‘It’s Important to Make Changes.’ Insights about Motivators and Enablers of Healthy Lifestyle Modification from Young Aboriginal Men in Western Australia

Abstract

Lifestyle modification can improve the health of people with or at risk of non-communicable diseases; however, initiating and maintaining positive health behaviours including healthy eating and physical activity is challenging. Young remote Aboriginal people who had successfully made significant healthy lifestyle changes were sought out to explore how they achieved this success. Four Aboriginal men aged 20–35 years were identified and consented to participate. Their perceptions of motivation for change, strategies, and facilitators and barriers were explored through in-depth interviews. Themes developed from the interviews included self-efficacy, self-reliance, and increased knowledge and altered health beliefs underpinning change. Participants with diabetes were highly motivated to avoid diabetes complications and had a strong belief that their actions could achieve this. In a setting with high levels of disadvantage, participants had relatively favourable socioeconomic circumstances with solid social supports. These findings highlight that lifestyle modification programs that foster internal motivation, enhance key health knowledge, and modify health beliefs and risk perception are needed. Increasing diabetes awareness among at-risk young people is important, emphasising the largely preventable and potentially reversible nature of the condition. Broad health improvements and individual changes will be facilitated by equitable socioeconomic circumstances and environments that support health.

A mixed‐methods evaluation of an urban Aboriginal diabetes lifestyle program

“…A lack of knowledge and education associated with diabetes can increase the risk of undiagnosed cases, illness progression and comorbidities through lack of screening and detection. However, this can be overcome through increased knowledge and changes in health beliefs that support healthy lifestyle changes, as found in this study and others 39 …”

Perceptions of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians toward cardiovascular primary prevention programs: A qualitative systematic review

“…All 11 included studies were published between 2010 (Abbott et al, 2010;Foley, 2010) and 2019 (Brown et al, 2019;Seear et al, 2019). Three studies were conducted in the Australian State of Queensland (Brown et al, 2019;Foley, 2010;Sushames et al, 2017), two each in Western Australia (Nilson et al, 2015;Seear et al, 2019), and South Australia (Canuto et al, 2013;Tsourtos et al, 2014) and one each in New South Wales (Abbott et al, 2010), and the Northern Territory (Thompson et al, 2013) and a statutory authority of Australia called the Torres Strait Islands (Macniven et al, 2018). Additionally, one study was conducted across four Australian States-Victoria, Western Australia, South Australia, and New South Wales (Chapple et al, 2016).…”

“…Additionally, one study was conducted across four Australian States-Victoria, Western Australia, South Australia, and New South Wales (Chapple et al, 2016). Six studies (Brown et al, 2019;Chapple et al, 2016;Macniven et al, 2018;Nilson et al, 2015;Seear et al, 2019;Thompson et al, 2013) reported that they were conducted in remote Indigenous communities. The data collection methods for the 11 included primary studies were via interviews (semi-structured and unstructured) individually or focus groups (often referred to in the Indigenous communities as yarning groups).…”

“…The data collection methods for the 11 included primary studies were via interviews (semi-structured and unstructured) individually or focus groups (often referred to in the Indigenous communities as yarning groups). The phenomena of interest in each of the studies varied, five studies (Canuto et al, 2013;Macniven et al, 2018;Seear et al, 2019;Sushames et al, 2017;Thompson et al, 2013) explored physical activity programs among Indigenous Australians, four studies (Abbott et al, 2010;Brown et al, 2019;Foley, 2010;Nilson et al, 2015) examined nutritional and cooking interventions and promotions, and two studies (Chapple et al, 2016;Tsourtos et al, 2014) observed the perceptions and experiences of smoking cessation programs. Table 2 details the characteristics of the included studies.…”

“…and sustained participation in cardiovascular prevention programs (Abbott et al, 2010;Canuto et al, 2013;Foley, 2010;Nilson et al, 2015;Seear et al, 2019;Sushames et al, 2017;Tsourtos et al, 2014). Family acceptance of dietary changes in the home encourages Indigenous Australians to continue to incorporate healthy eating (Foley, 2010;Nilson et al, 2015).…”