Executive Summary: Support Seekers

Fig.7 - Amount of encouragement

[Long description]

Lack of encouragement 

More specifically, this segment reports clearly less encouragement from several of the most common sources for others: their spouse/partner, their family/whanau/children, and their close friends.

Their doctor/healthcare provider was the only source of encouragement for whom their ratings were similar to the Target Group overall.

Consistent with this, more Support Seekers than any other segment rated interventions such as "Someone agreed to support me/check on my progress" and "I had someone to go with" as very likely to increase their physical activity.

Perceived barriers and excuses

Apart from lacking someone to do physical activity with, other perceived barriers important for this segment include lack of time and energy, lack of commitment, and cost (Fig.8).

• Three in five rate "lack of energy/too tired" highly as a constraint keeping them from being physically active (in contrast to only a third of the Target Group overall). For this segment, the cause is more often work (57%) rather than lack of time due to family responsibilities (37%). Three in five also see themselves as being under a lot of stress lately (compared with half of the Target Group overall, and only two in five of those in the Active Group). 
• The major commitment barrier is the difficulty they report in sticking to a routine (63%, compared with 43% for the Target Group overall).
• One in five rate "costs too much (clothes, equipment, etc.)" highly as an influence (cf. one in eight in the Target Group overall).

The large number of barriers partly explain why Support Seekers are the least active of all six segments (1.9 days active per week, versus 2.7 days for the Target Group overall).

Fig.8 - Perceived barriers and excuses

[Long description]

Perceived benefits and motivations

This segment already know that regular physical activity decreases the risk of heart disease (nine in ten agree), and at a personal level accept that regular physical activity will help them to live a healthy life (96% agree).

Despite this, only one in five claim that they get enough physical activity to keep them healthy. Even fewer (one in ten) claim that they get enough exercise according to the recommended guidelines.

However, this knowledge has proved insufficient to motivate them into healthy levels of physical activity despite health problems being relatively common. For example, one in three rate their health as only fair or poor, around twice the level for these ratings compared with others in the Target Group.

Thus, other perceived benefits and motivations need further investigation to help change their behaviour.

Fortunately, this segment also accepts that several other benefits are likely to result from regular physical activity.

These include feeling good about themselves (91%), having more energy (89%), and losing or maintaining weight (83%).

In addition, at least four in five from this segment rate each of these perceived benefits as important to them.

Given that intrinsic motivations such as having fun are probably an important driver of maintaining physical activity levels, it is good to know that two thirds rate themselves as likely to have fun as a result of regular physical activity, and nine in ten rate this benefit as important to them.

Low confidence/self-efficacy

Support Seekers are distinctly low in the confidence/self-efficacy to start regular physical activity in the next month (an average confidence rating of 5.0 out of 10, compared with 6.1 for the Target Group overall and 8.6 for the Active Group). Only one in eight are
highly confident they can reach target levels of activity (ratings of 9 or 10).

The results suggest the following might be useful to increase their confidence, by giving them success experiences or perhaps by introducing them to practical skills and strategies for working regular physical activity into their life:

• Introduce them to ways that provide the social support and encouragement they want. (Three in five rate themselves as likely to be more physically active if they had someone to go with or if someone agreed to sponsor them/check on their progress; both these results are around 20 percentage points higher than for the Target Group overall.) Around 30% say they will use walking groups if they are available.
  
• Skills for helping them keep to a routine (this is a major commitment barrier for them) or to find time (two thirds rate themselves as likely to be more physically active if they had an extra hour free time).
  
  This indicates the need to help them build new achievable routines which include physical activity or to adapt existing routines (e.g. replacing some regular short car trips by walking).
  
• Encouraging appropriate activity types for the obese (27% of Support Seekers are obese) or those with minor health problems (28% report hayfever/seasonal allergies, 19% high blood pressure, and 17% high cholesterol).
  
  This segment shows relatively high interest in health information with over 60% indicating interest in health information on weight control, physical activity/exercise, and nutrition/food choices.

Mental health

A further highly distinctive feature of this group is that fully 22% self-report depression or mood disorder and 11% report anxiety disorder. These rates are around twice as high as for others in the Target Group overall (Fig.9).

Given the evidence about the value of physical activity in reducing depression and anxiety, it seems particularly important to help these people increase the activity level. In addition, for some, the improvements in mood may be the type of success experiences that
will help build the confidence/self-efficacy required to maintain regular physical activity.

Also note that Support Seekers have relatively poor physical health (34% rate their health in general as Fair or Poor compared with 18% in the Target Group overall).

Demographics

Support Seekers have some demographic differences compared with the Target Group. The most distinctive demographic characteristics are:

• 65% women (cf. 59% in the Target Group overall)
• 63% aged 25-49 (cf. 54% in Target Group)
• 16% Maori (cf. 12% in Target Group)
• 53% working full-time (cf. 48% in Target Group)
• 44% with a child under 18 years old living in their home (cf. 37% in Target Group)
• 53% in large cities (cf. 46% in Target Group).

Fig.9 - Key features

[Long description]

Summary diagram

The summary diagram below (Fig.10) highlights particularly distinctive features of Support Seekers, together with a few important related characteristics.

• View Fig.10 - Support seekers: Summary.

At the centre of the diagram is the Core Need: Support for coping strategies. Support is central because insufficient encouragement from others was reported by 99% of the segment. We suggest that more support from others should be particularly directed towards helping with coping strategies:

• "Coping" because these people are already under pressure as shown by their more common reports of feeling stressed, lacking time and energy, and the lack of time for physical activity because of work (not to mention less common, but comparatively higher, reports of depression and anxiety).
• "Strategies" because improvement for many in this group is likely to relate more to mental skills/strategies such as time management, prioritising, and careful goal-setting, rather than physical skills.

The second layer of the diagram, Feelings and Beliefs, is relatively crowded, reflecting the dominance of psychological factors in the segmentation. Fewer major characteristics of the segment are directly observable in the Physical layer.

Contents | >> Next: Related reports from this study

Updated | 22 Mar 2007.

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