Australian Health Promotion Association

As a commitment to building knowledge and promoting debate about the links between climate change and health promotion, the Australian Health Promotion Association has agreed to make this special issue freely available for the month of January 2012. Please click on the link below to access your free copy.

• Editorial
• Settings for health promotion
• Promoting Indigenous health
• Influencing health behaviours
• Brief reports
• Letters to the Editor

If you would also like a hard copy of this journal mailed to you, please contact the National Office.

Ben J. Smith
Editor-in-Chief, Health Promotion Journal of Australia and
Department of Health Social Science, Monash University

The opportunity I have had in recent years to facilitate a number of training courses with health promotion practitioners, has affirmed the value that many place upon evaluation in program management, and provided insights into the perceived benefits, costs and risks that this may entail.

As might be expected, course participants can readily identify the benefits to be

Donna Watson, Marewa Glover, Judith McCool, Chris Bullen, Brian Adams and Sandar Min

Introduction:  Teachers hold positions of responsibility and influence. They are required to support school tobacco control policies, and some teachers lead tobacco prevention curricula.1 Regardless of whether they are seen as role models by a school community or as mirrors of broader social norms, teachers’ smoking-related attitudes and behaviour have the potential to influence their students. In fact,

Louise Marsh, Rob McGee, Sheryl A. Hemphill and Sheila Williams

Introduction: Being bullied at school is a significant problem experienced by adolescents around the world,1-4 and its detrimental effects on health have been well documented.5-7 Changing technology has also opened up new ways of bullying, from texting on cell phones to videos on websites.8 To combat bullying, it is important that schools develop policies and programs to keep students safe. A recent review found that having an

Chris Rissel and Li Ming Wen

Introduction: Cycling as a form of regular physical activity that is accessible to people of all ages confers substantial health benefits.1-4 Increasingly in Australia, there are calls to increase levels of cycling because of the multiple co-benefits that come from a shift from private motor vehicles to bicycles, including reduced dependence on potentially dwindling oil supplies, less air and noise pollution, less greenhouse gas emissions, less congestion plus

Lyndal Wellard, Colleen Glasson, Kathy Chapman and Caroline Miller

Introduction:  Fast food can contribute a significant amount of energy, total and saturated fat, sodium and sugar to the diet,1 especially if it is consumed often. The fast food industry has been under increased scrutiny since their adoption of the self-regulatory Australian Quick Service Restaurant Industry (QSRI) Initiative for Responsible Advertising and Marketing to Children in 2009.2

Under the QSRI Initiative, seven

Shane Hearn, Hannah Nancarrow, Miranda Rose, Luciana Massi, Marilyn Wise, Katherine Conigrave, Ian Barnes and Adrian Bauman

Introduction:  Tobacco smoking is the greatest single contributor to overall mortality and the burden of disease among Aboriginal populations. Tobacco smoking not only causes early death; it also greatly diminishes quality of life.1 The importance of reducing these two impacts is demonstrated through the National Partnership Agreement on Closing the Gap in Indigenous

Carla Saunders and Afaf Girgis

Introduction: Health science is primarily based on ideas created in academic environments which are then tested and described in scientific papers with a relatively small proportion going on to be delivered to health care consumers.1,2 Generally, the people participating in or affected by the research activities meant to benefit them have little or no input in the research, either in determining what is to be investigated, the types of information obtained or in

Mong-Lin Yu, Jenny M. Ziviani and Michele Haynes

Introduction: Early childhood, when children are between three and five years of age, has been identified as an important time for the establishment of behavioural patterns for physical activity.1,2 The benefits of physical activity for young children’s health and wellbeing are widely acknowledged, and include maintenance of healthy body weight; reduced risk of developing cardiovascular diseases, anxiety and depression; enhancement of bone

Christine Innes-Hughes, Louise L. Hardy, Kamalesh Venugopal, Lesley A. King, Luke Wolfenden and Anna Rangan

