Open AccessA SURVEY OF HEALTH PROMOTION PRIORITIES IN THE COMMUNITY
Author(s) -
Pierce J.P.,
Yong C.S.,
Dwyer T.,
Chamberlain A.
Publication year - 1985
Publication title -
community health studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.946
H-Index - 76
eISSN - 1753-6405
pISSN - 0314-9021
DOI - 10.1111/j.1753-6405.1985.tb00494.x
Subject(s) - gerontology , nominate , blood pressure , health promotion , medicine , population , demography , confusion , psychology , environmental health , public health , nursing , sociology , statistics , mathematics , radiology , psychoanalysis
As part of the evaluation of the “Quit. For Life” smoking intervention, 5,713 people in Sydney and Melbourne were asked to order a list of seven health issues in order of community concern. Drink driving appeared to be the major issue, with over 70 per cent in Sydney and nearly 90 per cent in Melbourne placing it in the top three issues. Smoking and stressful lifestyle rated next most highly and were followed by high blood pressure, lack of exercise, weight and cholesterol in that order of perceived importance. Drink driving was ranked most highly by the 14–29 year age groups and teenagers gave the highest priority to smoking. The working age population of both sexes rated stress as more important than did other groups. Older age groups were more concerned with blood pressure and women more so than men. Younger people saw exercise as more important than did older people but a large proportion of all age and sex groups ranked exercise as being of least importance. An unexpected result was that, although older people rated weight as important, there was no sex effect. People appeared unwilling to nominate cholesterol as either important or unimportant, possibly indicating confusion about its relation to health. Suggestions are made as to how these findings can be used to promote healthy lifestyles.