Health Promotion International最新文献

School-based health promotion is a key setting for fostering positive youth health behaviours. Digital and immersive technologies offer promising opportunities to engage young people. This study explores a virtual reality (VR) intervention designed to prevent alcohol, vaping, and cannabis use among secondary school students. The intervention allowed students to navigate realistic, branching scenarios simulating peer pressure and substance use, aiming to enhance refusal strategies, critical thinking, and decision-making skills. A mixed-methods evaluation involving 277 students and nine teachers across four Australian schools was conducted. Postintervention surveys assessed engagement, immersion, emotional responses, and skill development, while focus groups and interviews explored participant experiences. Results indicate that students found the VR experience immersive and valuable, particularly for rehearsing peer resistance and evaluating the consequences of risky behaviours. Teachers viewed the intervention as a powerful tool for prompting reflection and discussion and a strong complement to existing health education curricula. Thematic analysis highlighted the importance of realism and interactivity for student engagement. While some technical and content improvements were identified, both students and teachers considered the VR tool effective for enhancing health literacy and behavioural readiness. This study shows that immersive VR can be a scalable, engaging addition to school-based health promotion, improving prevention skills and confidence in managing substance-related situations. As adolescent health behaviours are increasingly shaped by digital environments, immersive interventions such as VR offer a promising avenue for skill building and reflection. Further research should assess long-term impacts, with greater attention to implementation and equity considerations.

Schools are pivotal in promoting physical activity (PA) among children through supportive environments and targeted programming. Despite this, in 2024, only 39% of Canadian children met PA guidelines, with inequity linked to socioeconomic status. This study describes the availability of PA activities and facilities in Quebec primary schools according to school deprivation levels and the extent to which school-based PA health promotion interventions (PA-HPIs) incorporated 16 empirically supported components and processes. In Project PromeSS, structured telephone interviews were conducted from 2016 to 2019 with key informants (primarily school principals) across 171 Quebec primary schools. PA activities and facilities were generally perceived as available and adequate across all deprivation levels. Nearly all schools (98%) reported PA-HPIs aligned with their mission and values; 96% addressed multiple core competencies; and 86% involved staff in planning. However, only 13% engaged students or peers in intervention development, 35% provided training for internal facilitators, and 35% conducted formal evaluations of PA-HPIs. Availability of PA activities and facilities across deprivation levels may relate to provincial efforts to promote resource equity, although policy impact cannot be inferred from these data. Enhancing underused empirically supported components (student engagement, staff training, program evaluation, and multi-session interventions) could improve the effectiveness and sustainability of school-based PA-HPIs.

A binary view of health, categorizing individuals as either healthy or diseased, has directed much of physical activity research toward evidencing its biomedical benefits. Physical activity is positioned primarily as a means of reducing risk or preventing illness with an appropriate lifestyle modification (e.g. meeting guidelines), reinforcing a pathogenic perspective. A salutogenic perspective, grounded in the 'dis-ease-ease' continuum, emphasizes health as a dynamic process rather than a fixed state. Within this continuum, physical activity is seen not only as preventive but also as a resource that helps individuals navigate daily stressors and move toward greater well-being. This perspective aligns with broader commitments to 'active living,' which extend beyond structured exercise to include how people integrate movement into everyday life. It also advances global declarations, such as the Ottawa Charter, which call for strengthening resources, enabling supportive environments, and addressing the social conditions that shape well-being. To realize this potential, physical activity research should be reframed under the broader 'active living' agenda through a salutogenic perspective that moves beyond risk reduction. Salutogenesis provides a compelling framework for understanding health as resource-oriented and dynamic. However, its application within physical activity research remains under-developed. Looking ahead, greater conceptual clarity is needed to explain how physical activity interacts with sense of coherence, stress management, and everyday meaning making, as well as how social and environmental factors enable or constrain these processes. Advancing salutogenesis in physical activity/active living research can move the field past binary metrics and highlight how active living fosters health-promoting, salutogenic societies.

Employment status is an important social determinant of health. Employment services mediate unemployed people's outcomes and experiences, including their psychosocial and physical health and well-being, but have received little health promotion research attention. Over the past 30 years in Australia, employment service provision has been operating under a privatized model with five different policy iterations, yet there has been little consideration of the health impacts of this policy. Documentary methods examined these impacts, producing five key themes: (i) ideological underpinnings of privatization, (ii) the primacy of private interests, (iii) impacts on quality of service, (iv) negative social and health impacts, and (v) implications for equity. Perverse incentives, system gaming, and punitive forms of conditional welfare all lead to negative outcomes, including poverty and severe emotional distress, which unfairly affect people living in disadvantaged circumstances. There are growing calls for much greater direct government involvement in employment services to promote health and equity and public over private interests.

