Health Promotion Campaign

This paper explores the effectiveness of a health promotion campaign, The Eat Well Be Active Strategy for South Australia 2011–2016, in improving health behavior and reducing obesity in the population. The campaign aimed to increase healthy eating, physical activity, and maintain a healthy weight through evidence-based practices. The campaign successfully increased opportunities for healthy eating, lifespan, and reduced body mass index in South Australia.

Running head: HEALTH PROMOTION CAMPAIGN
HEALTH PROMOTION CAMPAIGN
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Introduction:
With the fast pacing and sedentary life, the importance of health literacy is intensifying
for reducing global burden of disease (Tomiyama et al., 2015). In order to provide health
literacy, health promotional campaigns are the best suitable approach for increasing public
awareness, information seeking health behavior and amend lifestyle factor (Ayton et al., 2012).
Hence, health promotional campaign is a multi-level approach which aimed to provide health
literacy, resources for increasing healthy behavior and quality lifestyle. This paper will illustrate
one such health campaign which aimed to provide health literacy and accurate intervention for
improving health behavior of the population of Australia in the following paragraphs.
Discussion:
Example of health promotion campaign- :
The Eat Well Be Active Strategy for South Australia 2011–2016 is a 5-year long health
campaign initiated by the government of Australia to promote healthy eating and physical
activity for all South Australians (Sahealth.sa.gov.au., 2019). It is a new strategy for government,
non-government, peak bodies, business, academic and others for increasing healthy eating and
managing overweight and obesity in order to overcome a high morbidity rate. The campaign
progressed under the leadership of the ministry of health and the Council of Australian
Government. The health promotion campaign was designed in order to reduce the high
prevalence of obesity and associated chronic diseases in South Australia. The aim of the health
promotion was to enhance the wellbeing of all South Australian through increasing the healthy
eating, physical activity and maintaining a healthy weight of the community with evidence-based
practice (Sahealth.sa.gov.au., 2019). The program also aimed to provide additional support to

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the disadvantageous as well as a vulnerable population. The target of the health campaign was
parents and babies and young children who are a different stage of life with a high-risk group
(Sahealth.sa.gov.au., 2019). The campaign focused on five action areas by using national health
and medical council Australian dietary guideline as well as healthy weight guidelines
(Sahealth.sa.gov.au., 2019). After the implementation of this campaign, the significant increase
of opportunities for healthy eating, life span and significant reduction of body mass index
observed in the population of South Australia.
A brief overview of the campaign:
The recent data of South Australia suggested that nearly 60% of adults and 24% of
infants are obese where men are more likely to be overweight (64.9) compared to the women
( 53.9%) (Lobstein et al., 2015). As discussed by Bartels et al. (2015), consequently significant
number of the south Australians experiencing chronic diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular
disease, stroke, and hypertension. Hence, in order to reduce the high prevalence of obesity in
South Australia and support healthy living, this campaign had undertaken environmental,
physical, psychological factors for creating social and behavioral change (Baranowski et al.,
2003). The first action area is mobilizing the community for healthy eating and physical activity
through motivating and supporting behavior changes with the assistance of a systematic
approach (Sahealth.sa.gov.au., 2019). The second action area is amending the lifestyle and
environment in order to promote a healthy diet and breastfeeding with the assistance of local
government and communities. The third action is the area is to implement relevant policies that
facilitate the building of social and natural environment for healthy eating. The fourth action area
is to provide a range of information, services, and program to parents, adolescents, adults, high
need groups, Aboriginal South Australians. The action area is to build a strong partnership,

