Finding 30’s not hard

Getting Western Australia more active may not seem like the easiest job in the world but it is one the Find Thirty Campaign team took on with a vengeance.

The idea behind the concept was simple – “Find 30. It’s not a big exercise” was the message being put to the people.

And it appeared to be working, with tracking research by the Department of Health last year finding that: 79 per cent of respondents were aware of the campaign; 61 per cent thought about the amount of physical activity they get; 50 per cent reported changing their physical activity; and 89 per cent agreed the campaign communicated that physical activity was easy to fit into the day.

The campaign followed the development of the Premier’s Physical Activity Taskforce, an across-government program to oversee the development and implementation of a whole of community physical activity plan for the State.

The 2002 Physical Activity Levels of Western Australian Adults survey found that 45 per cent of the population did not participate in sufficient physical activity for good health and 13 per cent shunned any physical activity.

The campaign was aimed at adults aged 25 to 54 years who are inactive or insufficiently active, based on the premise that increasing the average person’s physical activity levels was a State health priority and was an important change needed to reduce the risk of major disease.

It aimed to: increase awareness of the type and frequency of physical activity necessary for good health; demonstrate how moderate intensity physical activity can be incorporated into the daily lives of people who are inactive or insufficiently active; and encourage health professionals to provide accurate and consistent messages to promote moderate intensity physical activity.

Several projects were focused on to tie in with the Find 30 message – The City to Surf Find 30 four-kilo-metre walk; Physical Activity Awareness Day; Walk there Today to Find 30; and Cycle Instead to Find 30.

Each of these required the Find 30 team to partner with the organisations running those events.