A NEW WAY OF THINKING ABOUT HEALTHY LIFESTYLES: HEALTH COMMUNICATION APPLICATIONS

1. A NEW WAY OF THINKING ABOUT HEALTHY LIFESTYLES: HEALTH COMMUNICATION APPLICATIONS Renee Lyons, Ph.D. Lynn Langille, M.A. Atlantic Health Promotion Research Centre, Dalhousie University

2. WORKSHOP OVERVIEW • What Influences Healthy Lifestyles? • Thinking about Healthy Lifestyles • Incorporating New Thinking into Current Conceptualizations of Health and Lifestyles • Break • Overview of Health Communications and Introduction to Community-based Social Marketing • Developing Health Communications to Promote Healthy Lifestyles • Using Health Communications to Promote Healthy Lifestyles

3. 1.WHAT INFLUENCES HEALTHY LIFESTYLES? Using Physical Activity as an example… • Do you consider yourself to be physically active? • What influences your decisions to be active (or not)? • What are the barriers to physical activity? • What kind of messages would you respond to positively in order to increase or maintain your level of physical activity? • Who should receive messages about physical activity in order for you to be as active as you would like?

4. 2. THINKING ABOUT HEALTHY LIFESTYLES Popular concepts and their interrelationship: • Lifestyle • Wellness • Healthy Living • Population Health and the Determinants of Health Population Health A population health approach considers the entire range of individual and collective factors and conditions - and their interactions - that have been shown to be correlated with health status. • Source: www.hc-sc.gc.ca/hppb/phdd/

5. POPULATION HEALTH Determinants of Health • Income and social status • Social support networks • Education • Employment and working conditions • Social environments • Physical environments • Biology and genetic endowment • Personal health practices and coping skills • Healthy child development • Health services • Gender • Culture

6. POPULATION HEALTH Demographic Focus • Action is directed at the health of the entire population, or sub-population, rather than individuals. Strategies and Settings • A population health approach uses a variety of strategies and settings to act on the health determinants in partnership with sectors outside the traditional health system or sector. Broadened Definition of Health • Health is a capacity or resource rather than a state (of physical, mental and social well-being) which is embedded in social, economic and physical environments. • Health is “the capacity of people to adapt to, respond to, or control life’s challenges and changes” (Frankish, 1996)

7. CHOICES AND CHANCES FOR A HEALTHY LIFESTYLE Chances: • Opportunities and limitations for choice vary considerably • The social gradient • Social inclusion and exclusion Choices: • Macro “choice points” over the life cycle • Micro “choice points” in daily interaction

8. HEALTH SOCIALIZATION Agents of Health Socialization: • Family • Peers • Workplaces • Schools • Society/Culture • Media

9. HEALTHY LIFESTYLES Creating a Culture that Fosters Health • Interdependence between lifestyle and social environment • Collective and individual lifestyles Fostering a Collective Orientation to Health • My health impacts the lifestyles of others. • My actions influence the lifestyles of other people. • I influence the conditions in my community that contribute to healthy lifestyles. • We (acting together) influence the health of others.

10. 3. INCORPORATING NEW THINKING INTO CURRENT CONCEPTUALIZATIONS OF HEALTH AND LIFESTYLES Small Group Work: • How can these new ideas fit into your current thinking and work in health communications? • How do we get people to begin thinking about a “collective” orientation to health? • Worksheet

11. 4. OVERVIEW OF HEALTH COMMUNICATION AND INTRODUCTION TO COMMUNITY- BASED SOCIAL MARKETING Goals of Health Communication: • Awareness • Understanding • Action

12. WHAT IS HEALTH COMMUNICATION? • Inter-personal health related communication • Care-providers • Conveying health information (e.g., cancer risk) • Communication competence • Patient & Care Provider (sex talk and gender) • Media (health information seeking; anthrax coverage) • Knowledge translation • Influencing health behavior • Policy analysis (text) • Influences on public attitudes (e.g., religion)

13. SOCIAL MARKETING Goal: to reach people with a message that will help them decide to change their behaviour. Effective Social Marketing Messages will be: • Understandable • Not scary or offensive • Applicable • Culturally sensitive • Accessible • Noticeable

14. COMMON BARRIERS TO EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION • Ignorance • Selective inattention • Selective inexposure • Principles (morality, religion, culture)

15. COMMUNITY- BASED SOCIAL MARKETING Fostering sustainable behaviour change….. (D. McKenzie Mohr) Four steps in CBSM: • Identify the barriers and benefits to an activity • Develop a communication strategy that utilizes behaviour change tools • Pilot the strategy • Evaluate

16. COMMUNITY BASED SOCIAL MARKETING Barriers to behaviour change: • Internal (lack of knowledge, absence of motivation) • External (changes that need to occur in order for the behaviour to be more convenient or affordable)

17. BEHAVIOUR CHANGE TOOLS Commitment • people who have initially agreed to a small request are subsequently more likely to agree to a larger request Prompts • people have to remember to perform the desired actions Norms • social guidelines for behaviour Incentives • particularly useful when motivation to engage in action is low

18. PRINCIPLES OF EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION • Capture your audience’s attention: Make messages vivid, personal and concrete. • Make sure messages are clear and specific. • Know your audience: Attitudes, beliefs and behaviours. • Use a credible source: Individuals or organizations tend to be viewed as credible when they have expertise or are seen as trustworthy.

19. PRINCIPLES OF EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION • Make your message easy to remember. All sustainable activities depend on memory. • Help people remember what to do, when to do it, and how to do it. • Provide personal or community goals: They can help with motivation. • Emphasize personal contact: Provide opportunities for people to model sustainable behaviour for one another. • Provide feedback.

20. 5. CASE STUDIES IN COMMUNITY-BASED SOCIAL MARKETING • Aging Well in Rural Places • Safe Sex Practices in the Gay Community

21. 6. DEVELOPING HEALTH COMMUNICATIONS TO PROMOTE HEALTHY LIFESTYLES Small group work • Our task is to design health communications about physical activity in a variety of settings (contexts for health socialization and development of healthy lifestyles). • Worksheet • Menu of Communication Strategies

22. 7. USING HEALTH COMMUNICATIONS TO PROMOTE HEALTHY LIFESTYLES • Focus on a collective orientation to healthy lifestyle • Use research findings to support your design and your messages • Collaborate with others • Evaluate your efforts • If at first you don’t succeed……