A Health Promotion - Report Example

Change4Life Student’s Name Institution Affiliation Course Date Introduction Health promotion refers to the behavioural science that derives from the psychological, biological, physical, environmental, and medical sciences to help promote public health as well as prevent diseases, incapacities, and pre-mature deaths using activities that are voluntary and behaviour changing (Naidoo & Wills, 2009, p. 57). Moreover, health promotion can be said to be the development of person, group, community, institutional, and systemic strategies to help enhance health knowledge, skills, attitudes, and behaviour. The main purpose of health campaign is to positively affect the health behaviour of people and communities together with the working and living conditions that affect their health. Health promotion is important because it helps enhance the health conditions of communities and the nation at large. Moreover, it improves the quality of life for all individuals, minimizes premature deaths, and through concentrating on prevention, health campaign reduce the costs that would be spent on medical treatments (Gottwald & Goodman-Brown, 2012, p. 14). Change4Life is a health promotion that is focused on achieving the above-mentioned aims by creating awareness about overweight and obesity issues in children aged between 5 and 11 years old (Department of Health, 2010, p. 7). As a result, Change4Life has enhanced the health outcomes for parents with children and young children. Change4Life Background Information Change4Life was launched in 2009 with the goal of inspiring a wide coalition of individuals including local charities, businesses, schools, authorities, community leaders, and the NHS (Department of Health, 2010, p. 7). This focus encompassed a person working with individuals or families to all come together and participate in improving the peoples’ health and wellbeing by encouraging each and every person to have nutritious meals and move more which in return would prolong their lives (Department of Health, 2010, p. 8). Although initially the campaign was targeted at parents with children, the promotion now comprises of adults and also has a branch Start4Life that aims at introducing healthy habits to children right from birth. In its first years, Change4Life concentrated on parents with children of the age between 5 and 11 and at the risk of being obese or overweight (Department of Health, 2009, p. 1). The health promotion campaign Change4Life uses cartoon imagery and an informal language that is non-judgemental to put forward easy diet such as avoiding sugary drinks, consuming whole meal unprocessed products, and easily soluble fibre. Another element put forward by the campaign is exercise swaps which include activities that help individuals to burn more calories. Moreover, the campaign also provides support so that the targeted audience has a high possibility to enact changes it needs to lead a more healthy life. Change4Life and Health Outcomes for Children Change4Life has improved health outcomes for children who are overweight and obese in tremendous ways. According to SPEAR (Sport, Physical Education and Activity Research) (2015, p. 2), Change4Life campaign has had a positive effect on the health behaviours, activity levels, and wellbeing of children. This claim was derived from data collected from a controlled experimental test in primary schools in the U.K. It was evidenced that approximately 270,000 children took part in Change4Life primary clubs throughout the lifespan of the program. About 222,000 (82 percent) of the children were not achieving a minimum of 60 active minutes on a daily basis when they joined the Change4Life clubs at their local schools while more than 185,000 (69 percent) of the children could not attain a minimum of 30 active minutes daily on joining (SPEAR, 2015, p. 2). Thus, it is evident that at 270,000, the Change4Life clubs in schools effectively reached the major target group of the less active kids. In schools, the number of overweight and obese children attaining about 60 active minutes on a daily basis by week 12 had risen to 69 percent by 2015 (SPEAR, 2015, p. 2). This increase as a result led to approximately 33,000 extra children participants achieving about 60 active minutes on a daily basis throughout the lifespan of the programme. In addition, although members of clubs undertaking the Change4Life programme are usually less active at the initial stages, by week 12 at least about 30 percent of the children were evidenced to be achieving a minimum of 60 active minutes daily. The level of participation was found to be consistent with the examination control and exceeded the 21 percent of children aged 8 to 10 years that had been reported previously in 2012 by the Health Survey for England to take part in 60 active minutes daily throughout the U.K. (SPEAR, 2015, p. 2). Another positive outcome is that children have developed a positive attitude towards games and sports and the participation in the 30-60 active minutes is continuously increasing and positive changes particularly in self-efficacy has continued to go up in tandem. Change4Life Effectiveness in Improving the Health of Children Change4Life has been very effective in improving the health of obese children through the programme’s educational and informal approach towards a healthy living. Through partnering up with Disney to encourage young children to engage in 60 active minutes on a daily basis has significantly improved the health of children. It’s the campaign’s belief that young children have a strong emotional association with Disney characters and stories which as a result helps inspire as well as encourage them to engage in healthier activities and live healthier lives. Through participating in the 60 active minutes ranging from moderate to vital exercise and the 10 minute activity bursts all through the day, Change4Life campaign has been able to improve the physical activity of children (Mitchell, 2011, p. 34). Consequently, this has resulted in increased concentration, better academic performance, improved behaviour and self-esteem, and increased physical health as well as reduced risk of having chronic illnesses in the future. Change4Life and