NWT RESEARCH DATABASE

Regions: Inuvialuit Settlement Region, Gwich'in Settlement Area, Sahtu Settlement Area, Dehcho Region, North Slave Region, South Slave Region, Qikiqtaaluk Region

Tags: obesity, health awareness

Objective(s): To build knowledge, resources, and skills of the public, practitioners, and decision makers to develop and implement policy activities to create healthier environments.

Project Description: This project, POWER UP! (Policy Opportunity Windows: Engaging Research Uptake in Practice), strives to build knowledge, resources, and skills of the public, practitioners, and decision makers to develop and implement policy activities to create healthier environments. POWER UP! involves three jurisdictions: Alberta, Northwest Territories, and Quebec. Throughout the 3-year duration of the project, evaluation and research activities will take place to assess the impact of POWER UP! For example, a pre and post knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs survey about obesity prevention policies and programs will be sent to the public and decision makers in all three jurisdictions in the first and final year of the project. This survey is to measure the change in knowledge, attitudes and beliefs of decision makers and the public in Alberta, Quebec and Northwest Territories during the time period in which the POWER UP! project takes place. The research team will also be using a validated policy implementation survey to assess changes in capacity of participating communities. Research and evaluation include knowledge attitude and belief surveys along with a validated policy implementation survey to assess changes in capacity of participating communities. For the Knowledge Attitudes and Beliefs Survey - there will be two types: a telephone survey with the public and an online web-based survey with decision makers) conducted in the Northwest Territories (as in the other project jurisdictions). The methods are described below. Telephone Research Survey with Public: A pre- and post-test telephone survey will be conducted in three jurisdictions: Alberta, Quebec, and Northwest Territories. A professional public opinion firm will be contracted to conduct this survey. The aim is to survey 800 households in Northwest Territories. The pre-test will occur in July 2014 and the post-test in June 2016. The post telephone survey will have the same questions as the pre-test survey. The post survey will also sample the same number of participants in as the pre-test. The target population for the survey are persons 18 years of age and older who live in a dwelling that could be contacted via direct dialing at the time of the survey. The survey will be administered via random digit-dial and will take approximately 10 minutes to complete. An equal number of males and females will be surveyed. 10 pretest interviews will be conducted with a random sample of respondents. Results of the pretest will be used to finalize survey questions. The survey recruitment strategy will involve calling at multiple times of day, with a maximum of three call-backs per phone number over a two-week period. Should this approach not result in adequate representation in each strata, targeted recruitment will then occur. Informed consent will be required from all of the study participants. Online Web-Based Survey with Decision Makers: Using a self-administered survey, decision-makers in schools, workplaces, all levels of government (Aboriginal, community, territorial, etc), and communities will be asked about their knowledge, beliefs and attitudes towards chronic disease prevention. Decision-makers will be asked to provide their opinions from the perspective of their role in their organization. Participant Recruitment - Study participants will be recruited in July 2014 (pre-intervention survey) and June and July 2016 (post-intervention survey) in Alberta, Quebec and Northwest Territories. Sampling will be conducted in 5 settings: Provincial/territorial governments, School Boards, Local Authorities (i.e., municipal Aboriginal government), print media companies, and private enterprises employees (with more than 100 or more employees in NWT). Email and mailing addresses will be gathered using the internet: MLA and Deputy Minister’s constituency office addresses will be gathered from the Northwest Territories Government website, Chairs and Superintendents addresses will be gathered from the Ministry of Education in Northwest Territories; Mayors and Chief Administrative Officers’ addresses will gathered from the Municipal and Community Affairs page of the Northwest Territories Government website, addresses of Editors–in-Chief will gathered using each newspaper’s website, and Human Resource managers/occupational health and safety decision-makers addresses will be obtained using a database purchased from OraclePoll Research Inc. Once the email databases have been compiled, an excel file containing this information will be sent to University of Alberta Test Scoring and Questionnaire Services. A Unique ID will be assigned to each survey recipient. The file linking individual names and unique IDs will be secured and protected. Unique IDs will be embedded in the Unique URLs sent to each participant in the email invite. This ensures that participants complete the survey only once. It also enables Test Scoring to track which individuals have completed the survey, and which individuals to send reminders to. Test Scoring will be managing the email blast of reminders to non-responders. The project team will not be notified of which individuals have completed or not completed the survey. At the research teams request, when the survey period ends, Test Scoring will destroy the file connecting personal identifiers to Unique IDs. In doing so, there is no way to link survey responses to specific individuals. An email invite will be sent initially to all participants. The email invite will provide information about our project team, our work, and a unique URL to the Online Web Survey. When participants choose to click on the link of the Online Web Survey, they will be directed to an introductory letter. This letter will inform potential participants about all aspects of the survey, including steps to protect their confidentiality, ethics approvals, and whom to contact should they have any questions. It is also explained to them that the survey is voluntary. If they agree to participate in the survey, they are requested to click on “go to next question” button at the bottom of the page to begin. By clicking this button, they are acknowledging that they are consenting to participate in the web survey. Every two weeks, until the closing date, an email reminder will be sent to non-responders. The same recruitment process will be used for the post-intervention survey and will take place between March and June 2016. The same employment positions will be used as the research team seek to interview the individual currently in the position rather than the original participant. Survey Instrument- The survey for NWT will obtain information on demographic characteristics, perceptions of chronic disease prevention and health promotion, perceptions of programs and policies that address the people’s health in the territories, level of contact with groups working on issues related to chronic disease prevention, and opinions on political views responsibility for an individual’s health problems. Participants will be asked to respond from the perspective of their role in their organization. The main focus of survey questions will cover 2 domains: healthy eating and physical activity. The content of the post-intervention survey (to be done in 2016) will be the same as that of the pre-intervention survey. POWER UP! aims to provide leadership and support for the development, implementation and evaluation of obesity prevention policy activities for cancer and chronic disease prevention. The research team propose to synthesize evidence, broker knowledge to wider Canadian context, and build capacity for obesity relevant policy adoption and implementation for cancer and chronic disease prevention. Research and evaluation activities will take place over the 3-year project period to assess the impact of POWER UP! The research team will also be using a validated policy implementation survey to assess changes in capacity of communities for policy adoption and implementation. The primary opportunity for local involvement will be input on the development and adaptation of the policy tools for small, northern, Aboriginal communities through working in collaboration on the overall project with the project policy coordinators. Once these tools are designed, they are intended to help all levels of government with policies that are seen as needed in their communities, regions, etc. For example, the policy tools could help communities create policies to reduce marketing of junk foods to children or to reduce access to junk foods in community stores, etc. A summary of the information from both the initial and final surveys will be distributed via reports as well as via meetings with interested organizations, governments, or other groups. The results will also be available online. The fieldwork for this study will be conducted from July 17, 2014 to December 31, 2014.