Training Program for Community Health Campaign: Fitter Families Project

In 2011, United Nations (UN) addressed the prevention and control of four non-communicable diseases (NCDs: cancer, cardiovascular disease, chronic respiratory disease, and diabetes mellitus) worldwide. The UN, in its Political Declaration, recognized the critical importance of reducing the exposure to the common modifiable risk factors for NCDs, namely, tobacco use, unhealthy diet, physical inactivity, and the harmful use of alcohol.In Hong Kong, NCDs are responsible for more than 85% of all deaths and most of these are preventable. FAMILY Project Cohort Study (2014) also found that 88.6% of Hong Kong people had inadequate vegetable and fruit intake, 70.6% had inadequate physical exercise, 26.4% were overweight and 5.4% were obese.

Families worldwide have been undergoing rapid changes with macro, social and economic trends. Demographic shifts, economic upheavals, changing societal norms and values, immigration across national borders and migration within nations are creating new and altered structures, processes and relationships within families. The increasingly complex and diverse family structure contributes to concerns regarding the well-being of families in Hong Kong, including their health, happiness and harmony (FAMILY 3Hs). Family life and health education should be strengthened to meet the increasing needs of promoting healthy lifestyle among Hong Kong families.

The Fitter Families Project is developed based on the strong foundation of the Learning Families Project in the previous years. In view of the health challenges locally and globally, the new phase of FAMILY project will put more emphasis on health in the upcoming three years. Following the themes on FAMILY health, happiness and harmony (3Hs), the Fitter Families Project focuses on family holistic health with emphasis on the interaction and integration of both physical and psychosocial health.

As an initial step of this project, the investigators conducted a need assessments before designing and conducting a train-the-trainer program. The train-the-trainer program aimed to prepare the staff and lay volunteers to conduct and or assist to implement a series of community-based activities and interventions for the participants of Fitter Families Project. Focus group interviews were conducted to obtain feedback and opinion from the trainees . Questionnaire assessments were conducted before, immediately after finishing the training, three months after training.