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. 2011 Sep 30:11:749.
doi: 10.1186/1471-2458-11-749.

A pilot study of Aboriginal health promotion from an ecological perspective

Rachel E Reilly  1 , Marion Cincotta, Joyce Doyle, Bradley R Firebrace, Margaret Cargo, Gemma van den Tol, Denise Morgan-Bulled, Kevin G Rowley; Heart Health Project Steering Committee
Collaborators, Affiliations

A pilot study of Aboriginal health promotion from an ecological perspective

Rachel E Reilly et al. BMC Public Health. .

Abstract

Background: For health promotion to be effective in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Communities, interventions (and their evaluation) need to work within a complex social environment and respect Indigenous knowledge, culture and social systems. At present, there is a lack of culturally appropriate evaluation methods available to practitioners that are capable of capturing this complexity. As an initial response to this problem, we used two non-invasive methods to evaluate a community-directed health promotion program, which aimed to improve nutrition and physical activity for members of the Aboriginal community of the Goulburn-Murray region of northern Victoria, Australia. The study addressed two main questions. First, for members of an Aboriginal sporting club, what changes were made to the nutrition environment in which they meet and how is this related to national guidelines for minimising the risk of chronic disease? Second, to what degree was the overall health promotion program aligned with an ecological model of health promotion that addresses physical, social and policy environments as well as individual knowledge and behaviour?

Methods: Rather than monitoring individual outcomes, evaluation methods reported on here assessed change in the nutrition environment (sports club food supply) as a facilitator of dietary change and the 'ecological' nature of the overall program (that is, its complexity with respect to numbers of targets, settings and strategies).

Results: There were favourable changes towards the provision of a food supply consistent with Australian guidelines at the sports club. The ecological analysis indicated that the design and implementation of the program were consistent with an ecological model of health promotion.

Conclusions: The evaluation was useful for assessing the impact of the program on the nutrition environment and for understanding the ecological nature of program activities.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The six levels of Miller's Systems theory adapted for ecological analysis. Miller's levels extended to 'organ' and 'cell' [34]. Diagram adapted from [33].
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Reilly R, Doyle J, Bretherton D, Rowley K. Identifying psychosocial mediators of Indigenous health for the Heart Health Project. Ethnicity and Health. 2008;13(4):351–373. doi: 10.1080/13557850801903046. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Allinjara Aboriginal Association; Bangerang Cultural Centre; Goulburn Valley Local Aboriginal Education Consultative Group; Mungabareena Aboriginal Corporation; Percy Green memorial Recovery Centre; Rumbalara Aboriginal Cooperative 'If you don't have health, what's the use of living?' Koori voices from the Goulburn-Murray Rivers Region on health and its determinants. In: Anderson I, Baum F, Bentley M, editor. Beyond Bandaids Exploring the Underlying Social Determinants of Aboriginal Health. Darwin: Co-operative Research Centre for Aboriginal Health; 2007. pp. 1–18.
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    1. The Heart Health Project Steering Committee. A collaborative cardiovascular health program for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People in the Goulburn-Murray region: Development and risk factor screening at Indigenous Community Organisations. Australian Journal of Primary Health. 2007;13(1):9–17.

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