Introduction: Intakes of energy-dense, nutrient-poor (EDNP) foods, such as fast food and processed snack foods, along with low intakes of fruit and vegetables, have been identified as markers of poor diet quality in young children.1 Poor diet quality, in turn, has been associated with higher rates of childhood overweight and obesity,2 the prevalence of which is unacceptably high in

Michael Rosenberg, Lisa Wood, Melita Leeds and Sue Wicks

Introduction: The prevention of childhood poisoning is recognised as a major public health priority that lies within the remit of injury control in Australia.1 Internationally, studies in countries as diverse as the US,2 Thailand,3 Sweden,4 and Iran5 mirror similar concerns6 about both the prevalence of childhood poisoning and the importance of preventive measures.

Although fatal childhood poisonings have declined significantly over

Marewa Glover, Anette Kira, Sandar Min, Robert Scragg, Vili Nosa, Judith McCool and Chris Bullen

Introduction: Tobacco, alcohol and marijuana, in that order, are popular drugs widely used in New Zealand and elsewhere.1,2.Twenty-one per cent of New Zealanders aged over 15 years are smokers, of whom Māori
(the indigenous people of New Zealand) and Pacific Island people, (comprising15% and 7% of the national population respectively3) have substantially higher smoking prevalences (45% and 31%

Judith McCool, Ashleigh Cussen and Shanthi Ameratunga

Introduction: Global health has received considerable attention over the past 20 years, with increased investment from some governments, nongovernment organisations (NGOs) and private philanthropists (e.g. the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation).1 Despite the financial and government responses to global health inequities, the distribution of resources remains disproportionately clustered in developed, higher income countries, where only 16%

Richard Fletcher

Introduction: Recent evidence of the effect of fathers’ perinatal depression on their children’s development and reports of fathers’ positive impact on both depressed mothers and their infants suggest that fathers may require support if either they or their spouses are at risk of depression.1-4 Existing postnatal screening and support services are designed to address mothers’ needs and it is unclear how to provide information and support to fathers.5,6 The internet, which is

Amanda Bates, Philippa Eccleston, Michelle Kershaw

Introduction: Falls are a major health problem for older people. Approximately one in three people aged 65 years and over falls every year.1 There is strong evidence that exercise programs can reduce falls in older people.2,3 It has been recommended that exercise interventions for preventing falls should include balance training.4 The minimum exercise dose effective in reducing falls is a twice weekly program for 25 weeks.2

Exercise programs

Andrew J. Milat, Lesley King, Adrian Bauman and Sally Redman

As the chronic disease burden grows, government is increasingly investing in prevention.1-3. However, policy makers frequently report a scarcity of effective programs suitable for population-level implementation. Policy makers also seek information to aid decisions about whether programs found to be effective in small-scale studies can be implemented at the population level. To date, investigation of optimal ways to expand programs

Chris Rissel, Tessa Piper and Li Ming Wen

Public health guidelines and recommendations are developed to provide information for health professionals and the public about specific behaviours or practices to maximise individual and/or population health. They are based on the best available evidence of the known benefits or dangers. Obvious examples include eating two serves of fruit and five serves of vegetables per day, exclusive breastfeeding until six months, limiting alcohol consumption, and

Erin Devine, Marcus Handmer, Karen Bedford, Chris Rissel and Emily Low

Physical activity improves mental health. Building on previous work promoting cycling in the general community,1,2 we trialled an innovative cycling program for mental health service consumers in the former Sydney South West Area Health Service.

The poor physical health of people with a mental illness is well documented.3 Increasing consumer’s physical health is difficult4 and the literature surrounding the issue is

Eric van Beurden and Annie Kia

What do complex issues such as inequity, climate disruption, food insecurity and obesity challenge us to learn? These are wicked problems that require action at every scale.^{1, 2} With multiple, interacting causes, solutions lie well beyond the traditional domain of any one jurisdiction or organisational entity, and beyond business-as-usual.^2-5 A discourse is emerging in health promotion literature on relevant new perspectives and practitioners now appear to be