Soft drinks are contributing significantly to increasing weight and chronic disease problems among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Cape York.
High consumption of sugary drinks is associated with a number of health problems, including obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and dental caries.
In 2016-17, Apunipima Cape York Health Council, the community controlled primary health care service provider in Cape York, shared some feedback with Northern Queensland Primary Health Network (NQPHN) which arose from consultations with community members who highlighted a need to raise awareness around the poor health outcomes associated with consumption of sugary drinks.
This was particularly highlighted by Elders and school teachers, who had witnessed first-hand the amount of sugary drinks being consumed by community members, particularly young people.
NQPHN responded by provided funding to assist Apunipima to tackle the issue and deliver the Healthy Communities Project, designed to engage Aboriginal Shire Councils and local decision makers in creating supportive environments for health and wellbeing, with a focus on healthy drink and smoke-free environments.
“The project aims to address the high rates of sugary drink consumption by increasing awareness about negative health effects of sugary drinks, decreasing exposure to sugary drinks by modifying the availability, and increasing availability of and promotion of water as an alternative healthy choice,” said Barb Smith, NQPHN Heath Promotion Lead.
“A large focus of the project is working closely with Aboriginal Shire Councils to ensure sustainable strategies to reduce sugary drinks are developed and implemented that are truly driven and owned by the community.”
The project is a multi-phase initiative incorporating social marketing, community-driven decision making, and implementation of supportive environment strategies within communities.
The project is being piloted across three remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities in Cape York (Mapoon, Napranum and Wujal Wujal) until early 2018.
The project also aims to minimise the harms caused by tobacco smoke through creating and strengthening smoke free spaces, events and policies. These activities complement the National Tackling Indigenous Smoking programme and Don’t Make Smokes Your Story campaign work that Apunipima is also delivering across Cape York.
This project has strong community support and during consultations an Elder was quoted as saying “We need to be a strong community. No sugary drinks and no smoking.”
A key component is the locally-tailored social marketing campaign, “Sugary Drinks Proper No Good – Drink More Water Youfla”, which aims to help children, young people and adults become more aware of the poor health outcomes associated with consumption of sugary drinks. The campaign also aims to encourage community members to make a change, and choose water over sugary drinks. This will complement the National Rethink Sugary Drink campaign.
Learnings from engaging Aboriginal Shire Councils and local decision-makers in the health sector will also be documented as part of this project. These learnings will assist other remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities in facilitating their own community-led actions to help create supportive environments for health.
Final results from the project will be disseminated in late 2018.