Who Do We Reach? Campaign Evaluation of Find Thirty every day® Using Awareness Profiles in a Western Australian Cohort

Abstract

Mass media campaigns are part of a comprehensive, population-based approach to communicate physical activity behavior change. Campaign awareness is the most frequently reported, short-term comparable measure of campaign effectiveness. Most mass media campaigns report those who were aware with those who are unaware of campaigns. Few campaigns follow awareness in the same respondent, over time, during a mass media campaign to track different patterns of awareness or awareness profiles—“never,” “early,” “late,” or “always”—that may emerge. Using awareness profiles, the authors (a) address any demographic differences between groups and (b) assess changes in physical activity. Find Thirty every day® was a populationwide mass media campaign delivered in Western Australia. The cohort comprised 405 participants, who completed periodic telephone interviews over 2 years. Almost one third (30.4%) were “never aware” of the campaign. More than one third recalled the campaign at one or more time points—“early aware.” Ten percent became aware at Time 2 and stayed aware of the campaign across the remaining time. Examining within and across the awareness profiles, only gender was significant. This article provides an approach to profiling awareness, whereby people cycle in and out and few people are “always aware” over a 2-year period. It presents possible implications and considerations for future campaign planners interested in establishing and maintaining campaign awareness with adult populations.

Acknowledgment

The authors thank Mark Divitini, University of Western Australia, for his statistical advice about repeated-measures analyses using mixed-model analysis in this article.

Notes

AUD = Australian dollars; TEE = Tertiary Entrance Examination.

Bivariate contingency Pearson chi-square test p < .05.

^a Because of small numbers in underweight category, this was collapsed to the underweight and normal category.

*Pearson chi-square <.05.

^a Physical activity pattern was computed by summing T1–T4 total physical activity variable (0 = inactive and 1 = sufficient) with a minimum of 0 and maximum of 4 (0–2 was recoded inactive/not maintained; 3–4 active maintainer).

*Significant at p <.05.

^a Referent group for multivariate analysis.

*Multivariate analysis adjusted for gender, age, socioeconomic status, education, body mass index, and awareness profile.

*Significant at p <.05.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Justine E. Leavy

Justine E. Leavy is now affiliated with Curtin University.