEALTH PROMOTION.

Running head: HEALTH PROMOTION
Health promotion
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1HEALTH PROMOTION
Aims and significance:
In response to the incidence of obesity and increase in sedentary lifestyle among
young people, this paper provides a grant application regarding a year 2 health promotion
program in Victoria. The main aim of this program is to prevent obesity and risk of chronic
disease among young people aged between 12 years to 21 years by promoting physical
activity. The community based health promotion program will focus on educational sessions,
providing adequate environment for physical activity and group based physical activity
session to promote healthy lifestyle among youths and reduce the likelihood of being
overweight or obese. The significance of this program is understood from the statistics
regarding the prevalence of obesity in Australia. According 2014 to 2015 statistics, about
63% of Australians were overweight or obese and the incidence has increased by 57% since
the year 1995 (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2017). The most latest data from
2017 to 2018 shows that 67% of Australian adults and 24.9% children above 5 to 17 years are
obese (The Department of Health, 2019). This trend shows how obesity is a significant
public health issue in Australia and why such long term health promotion program is critical
to take action against obesity.
The prevalence of obesity is seen when the energy intake from eating is more than
the energy spent on physical activity. However, Australians were found to spend about 34
hours per week at leisure. According to Australia’s Phsyical Activity and Sedentary
Behaviour Guidelines, the recommended level of physical activity for young people aged 13
to a7 years is 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous intensity physical activity every day and
using electronic media only for 2 hours (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2017).
Hence, Australian are away from recommended level of physical activity and evidence shows
that physical inactivity is strongly associated with obesity and risk of chronic disease like
diabetes and cardiovascular disease (González, Fuentes & Márquez, 2017). Therefore, the

2HEALTH PROMOTION
program is intended to promote overall health of young Victorians. The program is effective
in meeting the goals of the strategic health plan prepared by the Victoria state government,
which includes taking steps to empower individuals to make choices that promote good
health and engage patients as partners in their own care (Victorian State Government 2019).
This is said because educational campaigns and physical activity related support for target
group is likely to fulfil goals of the state government for the chosen area.
Background:
Obesity and overweight is a type of health issue associated with excessive
accumulation of body fat caused due to consumption of low nutrient energy dense food, not
doing recommended level of physical activity and increase in sedentary lifestyle. BMI is a
popular measure for diagnosis of overweight and obesity and waist circumference measures
excess abdominal fat that is linked to high risk of chronic disease. There is numerous
evidence regarding the increase in burden of chronic disease because of obesity and
overweight issues. Minghelli, Oliveira and Nunes (2015) argues that overweight and obesity
in adolescence should be a public health interest as obesity adolescents are 2.3 times more
like to develop hypertension and prehypertension. The probability of having respiratory
disorders is also high in the group. Another study evaluating the cumulative burden of
chronic disease due to obesity indicated that obese men and women are more like to
experience lower back pain, high cholesterol level and hypertension. The strongest
association has been found for hypertension which in turn is the risk factor for the
development of COPD (Kearns et al., 2014). Hence, obesity is a major contributor to burden
of chronic disease worldwide, taking steps to promote physical activity is essential to achieve
modest reduction in BMI and achieve healthy lifestyle.

3HEALTH PROMOTION
The two year health promotion targets young people for physical activity. The main
rationale behind this is increase in physical inactivity and burden of chronic disease in this
population group. Wijlaars, Gilbert and Hardelid (2016) opine that although infectious
disease is most commonly experience by children and young people. However, over the last
century, shift in burden of disease from infectious disease to chronic disease condition has
been seen. By the review of data linked to death certificate for children who died aged 1 to 18
years in UK, the study revealed that 57% of deaths occurred because of chronic conditions.
Although the study does not linked the burden of chronic disease with obesity, however there
are many evidence regarding the negative effects of sedentary behaviour and low physical
activity on health outcomes of people. For example, Pengpid and Peltzer (2019) revealed the
association between moderate physical activity and low sedentary time with anxiety and
depression. In addition, Barnett et al. (2018) particularly highlighted about the issue of
cardiometabolic health issue and obesity in moderns youths engaged in sedentary behaviours.
The deleterious effect of sedentary behaviour is seen because of screen based behaviour of
youths. Although tradition television viewing has declined, however use of screen based
devices like mobile phones and recreational content in youth has increased leading to overall
increase in screen time. Hence, this signifies the important of taking strategies to reduce
screen time and motivate youths to engage in activities that reduces risk of cardiometabolic
health issues.
The two year health promotion program focuses on reducing sedentary behaviour,
motivating youths to engage in physical activity and creating opportunities for physical
activity. There are evidence regarding implementation of many such physical activity based
programs and their benefits in reducing physical activity (PA) for youths. The study by Li et
al. (2014) gave the evidence regarding the implementation of a PA intervention in school.
The multi-component intervention was implemented in China and the main features of the