Community engagement and participation
above)Increased
CVD
Community engagement and participation was regarded as a facilitator of long‐term health behavior change for many participants. For instance, P6 described the benefits of being busy with voluntary work and paid employment:
“It keeps me really busy and not think about being at home and eating and get fat” (P6, as above)Conversely, these activities created barriers in other areas of well‐being for this participant, for example, she had little time or energy to maintain exercise routines. However, she worked around this in the long term by incorporating walking into her working day:
“…as long I am doing my walking, as long I am eating healthy…as long as I'm drinking plenty of water…I am doing all of those things and I am happy” (P6, as above)Increased community engagement appeared to bring greater happiness and life satisfaction for many participants. However, for others, it was more important to be around like‐minded people that have similar health goals, particularly when trying to get back on track after a lapse:
“…I need to be around people who are involved in it…that would be the chatter around me so it would probably get me going…” (P8, Female, Moderate CVD risk)This highlights the potential influence of friends and social networks in long‐term behavior change, suggesting that the attitudes and interests of those we engage with socially may support or sabotage the maintenance of healthy habits.