Perceived barriers and enablers to participation in a community-tailored physical activity program with indigenous Australians in a regional and rural setting: a qualitative study

Sushames, Ashleigh, Engelberg, Terry, and Gebel, Klaus (2017) Perceived barriers and enablers to participation in a community-tailored physical activity program with indigenous Australians in a regional and rural setting: a qualitative study. International Journal for Equity in Health, 16. 172.

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Abstract

Background: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have higher rates of chronic disease and a lower life expectancy than non-Indigenous Australians. In non-urban areas these health disparities are even larger. The aim of this qualitative study was to explore perceived barriers and enablers to attending an eight-week physical activity program in a rural and regional setting which aimed to improve health outcomes, but had a low attendance rate.

Methods: Thirty-four Indigenous Australians participated in the intervention from the rural (n = 12) and the regional (n = 22) community. Qualitative semi-structured individual interviews were conducted at the follow-up health assessments with 12 participants. A thematic network analysis was undertaken to examine the barriers and enablers to participation in the program.

Results: Overall, there were positive attitudes to, and high levels of motivation towards the physical activity program. Enablers to participation were the inclusion of family members, no financial cost and a good relationship with the principal investigator, which was strengthened by the community-based participatory approach to the program design. Barriers to program attendance were mostly beyond the control of the individuals, such as ‘sorry business’, needing to travel away from the community and lack of community infrastructure.

Conclusions: More consideration is needed prior to implementation of programs to understand how community-specific barriers and enablers will affect attendance to the program.

Item ID: 50226
Item Type: Article (Research - C1)
ISSN: 1475-9276
Keywords: indigenous, physical activity, intervention, chronic disease, Australia
Copyright Information: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
Funders: Far North Queensland Hospital Foundation
Date Deposited: 21 Sep 2017 01:21
FoR Codes: 45 INDIGENOUS STUDIES > 4504 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health and wellbeing > 450412 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander men’s health and wellbeing @ 70%
42 HEALTH SCIENCES > 4206 Public health > 420603 Health promotion @ 30%
SEO Codes: 92 HEALTH > 9203 Indigenous Health > 920303 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health - Health System Performance (incl. Effectiveness of Interventions) @ 100%
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