What are the elements in a successful health behavior change campaign?

Hi apt-ga,

The key to a successful health behavior change campaign is a
combination of many factors:

Public health communication programs can effect long-term, sustained
change in health behavior. In addition to individual behavior changes,
health communication can also influence the environment in ways that
facilitate health promotion in society. Health communication applies
principles and practices of various communications-related disciplines
(such as marketing, behavioral psychology, anthropology, and others)
to health care issues. Successful health communication interventions
employ such techniques as:

- Behavioral analysis to reveal what people are actually doing related
to a specific health problem and to understand behavioral antecedents
and consequences.

- Ethnographic studies to provide an understanding of cultural
contexts for behaviors, and perceptions, beliefs, and values of
intended audiences.

- Diffusion theory to address how people create and share new
information and what makes them adopt or change a behavior.

- Social marketing techniques to ensure that messages are effective in
reaching and influencing their intended audiences.

From Health Communcication on Porspect Associates:
http://www.prospectassoc.com/arthritis/phapprch/hlthcom2.htm


This may all sound very difficult for people or an organization who
don't specialize in social marketing, however there are several guides
available that will set you on your way:


Communication plays an essential role in disease prevention and health
promotion. Programs designed to promote changes in health behaviors
and to encourage early detection and prompt treatment of illness have
demonstrated that mass media and other communication strategies can be
effective in reducing the risk of serious illness.

Communicating effectively about health is a difficult task. Health
information is often complex and technical. In addition, the
information may be inconclusive, controversial, contradictory, and
subject to change as new research findings are released. Many diseases
such as cancer are fear-arousing; individual responses may be
emotional. New health information may conflict with long-held personal
beliefs. As a result, the potential exists for misdirecting or
alienating the public.

Careful planning and development of health communication programs are
important to avoid these undesirable effects and to assure that
communication activities have the greatest potential for success.

The following guide is designed to help professionals in health and
health-related agencies communicate with the public. It offers
guidance for planning a health communication program based on social
marketing and other principles and on the experiences of National
Cancer Institute staff and other practitioners. It is designed to help
you identify what to do and why and where to go for assistance.

Making Health Communication Programs Work - A Planner's Guide:
http://oc.nci.nih.gov/services/HCPW/HOME.HTM

It describes the following stages in great detail:

Stage 1: Planning and Strategy Selection:
Where to start, available data, determining objectives, making drafts
and timetables,...

Stage 2: Selecting Channels and Materials:
Choosing channels, selecting advertising agencies, etc

Stage 3: Developing Materials and Pretesting:
How the Public Perceives Health Messages, message considerations, tips
on readability, pretesting, estimated costs,...

Stage 4: Implementing Your Program:
Tracking progress, intermediaries,...

Stage 5: Assessing Effectiveness:
Outcome Evaluation 

Stage 6: Feedback to Refine Program 


More guides can be found on the Health Communication Unit website:
http://www.thcu.ca/infoandresources/health_communication.htm

A very extensive (over 100 pages) and well written guide that covers
just about everything on planning and executing a successful health
campaign is the following one:
http://www.thcu.ca/infoandresources/publications/pdfohc41399.pdf
You will need to have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed to view the
document.


Another useful guide is:

A Primer on Health Risk Communication Principles and Practices:
http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/HEC/primer.html

"The purpose of this Primer is to provide a framework of principles
and approaches for the communications of health risk information to
diverse audiences. It is intended for ATSDR staff and personnel from
other government agencies and private organizations who must respond
to public concerns about exposure to hazardous substances in the
environment.

The Primer begins with brief descriptive material about the mission of
ATSDR and the importance of local community involvement in the health
risk communication process. The remainder of the Primer is devoted to
a discussion of issues and guiding principles for communicating health
risk accompanied by specific suggestions for presenting information to
the public and for interacting effectively with the media."


Some other links that may be of interest to you:

The Purdue Health Communictation site:
http://www.sla.purdue.edu/healthcomm/

Planning and Strategy Models on the Communication Initiative:
http://www.comminit.com/planning_models.html


Hope this covers what you were looking for.

Kind regards,


rhansenne-ga.

Search terms used: "Social Marketing" "Behaviour change" "Health
campaings" "Social marketing"

Gave me a good "orientation" of the elements as well as useful links
for further clarification and exploration