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    Home > Resource hub > Sustaining action for NCD prevention at the population scale

Sustaining action for NCD prevention at the population scale

Findings from two recent studies on sustaining interventions for population health intervention in practice identified four key barriers for sustainment.

Dr Melanie Crane delivered this presentation at the Public Health Association of Australia’s (PHAA’s) annual prevention conference in Brisbane, 11-13 May 2022.

Multiple factors have been found to influence the sustainability of health interventions. Yet what we know is derived from mainly small-scale interventions on studies which have been implemented for no more than a few years. This is very limited and may be inapplicable to sustaining population health interventions which require the whole health system; and for investing in longer-term population health improvements.

These two studies provide valuable systems thinking insights sustaining population health interventions in Australia including the influence of macro/external environment factors such as pollical priorities and funding structures and the agility of programs and their management to adapt to external forces:

  1. qualitative interviews with key population health managers and policymakers making decisions at the local, state or national-scale in government and non-government organisations to understand perspective;
  2. quantitative data on theoretical factors influencing sustainability from publicly available websites of NCD prevention interventions.

From 14 stakeholder interviews we identified four key barriers for sustainment:

  1. short-term political and funding cycles;
  2. competing public priorities within health and broader public agenda;
  3. silo thinking within health service delivery;
  4. the fit of the program to population needs.

Various approaches to overcome barriers included long-term planning, flexible program design/management, leadership and partnerships, evidence generation, and system support structures.

From a search of interventions on lifestyle modifiable risk factors for NCDs we identified 90 international interventions (in English) which had been sustained 4-37 years (mean 14.7 years). Those sustained longer (>mean) were mainly North American, and behavioural interventions composed of face-to-face or digital interactive resources. These interventions had generally undergone some modification from their original and a greater proportion were commercially, or government funded, and fewer were delivered through partnerships or community involvement.

Details

DATE 12 May 2022

TYPE Videos

Prevention experts

  • Dr Melanie Crane

    The University of Sydney
    Headshot of Melanie Crane

Prevention methodologies

  • Systems and complexity ,

Related projects

  • Implementation and scale up

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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.

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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.

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