ACTIVE LIVING CENSUS FINDINGS RELEASED FOR LODDON SHIRE

Published on 10 June 2020

WALKING HIGHLIGHTED AS THE TOP WAY TO KEEP ACTIVE AS 2019 ACTIVE LIVING CENSUS FINDINGS RELEASED FOR LODDON SHIRE

Healthy Heart of Victoria has released the local findings of the 2019 Active Living Census (ALC) for Loddon Shire. This follows the release of the results for the Loddon Campaspe region earlier this year.

With 812 responses received, the results from the Census provide an important insight into the health and wellbeing of people within Loddon Shire.

One of the largest surveys ever conducted within Loddon Shire, the Active Living Census asked residents questions about their health and wellbeing, including their participation in organised sport and informal physical activity, consumption of fruit, vegetables, water, alcohol and sugary drinks, overweight and obesity rates, rates of smoking and gambling, and levels of life satisfaction.

The aim of the Census was to develop a dataset to help inform decision making on investments, infrastructure, programs and services to ensure they are what is needed, where they’re needed.

Additionally, the intent of the findings is to assist local government and community agencies, schools, sporting clubs, community groups and residents within each local government area to advocate for the health and wellbeing of our communities. It will also support these organisations and groups to be more informed about the health behaviours within their communities and to assist them in obtaining funding to help create better health outcomes locally.

Key findings from 2019 Active Living Census for Loddon include:

Walking is the most popular type of physical activity, followed by swimming, active play, tennis and bush walking.
Three in every four adults in the Loddon Shire are overweight or obese (72.1%). This is higher than the Victorian average of 49.7%.
One in every seven adults meet the daily vegetable consumption guidelines (15.2%) as compared to the Victorian average of 4.9%.
One in nine households (11.5%) in the Loddon Shire are food insecure – they do not have enough to eat. In some areas, this increases to one in six households. This is higher than the Victorian average of 6.2%.
People in the Loddon Campaspe region want to be more active more often, with 55.7% of females and 53.3% of males wanting to do more activity.
Food insecurity and household self-rated prosperity appear to be key predictors for a cluster of health behaviours and outcomes, with food insecure and low income households reporting lower levels of health and wellbeing overall, higher rates of overweight and obesity, higher rates of health-risk behaviours (i.e. smoking, alcohol, sugary drinks) and lower rates of health-protecting behaviours (i.e. physical activity, fruit and vegetable consumption).

Cheryl McKinnon, Loddon Shire Mayor, said “There are two reports available for the Active Living Census for Loddon Shire – a comprehensive Topline report featuring detailed tables of data on every survey question, and a Selected Findings report highlighting the main findings.”

“The Selected Findings report is broken down by each township as well as by the top activities with the highest rate of yearly participation, and into specific demographic and population groups.”

“There is also a comprehensive summary at the beginning of each of these reports, which provides a holistic overview of the findings for Loddon, and compares the results to the Loddon Campaspe region as well as to Victorian state statistics.”

The Active Living Census was funded by the Healthy Heart of Victoria initiative and project-managed by Healthy Greater Bendigo. The ALC is a key part of the Healthy Heart of Victoria initiative which was funded to address concerning health statistics across the Loddon Campaspe region – the heart of Victoria. In addition to the ALC, infrastructure and activation projects to get more people, more active, more often and encourage healthy eating, as well as policy work to help make health everyone’s business, are already underway.

The 2019 Active Living Census reports are available to view and download from www.loddon.vic.gov.au now. We encourage any interested members of the community to view and utilise the data for their needs.

Media contact: Mayor Cheryl McKinnon, Mobile 0409 557 888

ABOUT THE HEALTHY HEART OF VICTORIA INITIATIVE

Healthy Heart of Victoria (HHV) is a State Government funded initiative aimed at improving the health of people in the Loddon Campaspe region – the ‘heart’ of Victoria.

Healthy Heart of Victoria projects are designed to focus on those parts of the community that are the least active and least supported to get more people, more active, more often.

The six Loddon Campaspe Local Government Areas are involved – Campaspe Shire, Central Goldfields Shire, City of Greater Bendigo, Loddon Shire, Macedon Ranges Shire and Mount Alexander Shire.

There are three main components to the initiative:

The Active Living Census (ALC)

An evaluation and measurement tool to enable evidence-based planning for the provision of health and recreation services and allow deep understanding of people’s activity levels and preferences

Infrastructure and activation that gets more people, more active, more often

Healthy Heart of Victoria is funding improvements and support for infrastructure, facilities and/or programs across the region to enable more community members to increase their activity levels. This part of the initiative will focus on areas where residents are less active.

Examples include:

Upgrades to Crossenvale Park in Echuca in the Campaspe Shire, including nature playground, fitness programs and a water fountain
Path upgrades and the introduction of a parkrun at Maryborough’s Goldfields Reservoir in Central Goldfields Shire
Path, seating and lighting upgrades, along with the installation of outdoor fitness equipment in Kangaroo Flat and Long Gully in City of Greater Bendigo
Installation of outdoor fitness equipment in Wedderburn and Boort in Loddon Shire
WalKyneton – improvements to pathways and facilities along the Campaspe River Walk in Kyneton in Macedon Ranges Shire
Path and crossing upgrades in Castlemaine in Mount Alexander Shire Council

Health Broker workforce

A workforce of Health Brokers has been appointed to work across the six Loddon Campaspe Councils.

The Health Broker’s role is to develop relationships between Council, local organisations and community groups to help build knowledge and influence decision making with respect to health and wellbeing.