General-health-promotion-approach to Promoting Healthier Lives

the research assistant will ask about the priority the participants place on engagement in desirable health-related lifestyle practices identified in the completed behavioural risk factor survey. The participants will also be asked to choose the goal that they consider easiest to achieve, such as quitting or reducing smoking, consuming more vegetables or less fatty foods or sugary drinks, performing more exercise or reducing alcohol consumption. The participants will be encouraged to quit health-risk behaviours (or adopt a healthy lifestyle) sequentially, but they will also be able to choose to quit them simultaneously if they are confident in doing so. Each participant will then receive a brief (approximately 5 minutes), individual intervention with health advice about the selected health-related lifestyle practice. The whole intervention will last approximately 10 minutes, but slightly longer if necessary.

For the first 6 months of the study period, the research assistant will deliver WhatsApp/WeChat messages about once per week. If a participant does not own a smartphone or is unable to receive WhatsApp/WeChat messages (uncommon in Hong Kong), the research assistant will make a telephone call, instead of sending a message, as a reminder for the participants to adhere to their desirable health-related lifestyle practice. Instant messaging via mobile applications has found to be effective in enhancing treatment compliance.

The control group participants will receive a brief telephone intervention based on the AWARD model and delivered by the trained research assistant, similar to that delivered to the intervention group. However, the research assistant will simply advise the participants to change their health-risk behaviours and/or adopt a healthy lifestyle practice.