Abstract
BackgroundPeople with a mental health condition have a shorter life expectancy than the general population. This is largely attributable to higher rates of chronic disease and a higher prevalence of modifiable health risk behaviours including tobacco smoking, alcohol consumption, poor nutrition, and physical inactivity. Telephone support services offer a viable option to provide support to reduce these health risk behaviours at a population-level; however, whilst there is some research pertaining to Quitlines, there is limited other research investigating whether telephone services may offer effective support for people with a mental health condition. This protocol describes a randomised controlled trial that aims to evaluate the referral of people with a mental health condition to a population-level telephone coaching service to increase physical activity, healthy eating, or weight management, and increase attempts to do so.MethodsA parallel-group randomised controlled trial will be conducted recruiting participants with a mental health condition through community mental health services and advertisement on social media. Participants will be randomly assigned to receive either a health information pack only (control) or a health information pack and a proactive referral to a free, government-funded telephone coaching service, the NSW Get Healthy Coaching and Information Service® (intervention), which offers up to 13 telephone coaching calls with a University Qualified Health Coach to assist with client-identified goals relating to physical activity, healthy eating, weight management, or alcohol reduction. Data will be collected via telephone surveys at baseline and 6 months post-recruitment. Primary outcomes are as follows: (1) minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity per week, (2) serves of fruit consumed per day, (3) serves of vegetables consumed per day, and (4) a composite measure assessing attempts to change at least one health risk behaviour (any attempts to change physical activity, fruit consumption, vegetable consumption, or other parts of nutrition). Secondary outcomes include weight and body mass index.DiscussionThis study is the first to evaluate the effectiveness of referral to a population-level telephone support service for reducing health risk behaviours relating to physical activity, healthy eating, and weight in people with a mental health condition. Results will inform future policy and practice regarding the delivery of telephone-based behaviour change coaching services and the management of physical health for this population to reduce health inequity and the burden of chronic disease.Trial registrationThe Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry ACTRN12620000351910. Retrospectively registered on 12 March 2020
Highlights
People with a mental health condition have a shorter life expectancy than the general population
This study is the first to evaluate the effectiveness of referral to a population-level telephone support service for reducing health risk behaviours relating to physical activity, healthy eating, and weight in people with a mental health condition
Data collection procedures and measures The primary outcomes of the trial include behaviour change outcomes: (1) minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity conducted per week, (2) average serves of fruit consumed per day over the past month, (3) average serves of vegetables consumed per day over the past month, as well as a composite dichotomous outcome of (4) whether participants attempted to change any of the following health behaviours or biomedical risk factors over the past six months: increase physical activity, fruit consumption, vegetable consumption, any other dietary changes, weight, or alcohol consumption
Summary
People with a mental health condition have a shorter life expectancy than the general population This is largely attributable to higher rates of chronic disease and a higher prevalence of modifiable health risk behaviours including tobacco smoking, alcohol consumption, poor nutrition, and physical inactivity. In Australia, this gap is estimated at up to 16 years [4] This is mainly attributed to higher morbidity and mortality rates as the result of chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, and cancer [1,2,3], as well as a higher prevalence of associated modifiable health risk behaviours including tobacco smoking [5,6,7], harmful alcohol consumption [8], poor nutrition [9], and inadequate physical activity [10]. The review found that Quitlines offering multiple calls tended to achieve greater smoking cessation rates than those offering only one coaching call
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