Effectiveness of a participative community singing program to improve health behaviors and increase physical activity in Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people

Abstract

Background: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander individuals continue to experience greater levels of chronic disease than the general Australian population. Evidence suggests that increased sedentary behaviors compared with the traditional healthy and active lifestyles of this population have contributed to this situation. This investi gation aimed to examine the health benefits of a community-based singing activity intervention on chronic disease among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians. Methods: From 2010 to 2011, 291 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, from Queensland, Australia, were recruited through five communities to participate in a 1-year community singing program. Participants completed a survey, in the pre-and post-intervention phases of the study, that measured social connectedness, health behavior (e.g., smoking, alcohol consumption), frequency of exercise and art activities, and medication use. Results: Improvements in health behavior were observed for both male and female participants with chronic disease of all age groups in the community singing program. Improvements in the male and female participants included decreased social loneliness and reduced smoking behavior, increased social support, and increased participation in exercise and art activities. Conclusions: The participative community singing program was successful in improving the health status and increasing physical activity among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adults.

Health and wellbeing outcomes of programs for Indigenous Australians that include strategies to enable the expression of cultural identities: a systematic review

“…Of these Eley et al (2010) detected improved outcomes for Study 1 but not Study 2 or for two subsequent iterations of the program. For eight interventions described in the study, observed improvements were statistically significant (O'Dea 1984; Lee et al 1994;Rowley et al 2001;d'Espaignet et al 2003;Nagel et al 2009;Eley et al 2010;Dimer et al 2013;Sun and Buys 2013). Two studies where statistical analyses were not conducted show positive directions of effects in health and wellbeing outcomes (Nel and Pashen 2003;Preuss and Brown 2006) (Table 1).…”

“…They include visiting Country and cultural sites (O'Dea 1984;Preuss and Brown 2006), education in traditional cultural practices (Preuss and Brown 2006), hunting, fishing and eating bush foods (O'Dea 1984; Rowley et al 2001), traditional games (Kiran and Knights 2010) yarning (an Indigenous mode of talking) and sharing cultural stories (Lee et al 1994;Dimer et al 2013), mapping and activating cultural relationships of care (d'Espaignet et al 2003;Nel and Pashen 2003;Nagel et al 2009), reinforcing Elder authority (Preuss and Brown 2006) and painting, dancing, playing instruments and singing as a community (Dimer et al 2013;Sun and Buys 2013). Programs were implemented in a range of locations.…”

“…Few included studies utilised randomised designs and four were rated as moderate or poor in study design (Nel and Pashen 2003;Preuss and Brown 2006;Kiran and Knights 2010;Sun and Buys 2013). All except two studies (O'Dea 1984; Sun and Buys 2013) described interventions that entailed multiple strategies, including conventional medical or health promotion approaches alongside cultural elements.…”

“…Another program using music to improve chronic diseases outcomes was described by Sun and Buys (2013). This program involved 291 people recruited from five Indigenous communities in Queensland to a community singing program designed to enhance connection to the community and improve aerobic capacity.…”

“…Two of these studies (Eley et al 2010;Dimer et al 2013) were rated as high or moderately high for study design. The study by Sun and Buys (2013) was rated as moderate on study design, and that of Kiran and Knights (2010) as low. All the studies in this section of the review were rated as moderate for Indigenous involvement.…”