O'Hara Blythe J, Eggins Dianne, Phongsavan Philayrath, Milat Andrew J, Bauman Adrian E, Wiggers John
Sydney School of Public Health, University of Sydney, NSW, Australia
Cancer Institute NSW, Sydney, Australia.
Public Health Res Pract. 2015 Mar 30;25(2):e2521521. doi: 10.17061/phrp2521521.
Population-wide obesity prevention and treatment programs are fundamental to addressing the increasing overweight and obesity rates in socioeconomically disadvantaged populations. Innovative recruitment strategies, including proactive marketing strategies, are needed to ensure such programs have universal reach and target vulnerable populations. This study aimed to determine the success of proactive recruitment to Australia's Get Healthy Information and Coaching Service® (GHS) and to assess whether the recruitment strategy influenced participants' outcomes. Sociodemographic information was collected from all GHS participants who joined the service between February 2009 and August 2013, and anthropometric information regarding behavioural risk factors was collected from all GHS coaching participants at baseline and six months. Data were analysed according to the participants' referral source (self-referral and secondary referral versus proactive recruitment). Participants recruited through proactive marketing were more likely to be male, aged 50 years or older, have high school education, not be in paid employment and be from the lowest three quintiles of socioeconomic advantage. The risk factor profile of coaching participants recruited through proactive marketing did not vary significantly from those recruited via other mechanisms, although they were less likely to be obese and less likely to have a higher 'at risk' waist circumference measurement. Proactively recruited coaching participants reported significant improvements from baseline to six months (consistent with improvements made by participants recruited through other strategies), although they were significantly more likely to withdraw from coaching before they completed the six-month program.Proactive marketing facilitated use of an obesity prevention service; similar services may have greater reach if proactive marketing recruitment strategies are used. These strategies could be encouraged to assist such services to achieve optimal population impact among hard-to-reach populations.
针对社会经济弱势群体中日益增长的超重和肥胖率问题，全人群肥胖预防与治疗项目至关重要。需要创新招募策略，包括积极的营销策略，以确保此类项目能够全面覆盖并针对弱势群体。本研究旨在确定澳大利亚“健康信息与指导服务”（GHS）积极招募方式的成效，并评估招募策略是否会影响参与者的结果。收集了2009年2月至2013年8月期间加入该服务的所有GHS参与者的社会人口统计学信息，并在基线和六个月时收集了所有GHS指导参与者关于行为风险因素的人体测量信息。根据参与者的推荐来源（自我推荐和二次推荐与积极招募）对数据进行分析。通过积极营销招募的参与者更有可能是男性，年龄在50岁及以上，具有高中学历，没有带薪工作，且来自社会经济优势最低的三个五分位数。通过积极营销招募的指导参与者的风险因素概况与通过其他机制招募的参与者相比没有显著差异，尽管他们肥胖的可能性较小，且腰围“有风险”测量值较高的可能性较小。从基线到六个月，积极招募的指导参与者报告有显著改善（与通过其他策略招募的参与者的改善情况一致），尽管他们在完成六个月项目之前退出指导的可能性显著更高。积极营销促进了肥胖预防服务的使用；如果采用积极营销招募策略，类似服务可能会有更大的覆盖面。应鼓励采用这些策略，以帮助此类服务在难以触及的人群中实现最佳的人群影响。
