Next Level Health: a holistic health and wellbeing program to empower New Zealand women
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Neely, E
Shultz, S
Kruger, R
Hughes, R
Page, R
Coad, J
Thunders, M
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Abstract
Improving equity in women’s health requires gender-specific and empowering approaches. However, health programs often disempower women by adopting a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach that emphasizes diet, exercise and weight loss over other important aspects like sleep and mental wellbeing. This article reports on the design of Next Level Health (NLH), a program that aims to empower women through developing a wide range of health behaviors to support their holistic wellbeing. NLH is grounded by ethics, theory and evidence to support women to make achievable, sustainable changes that are relevant to their everyday lives. Women utilized the NLH framework to develop an integrative health routine across six domains: physical activity, sleep, nutrition, eating behavior, self-care and stress management. The framework guided them to set small, incremental goals that were adaptive to their needs and built from their existing circumstances. Participants reflected on their progress with a facilitator during monthly meetings, accessed a social media support page and received monthly text messages. Health programs remain an essential approach to improving women’s health alongside community- and policy-level strategies. The development of NLH exemplifies how evidence may partner with modern health promotion values to inform relevant and ethical program design for women.
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Health Promotion International
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38
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4
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This work is covered by copyright. You must assume that re-use is limited to personal use and that permission from the copyright owner must be obtained for all other uses. If the document is available under a specified licence, refer to the licence for details of permitted re-use. If you believe that this work infringes copyright please make a copyright takedown request using the form at https://www.griffith.edu.au/copyright-matters.
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Women's studies (incl. girls' studies)
Health policy
Public health
Policy and administration
empowerment
health behavior
intervention
wellbeing
women
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Chinn, V; Neely, E; Shultz, S; Kruger, R; Hughes, R; Page, R; Coad, J; Thunders, M, Next Level Health: a holistic health and wellbeing program to empower New Zealand women, Health Promotion International, 2023, 38 (4)