Measure-up Campaign Issues - Coursework Example

Introduction to Communication and Cultural Studies: The Measure-up Campaign Name Institution Course Date The Measure-up Campaign Introduction Measure-up is a social marketing campaign aimed at increasing awareness of healthy selections that might assist protects individuals from chronic illnesses, starting with healthy eating and physical activity. The campaign aims at increasing approval which behavioral change modification is essential, demonstrating that the gains of lifestyle modification might imply a better quality, healthier and longer life with a reduced danger of chronic diseases. The purpose of the measure up campaign is to endorse Australia populace to develop and maintain positive transformations to their activities, taking up healthier eating habits and raising physical activity, and thus contributing to minimized mortality and morbidity as a result of lifestyle connected chronic diseases. The Measure up Campaign activities Chronic illnesses are a key cause of disability and death worldwide. Through tackling risk factors for these chronic illnesses, it might be possible to reduce the effect of chronic illnesses, improve population health and improve the sustainability of health system. In addition, the productivity of a country may be strengthened by making sure that citizens are amply health to stay productive and active contributors in the labor force ((WHO, 2006). The measure up campaign consists of a series of events and advertisements to enlighten Australians that they are increasingly becoming overweight due to lack of adequate physical exercise and engaging in unhealthy eating habits which are subsequently raising their danger of developing chronic illnesses. The campaign connected the circumference of the waist to the danger of developing a chronic illness. The primary target of the campaign is parents who are 25 to 50 years old. The group was selected this group of individuals on the basis that through influencing the behavior of parents, the behavior of their kids will also be influenced. In addition, parents are highly concerned with their health and want their kids to grow up in a healthy way. The secondary target group of the measure up campaign is people who are 45 to 60 years old. This target audience was selected on the basis that several individuals in this age bracket have a high probability of having a chronic illness or are beginning to experience the outcomes of unhealthy lifestyle (WHO, 2006). Guidelines of waist measurement are utilized in the measure up campaign to raise appreciation of people of their individual vulnerability to lifestyle associated chronic illnesses. Measure up enlightens individuals that in accordance to the figures of the National Health and Medical Research Council and World Health Organization, a waist that has a circumference of over eighty centimeters for females and ninety four centimeters for males raises their danger of developing chronic illness. A waist measurement of over eighty eight centimeters for females and one hundred and two centimeters for males implies a highly increased danger. Waist circumference are utilized for checking the danger of developing chronic illnesses in adults and measurements that demonstrate increased dangers for teenagers and children are yet to be developed. These waist measurements are commended for Asian and Caucasian women and Caucasian men and waist measurements for other ethnic groups have not been determined (WHO, 2000). There is a belief that the recommended waist measurements might be lesser for Asian males than for the Caucasian males and are probable to be greater for Pacific Islanders as well as African American females and males. The data that is currently available point out that the danger factors in the Aboriginal populaces seems to be identical to those in the Asian populaces, and the threat factors in the Torres Islander populaces seem to be identical to those in the Pacific Islanders populaces (WHO, 2000). Discourse of the Measure-Up Campaign The measure up campaign was funded by the Council of the Australian governments to promote better health and lessen chronic diseases burden via the Australian better health initiative. The decision of the Council of Australian government to finance the social marketing campaign entailed contributions from every jurisdiction with Victoria as an exception. AIHW 2008) argues that the long term purposes of the measure up campaign were to persuade Australia citizens to develop and maintain healthy lifestyle options and to stimulate behavior modification and thus contribute to minimizing mortality and morbidity as a result of chronic diseases related to unhealthy lifestyle. The first phase of the Australian better health initiative measure up entails a large scale, nationwide communication strategy and the campaign was created following qualitative research that endorsed the conclusion form nutrition, smoking, obesity, overweight, physical activity and obesity research that changing lifestyle behavior needs an approval of what modification is required, why it essential and the way it can be accomplished. The first phase of the measure up campaign intended to utilize the risk of chronic illness to deliver the message why lifestyle modification is essential and thus motivate and encourage Australia populace to make modifications to their behavior and lifestyle. The campaign focused on the measurement of the waist accompanied with messages concerning physical activity and nutrition (AIHW, 2008). The short term goals of the first phase of the measure up campaign were to raise understanding of the connection amid chronic illness and lifestyle threat factors such as poor nutrition, unhealthy weight and physical inactivity, to increase approval of why modification of lifestyle must be an imperative priority and to produce more constructive attitudes towards attaining recommended modifications in physical activity, healthy weight and healthy eating. Generation of confidence in the attainment of the desired modifications and generation of approval of the considerable gains of attaining these changes were other short term goals of the first phase of the measure up campaign. The long term goals of the measure up campaign is to endorse Australia people to develop and maintain modifications to their behavior, like healthier eating habits and more physical exercise towards the commended levels and to thus contribute to minimizing mortality and morbidly as a result of lifestyle associated chronic illnesses in adults in Australia (AIHW, 2008). The second phase of the measure up campaign is known as ‘Swap It Don’t Stop It’. This second phase of the campaign builds upon the awareness generated by the first phase of the measure up campaign and demonstrates to people the manner in which they can be able to make minute lifestyle modifications in modifications that individuals can make so