According the Step it Up status report, an approximate total of 77% of US adults (49.
9%) and children (27.1%) sustain an efficient amount of physical activity to reduce chronic disease susceptibility. Physical activity is essential to overall health and fitness. Therefore, bringing awareness and promoting the importance of physical activity are great ways to improve the number of individuals who get out and get active. Based on the goals and objectives of this Call to Action, it appears to be geared towards the health promotion campaign approach.
They use the strategy of highlighting success stories and specific approaches/ programs that ultimately resulted in an increase of physical activity amongst that population. Incorporating simple ways to get moving into our everyday lives, whether its walking at the park, walking your dog, fitness groups, walking during lunch, they all encourage better life-style habits. The Call Action seeks to mobilize many different sectors such as land use, transportation, as well as the built community. The design and structure of the community are important factors that directly affect community mobilization. When a community lacks appropriate structure (sidewalks, parks, street lights, close fitness facilities, etc.) it could discourage the public from engaging in any outdoor physical activities. They also seek to mobilize health care and public health in the sense of accessibility and availability.
When a community doesn’t provide health care that is accessible, it deters those seeking medical attention. Business and industries can also promote increased physical activity but providing fitness center in the work place, enforcing “get up and move” polices, as well as providing incentives that encourage worker to increase their daily steps. In the mobilization of all community facets, the role of families and individuals is essential to reach the desired goals. Each sector plays a vital role in supporting walking and walkable communities.
The idea of building neighborhoods is a community-based intervention, that is aims to implement health change in the populations of the community. Overall, the evidence does not support stand-alone informational approaches to increase physical activity. The taskforce finding suggests the differences amongst the campaign designs as well as the lack of validity and reliability of the self-reports used to measure the effects of campaign media on physical activity did not provide sufficient evidence to support stand-alone informational approaches. However, in my opinion I do feel there are cases where stand-alone informational approach can be beneficial especially if the campaigns used more modern forms of mass media, rather than the more traditional forms. Based on the taskforce findings, there is evidence supporting environmental and policy approaches to increase physical activity.
The combination of both environmental interventions and one or more policies, there is evidencing supporting that fact that these factors have a greater potential to improve physical activity than stand-alone informational approaches. Step it up definitely aligns with The Guideline regarding recommended interventions because it has established SMART goals and objects to aid in the improvement of physical activity. Step it up suggests improving sidewalks, pedestrian friendly streets, close accessibility to desire location, all in hope of creating a built environment that promotes increased physical activity. Community-based interventions such as, Do One Thing, are specific to the education and awareness Hepatitis C in high risk populations. Do One Thing recruits, test and counsels the study participants.
The programs also offered immediate attention from patient navigator assigned to answer any question and address any concerns the patient has following positive test results. Patients navigators in a sense played the role of a health care social worker, seeking to advocate for the patient, provide information and educating the patient on the next steps to take, and assisting with coping strategies to promote a comfortable life transition. This community-based intervention is great for model for my team project because it highlights significant improvement in Hepatitis C screening, diagnosis, linkage to care and engagement in care. It also displays promising rates of treatment initiation amongst those in high risk populations that once weren’t even aware of their disease. The goal is to implement change and observes positive outcome, and that’s exactly what Do One Thing demonstrated.