Models of Health Promotion i) Behavioural Change Model One of the models that has been used by Change4Life in health promotion is that of behaviour change. Behaviour change model focuses on promoting health and preventing diseases through concentrating on modifying individuals’ behaviours that are health-related. Example of these behaviours are such as exercise regimes and dietary plans (Naidoo & Wills, 2009, p. 75). Therefore, to develop their behaviour change model, Change4Life heavily relied on research regarding behaviour change borrowing insights from former programmes that had focused on behaviour change like the tobacco control (Department of Health, 2010, p. 23). ii) Health Brief Model (HBM) The Health Brief Model (HBM) of health promotion is a theory which argues that for individuals to accept recommended exercise regime behaviours, their supposed risk of illness as well as its severity and benefits gained from taking action should be more than their supposed barrier to taking action (Naidoo & Wills, 2009, p. 75). The main concepts involved in this model include perceived severity, perceived susceptibility, and supposed benefits and barriers of engaging in action as well as clues to action self-efficacy. In their health campaign promotion, Change4Life adopted the HBM by recommending 60 active minutes on a daily basis for their target group. The promotion achieved the HBM approach by creating awareness about high susceptibility to obesity especially among young children which in return had a significant influence to their perceived susceptibility. Moreover, introducing the program to schools was also a part of the HBM approach which has had significant influence in the children’s perceived benefits of taking action as evidenced by SPEAR (2015, p. 2). iii) Stages of Change Model (Trans-theoretical) The Stages of Change model of health promotion focus on adopting healthy lifestyle behaviours such as regular exercise regime and eliminating the unhealthy behaviours like too much watching television. For individuals to implement this model, they go through five phases that are linked to their preparedness to change. These phases include “pre-contemplation, contemplation, preparation, action, and maintenance” (Naidoo & Wills, 2009, p. 76). Through each phase, various intervention approaches are applied to help individuals move forward to the next phase. This model was incorporated by Change4Life when the campaign identified that changing lifestyle behaviours is significant to achieving the desired results. The campaign also identified that to maintain the healthy lifestyle, individuals needed to adopt some changes where some were easily absorbed into the target group lifestyle while others were hard to adopt (Mitchell, 2011, p. 27). Hence, Change for life has come up with a new strategy to help with the Stages of Change model “change journey” has been used to frame all the program’s activities. The “change journey” is continuous such that the final stage brings participants back to the initial stage reflecting the fact that fresh behaviours and habits need to be reinforced if they have to be maintained. Moreover, the success in one area is then used to ready individuals to tackle new changes (Mitchell, 2011, p. 27). iv) Information Processing Model Information processing model is the use of persuasive communication that is part of a social marketing promotion aimed at increasing physical activity and is mediated by three stages of message processing (Naidoo & Wills, 2009, p. 76). These stages include attention given to the message, understanding the message content, and its acceptance. One way through which Change4Life has applied information processing model is through the use of Disney characters to convey the message to the campaign’s target group which is children of age 5 to 11 years. Use of these animation characters ensures that children easily relate to them, and hence can comprehend the message relied by the campaign. Consequently, upon the understanding, the children are able to accept the content as they have a tendency to embody animation characters that they relate with (Piggin & Lee, 2011, p. 1155). Change4Life Sustainability In terms of sustainability, Change4Life has been very effective because it has been able to maintain a collective and strategic focus on preventing obesity not just as an activity but integrating the activity as part of the promotion with a goal to achieve change (Weir, 2010, p. 10). Consequently, there is a recognition that the value of the Change4Life programme in overall is greater compared to the sum of the parts making it. Another factor that evidences the effective sustainability of Change4Life is the programme’s distinct extensiveness and depth of partnership that is created during the delivery of the promotion, which is vital to addressing overweight as well as obesity throughout the population (Weir, 2010, p. 10). This effective sustainability is achieved through ensuring that positive change is attained in terms of awareness and attitude amongst the country’s key decision makers. Moreover, the capacity to attain success in preventing overweight as well as obesity through its campaign, Change4Life health programme has achieved significant success such as the achievement of PSA (Public Service Agreement) in public awareness and acknowledgement of obesity, and building the Change4Life staff capacity using training (Weir, 2010, p. 11). Other elements that indicate the effectiveness of Change4Life sustainability is the programmes capacity to ensure that there is the continued development of national wide multi-sectoral strategies aimed at promoting the prevention of obesity. The programme’s sustainability effectiveness is evident in its efforts to ensure the development of as well as improvements to nationwide, policies, strategies, and procedures aimed at promoting healthy living, infant feeding, parenting, and green space strategies (Weir, 2010, p. 11). Legal and Ethical Boundaries Change4Life programme has strictly adhered to legal and ethical boundaries in its promotion. According to a report memorandum by the House of Lords (2010, p. 14), government policies are designed to have an influence on the behaviour of the