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coordinate mechanisms, leadership, build a workforce, planning, and development, monitor, and
evaluate the activities, research with the assistance of collaborative governance
(Sahealth.sa.gov.au., 2019). After undertaking these action areas, a significant number of
Australian able to lead a healthy lifestyle by adopting healthy behaviors such as healthy eating
habits, involvement in physical activities, eliminating the habit of consuming alcohol,
cigarette. Moreover, these approached facilitate the amendments of policies, collaborative
practice, community engagement, and increased life expectancy.
Approaches and theory of health promotion:
The Eat Well Be Active Strategy for South Australia 2011–2016 is a 5-year long health
campaign initiated by the government of Australia which gained an immense success because of
integrated approaches that have been undertaken for facilitating behavioral changes. After
conducting an in-depth analysis of the behavioral approach, it was observed that behavioral
approaches to health promotion had drawn on theories of behavior change such bio psychosocial
model, health belief model, and planned behavior theory (Baum & Fisher 2014). By applying
these theories in the promotion, health promotion is able to tale comprehensive as well as a
systematic approach for improving health behavior (Michie, Van Stralen & West, 2011). While
some of those theories undertaken the effect of social factors, the main focus has been given to
individual actions and choices as a potential factor for changing health behavior (Batras, Duff &
Smith, 2016). As discussed by Nolen et al. (2017), these theories suggested that providing the
knowledge of health risks and benefits of changing lifestyles improve the health behavior in the
population. Considering the biopsychosocial model, this theory considers the interconnection
between psychology and socio-environmental factors for examining the progression of health
condition (Jensen et al., 2015). Hence, the health promotion considered employment, alcohol

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consumption, and environment and focused on the action areas according to it (Barker et al.,
2015). In comparison to this model, Jones et al. (2015) suggested that the health belief model
helps to predict the behavior of individuals in the community by only linking to psychology and
health. By using this model, the health promotional model identified that believes of aboriginal
individuals influence the poor health behavior which resulted in obesity (Nolen et al., 2017). On
the other hand, in comparison to these models, planned behavior theory suggested that attitude
towards, subjective norms as well as behavioral control shaped the behavioral and intentions of
individuals. By applying this theory, the health promotion provided education, designed social
marketing for changing the health behavior of the South Australian (Kam, Hue, & Cheung,
2018).
Strength and weakness:
Considering the health promotion campaign, the strength of health promotion is that it
took a systematic and collaborative approach to improve the health behavior of the population.
After the implementation of this campaign, the significant increase of opportunities for healthy
eating, life span and significant reduction of body mass index observed in the population of
South Australia. It increased the awareness amongst the population, improves the health behavior
dietary intake and physical activity of the individuals, and lifts the significant number of people
out of the poverty, created an environment for healthy eating, provided services to the
disadvantageous group such as individuals with lower socioeconomic status and Australian
Aboriginal of Torres Strait Islander. However, weakness of the health promotion is the large
target group for reducing the obesity which further reduced the outcome of the health promotion
since it is difficult to monitor individual health and meet specific individual needs (Graff et al.,
2012). Moreover, the health promotional failed to provide health equity and equal access to the

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health care services to the whole population of South Australia (Cho et al., 2017). Mitigation of
these factors may improve the health outcome, health behavior and reduce the high prevalence of
the obesity-associated disease.
Other approaches to creating health issue changes:
Considering the weakness of this health promotion plan, it can be said that because of the
large target promotion failed to achieve high health outcome. In this case, the alternative
approach is to restrict the target group and design intervention based on the individual needs of
the target population. Restricting the target group for obesity campaign will facilitate the
assessment process and design intervention according to the specific need of targeted
individuals. The second approach is to promote health equity amongst the population (Cho et al.,
2017). As discussed by Sassi et al. (2018), a significant number of individuals with low
socioeconomic status failed to gain equal access to the health care sectors. Consequently, they
are unaware of the fact that they are at high risk of being obesity and obesity-associated diseases.
The similar kinds of issues are observed with aboriginal of Torres Strait Island. These factors
contributed to poor behavior and poor literacy of health. Hence, integrating strategies such as
providing access to the health care services may reduce the high prevalence e of obesity
associated with chronic diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, stroke, and
hypertension (Haring et al., 2016). Moreover, incorporating early screening strategies for the
community and engaging the community in early screening will facilitate the identification of
factors that contribute to obesity and overweight (Haring et al., 2016). Furthermore,
incorporating cultural and traditional approach in the intervention when approaching the
aboriginal population will empower them and it will facilitate high engagement of population
and improve health behavior.

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Conclusion:
On a concluding it can be said that a health promotional campaign is a multi-level
approach which aimed to provide health literacy, resources for increasing healthy behavior and
quality lifestyle. This paper explored one such health promotion, The Eat Well Be Active
Strategy for South Australia 2011–2016 which aimed to enhance the wellbeing of all South
Australian through increasing the healthy eating, physical activity and maintaining a healthy
weight of the community with evidence-based practice. After this initiative undertaken by the
strategy, a significant increase of opportunities for healthy eating, life span and significant
reduction of body mass index observed in the population of South Australia.

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