Outcomes of a gender-sensitized health behavior program delivered through a professional sports club.

Abstract

According to Australian health statistics, the disparity in mortality rates between men and women is substantial with poorer health promoting behaviors in men contributing to these differences. While gender-sensitized health interventions show promising results in promoting positive health behavior in men, further research is needed to better understand men’s health promotion. In the current study, we investigated the outcomes of a gender-sensitized health intervention program for men delivered through a professional sports club in partnership with local government and community organizations. The branding of the Western Bulldogs Football Club is used by the program in a number of ways including in its name, Sons of the West. Participants were men in the western region of Melbourne and Victoria who participated in the program for the first time in 2019. Data was collected at baseline, post-program and a third wave at six-month follow-up on a sample subset. It was expected that both positive health behaviors and health self-efficacy would increase, and that conformity to masculine norms and psychological distress would decrease at post-program. These changes were also expected to be maintained longitudinally post program completion. Results supported these hypotheses showing significant positive changes with large effect sizes observed in health self-efficacy. Significant reductions were found in the masculinity subdomains of self-reliance and dominance. Demographics show the population were mostly middle-age and older men with health challenges who primarily resided in low socioeconomic areas. The findings show promising results for gender-sensitized health interventions and their importance for engaging and improving the long-term health of men residing in lower socioeconomic areas. gender-sensitised health for leveraging the of a professional sport club. The program is tailored to address and work with men’s gender stereotypes to increase positive health behaviour. The results of this study show the SOTW program was effective at engaging men in lower socioeconomic areas and improving their physical and mental health. Moreover, the program was also effective at reducing men’s rigid adherence to stereotypical masculine norms, in particular those linked with negative health outcomes. The findings show promise for gender-sensitised health programs as a pathway to engage men in health promotion where conventional approaches have been ineffective. with four factors in the health self-efficacy instrument (nutrition, health-seeking, psychological help-seeking, exercise). A reliability analysis using Cronbach’s alpha (α) was then run on the sample and yielded high reliability for all subdomains ranging from .80 to .92. and bivariate correlations to the demographic data and its associations with baseline psychosocial and health behavior. series of 20 repeated-measures ANOVAs to and compare four self-efficacy, from pre-program (T1) to post-program (T2) and post-program (T2) follow-up (T3). The findings from this study build on the effectiveness of gender-sensitized health behavior interventions in promoting health self-efficacy, positive mental health, health behaviors and challenging rigid adherence to masculine norms. Furthermore, there is some evidence to suggest these changes are sustained longitudinally. The findings demonstrate gender-sensitized models that utilize the branding of professional sports clubs to be effective for Australian men. The SOTW program has been shown to recruit middle-age and older men residing primarily in lower socioeconomic areas with poor health and health behaviors. Likely, this success is due to the symbolic cultural identity and affinity men have with professional sports. While this is a very local-based program, other sports clubs in other countries have also shown the capacity to leverage professional sports (Pringle et al., 2013), and we expect there are practical applications that can be applied, transferring outcomes to other locations including other countries. Beyond football, it is possible that other cultural symbols that men relate to can be used to attract men and help overcome their initial reticence to engage in health promotion behaviors. There is conflicting research on the implications for gender-related attitudes on health. Challenging masculine norms directly may partially explain the keys to success, but what may be more important is how masculinity is renegotiated and preserved for health promotion in these contexts al., 2013). Contemporary research urges a shift to positive models of masculinity (Cole et al., 2020). A Positive Psychology/Positive Masculinity (PPPM) framework may be useful in studying gender-sensitized health interventions and how they work for men in ways that retain the qualities of what it means to be a man and how greater flexibility for health promotion is fostered (Kiselica & Englar-carlson, 2010). The findings prompt further investigation into the causal mechanisms leading to positive change and this research provides the stepping-stone to understand how these norms are negotiated, and how they can be implemented into wider contexts to increase men’s health self-efficacy.