public. Consequently, the major issue that raises legal and ethical questions is which policy interventions are applicable in a particular situation (House of Lords, 2010, p. 14). As a result, according to Richard Thaler who was put in place to shed light on the debate over the ethical responsibility for interventions that prohibit and restrict choice of the public, it is legal for choice architects to make attempts in influencing individuals’ behaviour with the aim of prolonging life and making it better and healthier. Thus, based on Thaler’s argument as quoted in the memorandum by the House of Lords, it is evident that Change4Life has observed the ethical and legal boundaries of the public by ensuring that their proposed interventions are aimed at improving the lives of individuals and communities (House of Lords, 2010, p. 14). Reaching the Target Audience Change for life has been very effective in reaching its target audience. One way in which the audience coverage has been effective is through using digital technology. According to Mitchell (2011 p. 32), the decision to reach Change4Life target audience through digital technology is because of the number of children who has access to digital equipment such as televisions, smartphones, and personal laptops. Therefore, to reach a wider target audience, Change4Life has created its website that offer a kinaesthetic online experience to its users. Additionally, the programme has also recognized the need to link itself with social platforms that are preferred for interaction such as Facebook and Twitter and thus has opened its account with both social sites (Mitchell, 2011, p. 32). Consequently, linking with these social platforms, Change4Life has witnessed rapid take-up with its target audience. Another way in which Change4Life has ensured that it effectively reaches its audiences is through collaborating with different teams including commercial, civic, and charity (Mitchell, 2011, p. 33). For example, the health promotion has collaborated with Disney to create awareness about a healthy lifestyle because it understands that young children tend to have the emotional connection with cartoon characters thereby increasing a high chance of adopting their behaviours. Lastly, another way through which Change4Life Campaign reaches its target audience is through calendar events that include, Walk4life campaign, summer activity, and the Great Swapathon. The summer activities event for example creates a fun wheel where parents and their children are able to find new and fresh ways to integrate activity into their day-to-day lives (Mitchell, 2011, p. 34). The fun wheels are then distributed to strategic locations where there are easily accessible including schools, local supporter networks, and online websites where parents can order. Change4Life Strengths and Weaknesses According Piggin & Lee (2011, p. 1155), one strength of Change4Life campaign is its ability to use simple message that is easily comprehended by the target group. The use of cartoons and animations to pass across health message to children of 5 to 11 age is very effective because they tend to have an emotional connection cartoon characters. The other strength is the use of a strong campaign theme of obesity which is evidently at the forefront of England’s Healthy Weight, Healthy Lives strategy (Piggin & Lee, 2011, p. 1155). Consequently, the capacity of Change4Life to target the rising tide of overweight and obesity issues gives it more publicity thus allowing the campaign to reach to a wider audience. However, despite strengths pointed out, Change4Life suffers some weakness which according to Croker, et al. (2012, p. 404), the materials used for the campaign had little influence on behaviours and attitudes of the targeted group. This is partly because many parents in general did not want to engage in the programme but rather percieved it as “for the kids” (Croker, et al., 2012, p. 404). Conclusion Change4Life health is a very successful campaign in creating awareness about overweight and obesity issues. The programme has applied various health promotion models with the aim of introducing and maintaining healthy lifestyle among the public. These changes include proper and healthy diets as well as 60 active minutes for children and adults and “Change journeys” aimed at maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Additionally, use of digital technology platforms such as Facebook and Twitter has ensured that the program effectively reaches its targeted audience. The partnering with Disney to use cartoon characters as a way of passing the health message to young children that they can easily relate and adapt. Therefore, as evidenced by the above discussion, it’s clear that the Change4Life programme has been effective in accomplishing its purpose since its establishment. References Croker, H., Lucas, R. & Wardle, J., 2012. Cluster-randomised trial to evaluate the ‘Change for Life’mass media/social marketing campaign in the UK. BMC Public Health, 12(1), p. 404. Department of Health, 2009. Change 4 ife. U.K.: COI for the Department of Health. Department of Health, 2010. Change 4 Life one year on: In support of healthy weight, healthy lives. U.K.: Department of Health. Gottwald, M. & Goodman-Brown, J., 2012. An Introduction to Why Health Promotion is Important. A Guide to Practical Health Promotion.. House of Lords, 2010. Science and Technology Committee behaviour change written evidence. [Online] Available at: https://www.parliament.uk/documents/lords-committees/science-technology/behaviourchange/BCwrittenevidenceAtoZ.pdf [Accessed 21 February 2017]. Mitchell, S., 2011. Change4Life Three Year Marketing Strategy, U.K.: COI for the Department of Health . Naidoo, J. & Wills, J., 2009. Foundations for health promotion. 2 ed. U.K.: Elsevier Health Sciences. Piggin, J. & Lee, J., 2011. ‘Don’t mention obesity’: Contradictions and tensions in the UK Change4Life health promotion campaign. Journal of health psychology, 16(8), pp. 1151-1164. SPEAR, 2015. Lifetime Evaluation of the Change4Life Primary School Sports Club Programme , U.K.: Canterbury Christ Church University. Weir, C., 2010. Report to the children and young people's 0-19+ partnership board, U.K.: NHS Sheffield. Read More

