Skip to content
Home page - The Prevention Centre

Primary menu

  • About us
    • Our vision and mission
    • Our approach
    • Our partners
    • Our structure and governance
  • About prevention
    • What is prevention?
    • What are the benefits of prevention for health and wellbeing?
    • What is the burden of chronic disease?
    • What are the economic benefits of prevention?
    • What are the co-benefits of prevention?
  • Our people
  • Our work
    • Research projects
    • Knowledge syntheses
    • A systems thinking approach
    • Dynamic simulation modelling
    • Collaboration for Enhanced Research Impact (CERI)
  • Our impact
    • Research impact
  • Resource hub
  • Events
  • News
  • Engage with us
    • The Chronicle newsletter
    • Emerging Leaders Network
    • Communities of practice
    • Work or study with us
    • Contact us
Search
What are you looking for?

You can search across all our content by topic, methodology and content type.

    Home > Resource hub > Community perceptions of NCD prevention 2016 to 2018: An increasing appetite for government leadership?

Community perceptions of NCD prevention 2016 to 2018: An increasing appetite for government leadership?

Significant complexity underlies public opinion on health prevention. Opportunities may exist to implement government health-promoting policies, although advocacy may be needed.

Associate Professor Anne Grunseit delivered this presentation at the Public Health Association of Australia’s (PHAA’s) annual prevention conference in Brisbane, 11-13 May 2022.

Calls to make regulatory and policy changes for health promotion can be met with reluctance on the part of policymakers due to concerns of public acceptability. Monitoring trends in community opinion can identify critical opportunities to implement upstream health policies or interventions. Our study examines change and demographic modifiers of change in community perceptions of government intervention for prevention of lifestyle-related chronic disease across two time points in Australia.

Data were drawn from the 2016 (n=2052) and 2018 (n=2601) waves of a nationally representative cross sectional telephone survey, ‘AUSPOPS’. Survey questions gauged perceptions of government intervention for health in general, peoples’/organizations’ role in maintaining health (e.g., parents, government) and support for specific health interventions (e.g., taxing soft drink). Regression models tested for change between the two surveys, adjusted for demographic characteristics. Interaction terms between wave and demographic variables tested differential change. Variance ratio tests examined whether opinions had become more polarized in 2018 compared with 2016.

There was a large, significant increase observed in the perceived size of the role that government has in maintaining people’s health. Support for some government interventions (e.g., taxing soft drinks) increased among only specific demographic subgroups whilst exhibiting no overall change. Opinion was more polarized on general attitudes to government intervention for population health in 2018 compared to 2016, despite little change in central tendency.

Opportunities may exist to implement government health-promoting policies such as regulation of junk food marketing to children, although advocacy may be needed to address the concerns of less supportive subpopulations. Attitudes on government intervention in general may be becoming increasingly polarized, perhaps reflecting a more widespread trend observed on non-health issues.

Details

DATE 12 May 2022

TYPE Videos

Prevention experts

  • Associate Professor Anne Grunseit

    University of Technology Sydney
    Headshot of Anne Grunseit
  • Dr Elly Howse

    The Australian Prevention Partnership Centre
    Headshot of Elly Howse
  • Erika Bohn-Goldbaum Erika Bohn-Goldbaum has finished working with the Prevention Centre.

    The University of Sydney
    Headshot of Erika Goldbaum
  • Adjunct Associate Professor Jo Mitchell

    The Australian Prevention Partnership Centre
    Headshot of Jo Mitchell
  • Emeritus Professor Adrian Bauman AO

    The University of Sydney
    Headshot of Adrian Bauman

Prevention methodologies

  • Making the case for prevention ,
  • Regulation and governance ,

Related projects

  • Perceptions of prevention: What does the Australian community think?

    People holding different coloured speech bubble cardboard cutouts

Related resources

  • AUSPOPS 2016–2018: Second national report

    Resource category: Reports Reports
    Date 30 Apr 2019
  • AUSPOPS Third national report 2016-2021

    Resource category: Reports Reports
    Date 15 Sep 2021
  • AUSPOPS shows how measuring public opinion can drive public health action

    Resource category: Findings Brief Findings Brief
    Date 24 Mar 2022
SHARE
TweetLinkedInFacebookEmail

More resources

  • Community of practice: Scaling the voice of older adults

    Resource category: Videos Videos
    Date 15 Mar 2023
  • A prevention lens on the roles of an Australian Centre for Disease Control

    Resource category: Submissions Submissions
    Date 27 Feb 2023
  • What makes a neighbourhood healthy, active and happy to live in?

    Resource category: Videos Videos
    Date 23 Jan 2023

Acknowledgement of Country

The Australian Prevention Partnership Centre acknowledges Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians and Traditional Custodians of the lands where we live, learn, and work.

Newsletter sign-up

Newsletter

Follow the Prevention Centre

Follow us

  • TwitterTwitter
  • LinkedinLinkedin
  • YoutubeYoutube
  • PodcastPodcast

Funding Partners

The Australian Prevention Partnership Centre is funded by the NHMRC, Australian Government Department of Health, ACT Health, Cancer Council Australia, NSW Ministry of Health, Wellbeing SA, Tasmanian Department of Health, and VicHealth. The Australian Government also contributed through the Medical Research Future Fund. Queensland Health became a financial contributor in 2022. The Prevention Centre is administered by the Sax Institute.

©2023 The Sax Institute.

Footer Navigation

  • Contact us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Disclaimer
  • Copyright
  • Terms of Use
  • Sitemap

BROWSER NOT SUPPORTED

It seems you’re using a browser that we no longer support, so this site might not function as expected.

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox or Edge to visit this website.

Share this ArticleLike this article? Email it to a friend!

Email sent!