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Are Perceptions of Government Intervention Related to Support for Prevention? An Australian Survey Study

Background: In Australia, despite the success of tobacco control policy interventions, policymakers remain resistant to policy-based approaches to diet, alcohol, physical inactivity and obesity, concerned about community perceptions of such interventions as “nanny-statist”. We examined how people’s...

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Autores principales: Grunseit, Anne Carolyn, Howse, Eloise, Williams, Julie, Bauman, Adrian Ernest
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10177783/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37174788
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/healthcare11091246
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author Grunseit, Anne Carolyn
Howse, Eloise
Williams, Julie
Bauman, Adrian Ernest
author_facet Grunseit, Anne Carolyn
Howse, Eloise
Williams, Julie
Bauman, Adrian Ernest
author_sort Grunseit, Anne Carolyn
collection PubMed
description Background: In Australia, despite the success of tobacco control policy interventions, policymakers remain resistant to policy-based approaches to diet, alcohol, physical inactivity and obesity, concerned about community perceptions of such interventions as “nanny-statist”. We examined how people’s general positions on government intervention related to their positions on different preventive policy options. Methods: Data were from a 2018 nationally representative cross-sectional telephone survey of 2601 Australian adults. Survey questions related to endorsement of different conceptualisations of government intervention (nanny state, paternalistic, shared responsibility and communitarian) and support for specific health interventions, using forced-choice questions about preferences for individual/treatment measures versus population/preventive health measures. We analysed associations between scores on different conceptualisations of government intervention and support of different policy options for tobacco and diet, and preferences for prevention over treatment. Results: The Nanny State Scale showed an inverse relationship with support for tobacco- and diet-related interventions, and alternative conceptualisations (paternalistic, shared responsibility and communitarian) showed a positive relationship. Effect sizes in all cases were small. Those aged 55+ demonstrated greater support for policy action on tobacco and diet, and greater preference for systemic rather than individual-level interventions. Conclusion: General disposition towards government intervention, although correlated with support for specific policy actions, is not deterministic.
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spelling pubmed-101777832023-05-13 Are Perceptions of Government Intervention Related to Support for Prevention? An Australian Survey Study Grunseit, Anne Carolyn Howse, Eloise Williams, Julie Bauman, Adrian Ernest Healthcare (Basel) Article Background: In Australia, despite the success of tobacco control policy interventions, policymakers remain resistant to policy-based approaches to diet, alcohol, physical inactivity and obesity, concerned about community perceptions of such interventions as “nanny-statist”. We examined how people’s general positions on government intervention related to their positions on different preventive policy options. Methods: Data were from a 2018 nationally representative cross-sectional telephone survey of 2601 Australian adults. Survey questions related to endorsement of different conceptualisations of government intervention (nanny state, paternalistic, shared responsibility and communitarian) and support for specific health interventions, using forced-choice questions about preferences for individual/treatment measures versus population/preventive health measures. We analysed associations between scores on different conceptualisations of government intervention and support of different policy options for tobacco and diet, and preferences for prevention over treatment. Results: The Nanny State Scale showed an inverse relationship with support for tobacco- and diet-related interventions, and alternative conceptualisations (paternalistic, shared responsibility and communitarian) showed a positive relationship. Effect sizes in all cases were small. Those aged 55+ demonstrated greater support for policy action on tobacco and diet, and greater preference for systemic rather than individual-level interventions. Conclusion: General disposition towards government intervention, although correlated with support for specific policy actions, is not deterministic. MDPI 2023-04-27 /pmc/articles/PMC10177783/ /pubmed/37174788 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/healthcare11091246 Text en © 2023 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Grunseit, Anne Carolyn
Howse, Eloise
Williams, Julie
Bauman, Adrian Ernest
Are Perceptions of Government Intervention Related to Support for Prevention? An Australian Survey Study
title Are Perceptions of Government Intervention Related to Support for Prevention? An Australian Survey Study
title_full Are Perceptions of Government Intervention Related to Support for Prevention? An Australian Survey Study
title_fullStr Are Perceptions of Government Intervention Related to Support for Prevention? An Australian Survey Study
title_full_unstemmed Are Perceptions of Government Intervention Related to Support for Prevention? An Australian Survey Study
title_short Are Perceptions of Government Intervention Related to Support for Prevention? An Australian Survey Study
title_sort are perceptions of government intervention related to support for prevention? an australian survey study
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10177783/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37174788
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/healthcare11091246
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