Large and forgotten in rural Australia: assessment, attitudes and possible approaches to losing weight in young adult males

Abstract

BackgroundYoung Adult Males (YAMs) in rural Australia are poorly studied with respect to overweight and obesity. Firstly, we explored the feasibility of recruiting 17–25 year old YAMs to obtain baseline data on overweight and obesity rates, socio-demographics, nutrition, exercise and mobile phone usage. Secondly, we explored the views of YAMs with a waist measurement over 94 cm about using mobile phone text messages to promote weight loss and incentives to promote healthy lifestyles.MethodsA two-staged, mixed-methods approach was used to study obesity and overweight issues in Dubbo, a regional city in New South Wales, Australia. In Phase I, socio-demographic, health behaviour and mobile phone usage data were collected using a questionnaire and anthropometric data collected by direct measurement. In Phase II, YAMs’ views were explored by focus group discussion using a semi-structured questionnaire.ResultsPhase I (145 participants): mean Body Mass Index (BMI) 25.06 ± 5.01; mean waist circumference 87.4 ± 15.4 cm. In total, 39.3% were obese (12.4%) or overweight (26.9%) and 24.1% had an increased risk of metabolic complications associated with obesity. 135 (93.1%) owned a mobile phone and sent on average 17 ± 25 text messages per day and received 18 ± 24.Phase II (30 participants): YAMs acknowledged that overweight and obesity was a growing societal concern with many health related implications, but didn’t feel this was something that affected them personally at this stage of their lives. Motivation was therefore an issue. YAMs admitted that they would only be concerned about losing weight if something drastic occurred in their lives. Text messages would encourage and motivate them to adopt a healthy lifestyle if they were individually tailored. Gym memberships, not cash payments, seem to be the most favoured incentive.ConclusionThere is a clear need for an effective health promotion strategy for the almost 40% overweight or obese Dubbo YAMs. The high rate of text message usage makes it feasible to recruit YAMs for a prospective study in which personalized text messages are used to promote healthy behaviours. It may be important to target motivation specifically in any weight-related intervention in this group with incentives such as gym membership vouchers.

A pragmatic examination of active and passive recruitment methods to improve the reach of community lifestyle programs: The Talking Health Trial

“…From a pragmatic perspective simply understanding the total yield from a recruitment strategy is insufficient [9]. Other factors are also salient such as the cost of recruitment and the representativeness of participants that are engaged through different recruitment strategies to ensure key subgroups in the population are not under-represented (e.g., those from lower SES, less educated, and minority groups [9–11]). This is not an insignificant point for those interested in eliminating health disparities.…”

‘Now I care’: a qualitative study of how overweight adolescents managed their weight in the transition to adulthood

“…14 15 However, a qualitative UK study found high acceptance of body size among disadvantaged overweight/obese Scottish 13-14 years, 16 while qualitative US and Australian studies have found that adolescents recognise obesity as a societal issue, but not in themselves, and thus have low motivation to implement behavioural changes. [17][18][19] One reason why so little is known about how young adults view overweight/obesity or approach weight loss is that while it is relatively easy to study adolescents 'captive' in school or treatment programmes, they become largely invisible to researchers once they leave school. We have previously reported findings from a qualitative study of young adults nested within a large Scottish cohort study, where participants were well documented as having been overweight/obese in adolescence.…”

“…This revealed widespread recalled recognition of, but lack of major recalled concern about their overweight/obesity during adolescence, 20 consistent with other studies. [16][17][18][19] This data set also included reflections by participants on their lives since adolescence which have not so far been reported. Thus, this new qualitative analysis aimed to explore their transition to adulthood, by examining postschool weight-related concerns, behaviours and experiences related to young adult transitions among 24 year-olds categorised in terms of measured adolescent body mass index (BMI) trajectories and current BMI.…”

Strategies for successful recruitment of young adults to healthy lifestyle programmes for the prevention of weight gain: a systematic review

“…The effectiveness of multifaceted lifestyle interventions for prevention of weight gain to avert obesity has been established in young adult populations. However, the challenges of recruiting this target group to participate in weight management interventions have been well documented . Although there is limited research conducted to inform recruitment efforts for weight gain prevention interventions, some common challenges were recognized such as making initial contact, scheduling conflicts, lack of interest and unlikelihood to make any behaviour changes .…”

“…Although there is limited research conducted to inform recruitment efforts for weight gain prevention interventions, some common challenges were recognized such as making initial contact, scheduling conflicts, lack of interest and unlikelihood to make any behaviour changes . Some high risk subgroups among this life stage are even harder to recruit such as socioeconomically disadvantaged, less educated and ethnic minorities groups and males .…”