This claim was derived from data collected from a controlled experimental test in primary schools in the U.K. It was evidenced that approximately 270,000 children took part in Change4Life primary clubs throughout the lifespan of the program. About 222,000 (82 percent) of the children were not achieving a minimum of 60 active minutes on a daily basis when they joined the Change4Life clubs at their local schools while more than 185,000 (69 percent) of the children could not attain a minimum of 30 active minutes daily on joining (SPEAR, 2015, p. 2). Thus, it is evident that at 270,000, the Change4Life clubs in schools effectively reached the major target group of the less active kids.

In schools, the number of overweight and obese children attaining about 60 active minutes on a daily basis by week 12 had risen to 69 percent by 2015 (SPEAR, 2015, p. 2). This increase as a result led to approximately 33,000 extra children participants achieving about 60 active minutes on a daily basis throughout the lifespan of the programme. In addition, although members of clubs undertaking the Change4Life programme are usually less active at the initial stages, by week 12 at least about 30 percent of the children were evidenced to be achieving a minimum of 60 active minutes daily.

The level of participation was found to be consistent with the examination control and exceeded the 21 percent of children aged 8 to 10 years that had been reported previously in 2012 by the Health Survey for England to take part in 60 active minutes daily throughout the U.K. (SPEAR, 2015, p. 2). Another positive outcome is that children have developed a positive attitude towards games and sports and the participation in the 30-60 active minutes is continuously increasing and positive changes particularly in self-efficacy has continued to go up in tandem.

Change4Life Effectiveness in Improving the Health of Children Change4Life has been very effective in improving the health of obese children through the programme’s educational and informal approach towards a healthy living. Through partnering up with Disney to encourage young children to engage in 60 active minutes on a daily basis has significantly improved the health of children. It’s the campaign’s belief that young children have a strong emotional association with Disney characters and stories which as a result helps inspire as well as encourage them to engage in healthier activities and live healthier lives.

Through participating in the 60 active minutes ranging from moderate to vital exercise and the 10 minute activity bursts all through the day, Change4Life campaign has been able to improve the physical activity of children (Mitchell, 2011, p. 34). Consequently, this has resulted in increased concentration, better academic performance, improved behaviour and self-esteem, and increased physical health as well as reduced risk of having chronic illnesses in the future. Change4Life and Models of Health Promotion i) Behavioural Change Model One of the models that has been used by Change4Life in health promotion is that of behaviour change.

Behaviour change model focuses on promoting health and preventing diseases through concentrating on modifying individuals’ behaviours that are health-related. Example of these behaviours are such as exercise regimes and dietary plans (Naidoo & Wills, 2009, p. 75). Therefore, to develop their behaviour change model, Change4Life heavily relied on research regarding behaviour change borrowing insights from former programmes that had focused on behaviour change like the tobacco control (Department of Health, 2010, p. 23). ii) Health Brief Model (HBM) The Health Brief Model (HBM) of health promotion is a theory which argues that for individuals to accept recommended exercise regime behaviours, their supposed risk of illness as well as its severity and benefits gained from taking action should be more than their supposed barrier to taking action (Naidoo & Wills, 2009, p. 75).

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