Extending reach to disadvantaged groups - The NSW Healthy Children Initiative — Agentur Pty Ltd

Extending reach to disadvantaged groups - The NSW Healthy Children Initiative (81)

Christine M Innes-Hughes 1 , Andy Bravo 1 , Amanda Lockeridge 1 , Debra Welsby 1 , Chris Rissel 1
  1. NSW Office Preventive Health, Liverpool

Background:

The NSW Healthy Children Initiative (HCI) comprises a suite of programs aimed to reduce childhood overweight and obesity through addressing healthy eating, physical activity and sedentary behaviours in key children’s settings. Settings include early childhood education and care services (ECEC), schools and the community. The HCI delivers both universal population level health promotion programs as well as equity focussed targeted programs.

Reach into  disadvantaged groups is prioritised in planning and delivery of all programs, universal and equity targeted, at both state and local level, and is monitored through routine program reporting. 

Methods:

Data for three major programs of the HCI, Live Life Well @ School , Munch & Move and Go4Fun were examined for reach across the state, and characteristics of participation with a particular focus on indices of disadvantage such as the proportion of vulnerable groups including Aboriginal groups, or participation in low SES areas.

Results/Discussions:

Live Life Well @ School and Munch & Move have high reach across the state, with 71% and 78% respectively of all eligible schools or ECEC services participating in the programs. Live Life Well @ School and  Munch & Move also have high uptake in regional and rural communities.  A recent evaluation of Go4Fun revealed that over 75% of participating families were from lower SES, over 33% from regional or remote areas, and 5.7% identified as being Aboriginal or a Torres Strait Islander 1.

A purpose built Population Health Information and Monitoring System will monitor HCI program reach into disadvantaged groups. Additional data describing the characteristics of participation relating to disadvantage will be available by September 2014.


Conclusions/implications: The benefit of planning for equity in program delivery is evidenced by the demonstrated reach of HCI programs into disadvantaged groups. Further, developing systems to support the ongoing monitoring of this reach strengthens the equity focus of the HCI.

  1. Welsby D., Nguyen B., O'Hara B., Innes-Hughes C., Bauman A. and Hardy LL. . Process evaluation of an upscaled community based child obesity treatment program: Go4Fun. BMC Public Health 2014, 14:140.
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