Impact of an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander brief intervention training program on health staff participants' own health behaviours: Smoking, nutrition and physical activity

Abstract

Issues addressed: Little research has been conducted on the impact of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander brief intervention training programs on health staff participants' own health behaviours. Through the Queensland B.strong program (2017-2020), brief intervention training in smoking cessation, nutrition and physical activity was provided to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health workforce and other health and community professionals. This study examined the program's impact on participants' own health behaviours. Methods: Data were collected through four surveys (pre-and post-training workshop, and 3-month and 6-month follow-up) of the 1131 participants in B.strong training workshops from June 2017 to August 2019. Surveys included items on participants' own health behaviours. Pre-and post-workshop surveys were paper-based, and follow-up surveyswere completed online. For the analysis of data reported in this paper, paired-samples t tests were used to assess changes between pre-workshop and 3-month follow-up.Results: Statistically significant improvements were found between pre-workshop