Question

Introduction to Public Health Read the attached document and view the short video.

Determine why it is related to chapter 3. (Public Health Data and Communications) Explain how health communication influences behavior change (s). Feel free to investigate other resource (citation needed) to expand understanding and explanations.

Answer 1

Public Health Data

Global Health Observatory (GHO)

WHO's portal providing access to data and analyses for monitoring the global health situation. Provides critical data and analyses for over 30 health themes ranging from health systems to disease-specific themes, as well as direct access to the full database.

Global Health Estimates (GHE)

The GHE provide a comprehensive and comparable assessment of mortality and loss of health due to diseases, injuries and risk factors. Global, regional and country estimates for all-cause mortality, and deaths and disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) by age, sex and cause, are available for download.

WHO Mortality Database

Database of annual death registration data on causes of death by age and sex as reported from civil registration systems of more than 100 Member States.

Health and communication

Healthy People 2010 defines health communication as “the art and technique of informing, influencing, and motivating individual, institutional, and public audiences about important health issues. Health communication often integrates components of multiple theories and models to promote positive changes in attitudes and behaviors. If we integrate these 2 perspectives, the following new definition emerges: Public health communication is the scientific development, strategic dissemination, and critical evaluation of relevant, accurate, accessible, and understandable health information communicated to and from intended audiences to advance the health of the public.

Health communication includes verbal and written strategies to influence and empower individuals, populations, and communities to make healthier choices. The IOM defined public health as “what we, as a society, do collectively to assure the conditions in which people can be healthy. Health communication is related to social marketing, which involves the development of activities and interventions designed to positively change behaviors.

Health communication strategies aim to change people's knowledge, attitudes, and/or behaviors; for example:

• Increase risk perception
• Reinforce positive behaviors
• Influence social norms
• Increase availability of support and needed services
• Empower individuals to change or improve their health conditions

Examples of media strategies to convey health messages include the following components:

• Radio
• Television
• Newspaper
• Flyers
• Brochures
• Internet
• Social media tools (i.e., Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube)

How health communication influences behavior change

1. Behavior Change Communication may take different forms to appeal to individuals or groups to change behavior towards a specific health problem.

2. There are a wide variety of different communication channels ranging from basic face-to-face conversation, telecommunication channels like the telephone or e-mail, computational channels like the medical record and mass media channels like TV, radio, posters, brochures etc.

3. It is important to know which channels can most effectively reach particular target populations.

4. Campaigns attempt to influence adoption of recommended behaviors by influencing what people know and believe about their behavior, or influence actual or perceived social norms, or by changing actual skills and confidence in skills assumed to influence behavior.

5. Communication serves an instrumental role that helps one acquire knowledge as well as also fulfilling ritualistic function, one that reflects humans as members of a social community (WHO 2009).

6. Health communication attempts to persuade the affected group to engage in certain behavior through accessing information.

7. Intervention measures to change behaviors in the affected group are an area of concern and must be fully supported by both the government and non-governmental organizations.

8. Majority of researchers of health communication insist on behavior change programs that aims at increasing knowledge, stimulating dialogue, promoting attitude change, reducing stigma, improve skills etc. Behavior change theories bare the roots of BCC and it is from these theories the comprehensive communication strategies and programs are developed.

9. Communication theories according to Edberg (2015) are used to address among other things the process of encoding, sending, receiving and decoding messages.

10. Giving example of the Health Belief Model (HBM) and Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) the health behavior is constructed as a result of individual decision-making process or attitude that address health related issues.

Conclusion

Behavior change is not the overnight process. Behavior change is a process that must permit willingness of the affected person to change behavior. Physical stimuli rational stimuli, emotional stimuli, skills, family and personal networks and social structures are some of the factors that can prompt people to change their behavior. Health communication strategies   used to educate individuals or group to learn how to make right decision concerning illness affecting them through change of behavior. Health communication is a powerful and fundamental human interaction that can positively influence behavior change towards health problems affecting the society. The interaction at intrapersonal level, interpersonal level, through mass media, community engagement information and communication can increase knowledge, change attitudes and norms and cultural practices and produce changes regarding health problems. Individual factors as well as societal factors contributing to behavior may require different approach to produce positive impact. Similarly, different intervention measures to behavior change can be applied to gain positive result.