Find thirty everyday®: an evaluation of a mass media physical activity campaign in Western Australia

[Truncated abstract] Introduction: Regular moderate intensity physical activity is associated with established health benefits for adults. Since the 1970s mass media campaigns have been used to communicate and influence populations through paid and unpaid traditional media channels such as television, billboards, radio and print materials. The evaluation of these campaigns at the population level has focussed on immediate and short term effects on a range of awareness, knowledge and intention outcomes, with behaviour change less often explored. Few evaluations of mass media campaigns have been conducted over a longer time period. The focus of this PhD thesis was to evaluate Find Thirty every day® a Western Australian state-wide physical activity campaign. This research used representative cross sectional and cohort samples of the population in the evaluation design. Previous evaluations of mass media campaigns have generally used cross sectional designs. This combination of method provides an innovative contribution to the campaign evaluation literature. Methods: The Find Thirty every day® evaluation took place over a two years (2008-2010). The sampling protocol required equal proportions of males and females, aged between 25 and 54 years, and a quarter were from regional Western Australia. The total sample size was n=3006, with a final useable cross sectional sample of n=2,847. The cohort participants were recruited as a sub sample from respondents who participated in the cross sectional baseline data set and who agreed to participate in the cohort (n=833). The cross-sectional design had three data collection points and the cohort design had four data collection points on the same individuals over two years. Results: This thesis comprised five studies. A systematic review of the adult mass media physical activity literature was undertaken to assess the current state of evidence on the design, delivery and evaluation of mass media campaigns. The review revealed that most studies used repeat cross sectional designs, and overall there were mixed results in terms of campaign effectiveness across awareness, intermediary impacts and changes in physical activity outcomes. The second study examined the impact of the Find Thirty every day® campaign on awareness, intention to be active and physical activity behaviour using repeat cross sectional population data. Overall awareness levels increased by almost 20% across the first twelve months and by two years 50% of the primary target group were aware of the campaign message...