EVALUATING A COMPREHENSIVE MEDIA CAMPAIGN TO PROMOTE PHYSICAL ACTIVITY IN AUSTRALIA 1998

Abstract

2081 The pilot Active Australia mass media campaign to promote physical activity was conducted in the state of New South Wales in February 1998, with the remainder of Australia as control regions. The target group was people aged 25-60 who were 'motivated but insufficiently active'. The campaign comprised a physician mailout, substantial paid and PSA television advertising, paid media print and community level support. The campaign was developed following extensive formative research, and targeted the inactive but motivated, emphasising moderate levels of physical activity. The evaluation design included cohort and independent cross sectional representative population surveys (N's >2000 each), before and after the campaign. Validated questions of physical activity, media message awareness, knowledge, efficacy, and intention were based on previous Australian research. There was a significant increase in recall of PA messages after the campaign, confined to the NSW population only (unprompted recall in NSW (2.7% to 20.9%**, with no change elsewhere in Australia (1.3% to 2.6%). More substantial changes in prompted awareness were confined to NSW (12.9% to 50.7%**), with no changes elsewhere (14.0 to 16%). Mean scores for knowledge of appropriate moderate physical activity and intention to be more active increased significantly after the campaign only in NSW. Mean minutes of activity were 2.7% higher in NSW following the campaign, compared to a 9.8% decline in comparison regions. In the NSW cohort, the target group of motivated but inactive were 2.3 times as likely to increase activity by at least an hour per week (95% Cl 1.8-2.9) compared to all others. These data suggest that integrated media campaigns can positively influence the short term physical activity understanding and behavior of populations, compared to those unexposed to such campaigns. [**p<0.001]. The campaign was funded by NSW Health & Active Australia.