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Refereed/Peer-reviewed Purpose: The aim of this research was to develop a contextually and culturally appropriate scale to assess farmers’ barriers to health-related help-seeking. Methods: An initial pool of items was developed from the academic literature and input from an expert panel of farmers, rural academics, and rural clinicians. A draft 32-item questionnaire was then developed and sent to farmers registered with FARMbase, which is an Australian national farmer database. Findings: Two hundred and seventy-four farmers completed the draft questionnaire (93.7% male, 73.7% aged 56-75 years). An exploratory factor analysis identified 6 factors; “Health Issues are a Low Priority,” “Concerns about Stigma,” “Structural Health System Barriers,” “Minimization and Normalization,” “Communication Barriers,” and “Continuity of Care.”. Test-retest reliability was examined with a further 10 farmers (90% male, Mean age = 57, SD = 5.91), who completed the questionnaire twice (at 2- to 3-week intervals). Results indicated moderate-good test-retest reliability. Conclusions: The resulting 24-item Farmer Help-Seeking Scale provides a measure of help-seeking that is specifically designed to capture the unique context, culture, and attitudes that can interfere with farmers’ help-seeking, and inform the development of strategies to increase health-service utilization in this at-risk group.

Refereed/Peer-reviewed Issue addressed: Due to the nature of their jobs, frontline aged care workers may be a population at risk of poor health and lifestyle habits. Support of their well-being through the workplace is likely to be complex. The objective of this study was to assess the effectiveness of a need-supportive program for changing physical activity and psychological well-being via the motivational processes of behavioural regulations and perceived need satisfaction. Methods: Frontline aged care workers (n = 25) participated in a single cohort, pre–post pilot trial. The program included a Motivational Interviewing style appointment, education on goal setting and self-management, the use of affect, exertion and self-pacing for regulating physical activity intensity and practical support activities. Outcomes (7-day accelerometery, 6-min walk, K10 and AQoL-8D), and motivational processes (BREQ-3 and PNSE) were measured at baseline, 3 and 9 months, and analysed using linear mixed models for repeated measures. Results: There were significant increases in perceived autonomy at 3 months (Δ.43 ± SE:.20; p =.03) and 6-min walk distance at 9 months (Δ 29.11 m ± SE: 13.75; p =.04), which appeared to be driven by the relative autonomy index (behavioural regulations in exercise questionnaire [BREQ-3]). Amotivation increased at 3 months (Δ.23 ± SE:.12; p =.05); which may have been due to low scores at baseline. No other changes were demonstrated at any timepoint. So what?: Participants demonstrated positive changes in motivational processes and physical function, however, due to the low levels of participation in the program, the program had a negligible impact at the organisational level. Future researchers and aged care organisations should aim to address factors impacting participation in well-being initiatives.

Issue addressed: Australian women are less likely to participate in recommended levels of weekly physical activity compared with men. Physical activity participation rates decrease with geographical remoteness. Research suggests that a lack of social support mechanisms within the home environment may act as a barrier for rural women to engage in physical activity, along with discomfort experienced within exercise environments. The purpose of this study was to explore the social conditions that facilitate or inhibit physical activity participation amongst women from two rural South Australian communities. Methods: A qualitative descriptive approach underpinned by a phenomenological methodological orientation was applied. Participants were recruited using a purposive sampling strategy before semi-structured interviews (N = 16) were conducted and prepared for thematic analysis. Results: Four inter-related themes were identified: support from others, time, expectations and available opportunities. Further contextual analysis revealed interwoven notions of physical activity spaces, time and social context within the themes. Conclusions: Multiple types of regulators interact to shape the motivational pattern of an individual. The themes identified align with self-determination, transactional and structuration theory, suggesting a need to consider human behaviour both pragmatically and conceptually. So what?: Results provide insight into social barriers and facilitators for physical activity participation and concomitantly provide the initial development of a framework for local strategic planning of health-promoting activities, and individual reflection to increase physical activity participation amongst rural women. Refereed/Peer-reviewed

Aim To examine secular trends in Australian children's actual sleep time as well as the perceived importance of sleep between 1985-2004-2013. Methods Secular trends in children's sleep and their perception of the importance of sleep across three time points 1985 (N=401), 2004 (N=450) and 2013 (N=395), were examined according to socioeconomic status (SES), age and sex. The children self-reported their bed-time, wake-up time and their perceived importance of sleep, among other questions. Results There were no significant differences in sleep duration between boys and girls in any of the survey years, nor were there differences in sleep duration between SES categories at any time point. Independent of survey year, age, sex and SES, there was a graded difference in sleep duration (min) across response categories for perceived importance of sleep. Overall, trends in the perceived importance of sleep appeared to match trends in actual sleep time, but not for all subgroups. Conclusion This study indicates that the sleep duration of high SES Australian school children is returning to, or near to, baseline sleep duration observed in 1985, while the sleep duration of low SES Australian children has remained at low levels. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Refereed/Peer-reviewed

Aim: This pilot study was conducted as part of an honours project and aimed to provide evidence of validity for the 3-day Physical Activity Recall (3dPAR) questionnaire in a sample of female adolescents aged 12–14 years (N = 20) for use by occupational therapists to assess adolescents’ physical activity. Methods: Participants wore a Computer Science and Applications 7164 accelerometer for seven consecutive days and completed the 3dPAR questionnaire after the recording period. Results: A significant correlation was found between self-reported total metabolic equivalents and accelerometer total counts for 3 days (r = 0.630, P