Abstract
Lifestyle modification can improve the health of people with or at risk of non-communicable diseases; however, initiating and maintaining positive health behaviours including healthy eating and physical activity is challenging. Young remote Aboriginal people who had successfully made significant healthy lifestyle changes were sought out to explore how they achieved this success. Four Aboriginal men aged 20–35 years were identified and consented to participate. Their perceptions of motivation for change, strategies, and facilitators and barriers were explored through in-depth interviews. Themes developed from the interviews included self-efficacy, self-reliance, and increased knowledge and altered health beliefs underpinning change. Participants with diabetes were highly motivated to avoid diabetes complications and had a strong belief that their actions could achieve this. In a setting with high levels of disadvantage, participants had relatively favourable socioeconomic circumstances with solid social supports. These findings highlight that lifestyle modification programs that foster internal motivation, enhance key health knowledge, and modify health beliefs and risk perception are needed. Increasing diabetes awareness among at-risk young people is important, emphasising the largely preventable and potentially reversible nature of the condition. Broad health improvements and individual changes will be facilitated by equitable socioeconomic circumstances and environments that support health.
Highlights
Physical activity and an appropriate diet are key factors in good health and chronic disease prevention but are commonly lacking in modern lifestyles, often requiring considerable effort in obesity-promoting environments [1,2]
The fourth did not have diabetes, but had made lifestyle changes leading to substantial weight loss (>30 kg)
This study highlighted the importance of thorough health knowledge as well as belief about personal capacity to improve health, as part of motivation for lifestyle changes
Summary
Physical activity and an appropriate diet are key factors in good health and chronic disease prevention but are commonly lacking in modern lifestyles, often requiring considerable effort in obesity-promoting environments [1,2]. Large-scale trials such as the US Diabetes Prevention Program have demonstrated that lifestyle modification can be achieved and sustained over several years [3], and can prevent type 2 diabetes in people at high risk [4]. These findings have been applied in various real-world studies, with some success [5]. Public Health 2019, 16, 1063; doi:10.3390/ijerph16061063 www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph
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