To provide culturally safe maternal and infant nutrition health promotion strategies, it is important that the views, experiences, and preferences of Aboriginal families are privileged. This study aimed to explore the views, experiences, and preferences of Aboriginal mothers' regarding access to information and support on infant nutrition and active play in Victoria, Australia. Parents and caregivers of Aboriginal infants and children under the age of 5 years were invited to participate via Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations in urban and regional Victoria. Indigenous research methods of Yarning and Dadirri were applied, and reflexive thematic analysis from an Aboriginal standpoint was used to analyse the yarn transcripts. In total, 16 participants took part, including ten mothers in individual yarns and four mothers and two grandmothers in a group-based yarn. Five themes were identified, (i) information ahead of time, (ii) 'how to' interactive guidance, (iii) flexible access to professional support, (iv) informal sources of support, and (v) visual, concise, culturally responsive and accessible information. This study's findings underscore the need for timely, multi-faceted, and culturally responsive infant nutrition and active play health promotion resources for Aboriginal families in Victoria as expressed by Aboriginal mothers and grandmothers. Digital resources offer promising opportunities when developed in partnership with Aboriginal communities and used alongside personalized support from Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations, trusted health professionals, and family members.

Individuals from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds frequently experience complex health barriers arising from migration related factors and cultural differences within their new communities. Men with South Asian backgrounds in Australia represent a group particularly affected by these intersecting factors in addition to gender-related influences. In response, HAT TRICK™ Cricket, a culturally adapted health promotion intervention aimed at improving physical activity, healthy eating, and mental fitness, was designed for men with South Asian backgrounds in Western Sydney, Australia. To explore participants' perspectives and experiences of the programme and its perceived outcomes on their health and well-being, semi-structured interviews (N = 13) were conducted approximately 2 weeks following programme completion. Three themes were inductively derived using thematic analysis: 'Pursuing personal growth and mastery on and off the pitch' which emerged through opportunities for experiential learning, culturally meaningful engagement, and skill development that collectively enhanced participants' confidence, sense of competence, and motivation to improve; 'Finding commonality and social connection' in which participants perceived the programme to foster meaningful interactions, facilitate the formation of new friendships, and strengthen existing relationships in a supportive environment that encouraged open and honest conversations extending beyond sport; and third, 'Translating knowledge into everyday action' which indicated that participants actively applied some of the skills and knowledge gained from the programme to improve their daily physical activity, nutrition, and mental health practices. These findings support the feasibility and value of culturally tailored sport-based health promotion programmes and can inform future initiatives for CALD communities.

Population-level data collection is crucial to advance Indigenous rights and sovereignty but requires localized approaches to develop representative datasets. In Canada, a focus on First Nations research and data governance and principles has led to the underrepresentation of Métis realities and a reliance on data governance models that fail to address their unique cultural, historical, and community-specific needs. "The Saskatchewan Métis Health Research and Data Governance Principles©" were developed to guide Métis research and promote Métis data sovereignty. While these principles share similarities with the First Nations Principles of OCAP®, they emphasize Métis-specific priorities such as capacity building and active engagement with Métis rights holders. These principles provide a framework for Métis health research, ensuring that Métis values and perspectives are embedded throughout the research lifecycle.

The Hertfordshire County Council Place Based Health Inequalities initiative funded 10 community-based physical activity interventions, each aiming to address specific local health inequalities. Target groups were identified using locally defined inclusion criteria. This qualitative analysis explored the perspectives and experiences of service users, representing a diverse range of locally identified priority groups, and leads in district councils regarding the delivery, engagement, and perceived impacts of interventions. Semi-structured interviews were conducted between October 2024 and January 2025 with service users (n = 8) and district leads (n = 8). Of 15 participants who shared demographic information, 12 identified as female, 3 as male, and most as White British. Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed, coded in Excel, and analysed using inductive framework analysis, with two researchers independently coding a subset of transcripts. Four overarching themes were identified: (i) health empowerment and behaviour change, (ii) benefits and challenges of targeted interventions, (iii) community, motivation and social support, and (iv) delivery challenges and sustainability. Findings revealed that targeted, culturally relevant interventions promoted engagement through representation. Group-based delivery fostered peer support, motivation, and community building. Participants reported increased awareness and control over health behaviours, with perceived improvements in physical fitness, weight management, and mental wellbeing. Challenges included difficulties recruiting participants, limited capacity within district teams, and limited impact due to the small scale and short-term nature of programmes. This study highlights the potential of community-based approaches for promoting engagement in physical activity interventions, while highlighting the need for sustained delivery models and greater local capacity to support long-term health impact.