Published on 10 June 2020
Walking highlighted as the top way to keep active as 2019 Active Living Census findings released for Campaspe Shire Council
Healthy Heart of Victoria has released the local findings of the 2019 Active Living Census (ALC) for Campaspe Shire. This follows the release of the results for the Loddon Campaspe region earlier this year.
With 3,424 responses received, the results from the Census provide an important insight into the health and wellbeing of people within Campaspe Shire.
One of the largest surveys ever conducted within Campaspe Shire the Active Living Census asked residents questions about their health and wellbeing, including 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.
Campaspe Shire Council Mayor, Cr Adrian Weston said 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,” Cr Weston said.
“It will also support these organisations and groups to be more informed about the health behaviours within their communities and assist them in obtaining funding to help create better health outcomes locally.”
Key findings from 2019 Active Living Census for Campaspe Shire include:
• Walking is the most popular physical activity amongst Campaspe Shire residents with 21.2% of the population reporting that they went walking for exercise in the last 12 months.
• 55.4% of Campaspe Shire adults meet physical activity guidelines
• 12.5% of adults meet vegetable dietary guidelines. Females were more likely than males to be meeting the consumption guidelines (18.5%, compared to 6.3%).
• 45.7% of adults meet fruit dietary guidelines within Campaspe Shire. Females were more likely than males to be meeting the fruit consumption guidelines (49.4%, compared to 42.1%). Females aged over 70 were most likely to be meeting fruit consumption guidelines (61.3%).
• 42.6% of Campaspe Shire residents rated their own health as excellent or very good, with 39.1% rating their health as good and 18.3% rating their health as poor.
There are two reports available for the Active Living Census for Campaspe 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,” Cr Weston said.
“There is also a comprehensive summary at the beginning of each of these reports, which provides a holistic overview of the findings for Campaspe Shire, 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.campaspe.vic.gov.au now. We encourage any interested members of the community to view and utilise the data for their needs.