as enable them to lead healthier lifestyles while still keeping the activities they like doing. Impacts of the Measure-up Campaign An effective health promotion campaign is aimed at improving health status of individuals, like healthier lifestyles, healthier environments, increased efficient health services, and eventually decreased disability and morbidity and raised life expectancy and improved quality of life. Bowling (2009) notes that the transformations in the health domain are known as outcomes because they reflect on the fulfilling objective of the health living. These eventual outcomes are affected by a variety of determinants, entailing an individual’s economic, social and physical environment and only a small portion of these determinants might be directly influenced by a certain health promotion campaign. Health promotion campaigns might have a variety of immediate impacts on persons and on the physical and social settings. For persons, the immediate impacts entail enhanced health skills, knowledge and motivation, as well as modifications to health behaviors and actions. Depending on the purpose of a certain heath promotion campaign, health promotion impacts entail improved health literacy whereby the campaigns makes the target audience to attain health related knowhow, confidence, motivation, personal skills and behavioral pertaining healthy lifestyle. A healthy promotion campaign also impacts social influence and action which entails community participation, public opinion and socio norms. In addition, it influences healthy civic policies and practices such as the implementation of regulations or legislations, resource allocation and supportive activities (Bowling, 2009). A survey by Bluemoon demonstrated that awareness of the occurrence of chronic illness in Australia is high. Nevertheless, there is a low approval of people’s individual vulnerability in people affected by the lifestyle associated chronic illness. Care is thus required in creating communications that intend to influence tonic illness. The association amid diet and health, weight and exercise is intricate and there is the possibility of miscommunication occurring (Bluemoon, 2007). There has been immense sensitization on people to lead healthy lifestyles. Our everyday lives from work to school, newspaper to television and postcards to billboards, are drenched by calls for individuals to endorse healthy eating habits, and engage in more physical activity. Indeed, campaigns by government to improve nutrition, raise physical activity and weight loss are highly supported by extraordinary amounts of financing. The present Australian better health initiative, of which the measure up campaign is a portion of, is being backed by government financing. Government health plans shape discursive atmospheres to hinder or enable particular ways of speaking about and understanding health, nutrition and physical activity (Shaw 2010). Civic policy itself , through patterning societal interaction have the capability of shaping the distribution of resources and what individuals learn and attend to their interests, needs and concerns. In this manner, civil wellbeing social marketing campaigns possess a big obligation in the work of caretakers of knowledge related to health. Through policy and consequent social marketing discourses, campaigns and practices around what it implies to live healthy are justified, shaping the behavior and health choices of individuals. Marketers and policy makers thus are very influential in developing the way people comprehend health, practices that are regarded unhealthy or healthy, and how a healthy individual looks like (Shaw, 2010). Barriers and Facilitators to Sustainable Behavior Change There are several important motivators for attaining behavior modification and are basic human needs and desires. The entail an aspiration to remain alive, remain healthy and feel and look good. Nevertheless, these needs are not presently adequate to promote behavior modification or raise individual relevance. Usually, they tend to remain inactive until a form of secondary trigger is stimulated. These can be positive things like an ally losing weight or a companion quitting smoking. This makes it impractical for people to deny or ignore underlying motivations, and generates a sense for the need to change. A research by GfK Bluemoon (2010) demonstrated that some individuals are not capable of attaining sustained change due to barriers such as lack of adequate time, lack of finances for gyms and healthy food. Therefore, in order for the measure up campaign to minimize negative perception of change, it will be required to recommend that the willpower is a small portion of transformation and there isn’t the need for making disruption to one’s life so as to change. Making lifestyle modification feel attainable will offer the major hook for engagement in healthy eating and physical exercise and will assist to pull the need for change and the way to change into personally pertinent and attainable goals. Therefore, the campaign will be required to debunk the notion that transformation should occur instantly and offer assistance of setting of the realistic goals (GfK Bluemoon 2010). Conclusion The measure up campaign is a health promotion campaign aimed at encouraging Australians to lead healthy lifestyles through healthy eating habits and regular physical activity. The campaign increases awareness in the way Australians can minimize mortality and morbidity by curbing lifestyle related chronic illnesses which are the major cause of death and disability. List of References GfK Bluemoon, 2010, Measure Up Phase Two: Qualitative formative research report. Report prepared for The Department of Health and Aging. Available September 31, 2014at:http://www.health.gov.au/internet/abhi/publishing.nsf/Content/C2D8B459A78E3FA7 8500000FCC7/$File/phaseteoformativereport.pdf Shaw, E., 2010, Reaching the parts that other theories and methods can't reach: How and why a policy-as-discourse approach can inform health-related policy, Health, 14, 196-212. Bluemoon, 2007, Australian Better Health Initiative: Diet, exercise and weight developmental communications research report. Report prepared for the Australian Department of HealthandAging.AvailableSeptember31,2014at:http://www.measureup.gov.au/internet/abhi/publishing.nsf/Content/5213EC75B5A7EE1CA2577B5007D656E/$File/phase1-formative research1.pdf World Health Organization (WHO), 2006, Preventing chronic disease: a vital investment: WHO global report, WHO, Geneva. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW), 2008, Chronic diseases an associated risk factors in Australia, AIHW, Canberra. World Health Organization, 2000, Obesity: preventing and managing the global epidemic. Report of a WHO consultation. WHO Tech Rep Ser ,894(3):1-25. Bowling, A, 2009, Measuring health: A review of quality of life measurement scales, Open University Press, Buckingham. Read More