Translating motivations, barriers, support and information into health behaviour change: community members' response to Australia's National Preventive Health Strategy

Preventive health is a crucial health systems component for managing disease burden and achieving health promotion policy goals. However, effective prevention relies on the modification of relevant risks, often requiring systemic health behaviour change. Australia's National Preventive Health Strategy (NPHS) prioritises seven focus areas: tobacco and nicotine, healthy diet, physical activity, cancer screening, immunisation, alcohol and other drugs, and mental health. The readiness of community members in Australia to address health behaviours relating to these areas has not been fully examined. In response, six focus groups were conducted with 27 adults from the Australian general population to explore their perspectives and experiences of preventive health information and behaviours relating to the seven NPHS focus areas. Themes and sub-themes were identified using an applied descriptive framework. Participants described motivations, barriers and experiences surrounding preventive health through the themes of 'Making informed health choices', 'Facilitating behaviour change and the role of support systems' and 'Spreading the preventive health word'. Sub-themes detailed processes of prioritisation, risk-benefit assessment, critical appraisal, sociocultural influence and support-seeking to understand and personalise preventive health information, implement behavioural change, and share information with others. The focus areas participants engaged with most strongly were healthy eating and physical activity, while cancer screening was discussed less often. These findings indicate high preventive health engagement in the Australian community, alongside challenges navigating and adapting relevant information to personal needs. These insights can support policymakers, healthcare providers and others to effectively enact the NPHS through more targeted preventive health information and care delivery.