Use of mass media campaigns to change health behaviour

This review paper, published in the Lancet, discusses the outcomes of mass media campaigns in the context of various health-risk behaviours (such as use of tobacco, alcohol, and other drugs, heart disease risk factors, sex-related behaviours, road safety, cancer screening and prevention, child survival, and organ or blood donation).

Key highlights of the paper include:

• mass media campaigns are widely used to expose high proportions of large populations to messages through routine uses of existing media, such as television, radio, and newspapers.
• exposure to such messages is generally passive. Thus, such campaigns are frequently competing with factors, such as pervasive product marketing, powerful social norms, and behaviours driven by addiction or habit.
• mass media campaigns can produce positive changes or prevent negative changes in health-related behaviours across large populations.

Also, the authors assess what contributes to these outcomes, such as concurrent availability of required services and products, availability of community-based programmes, and policies that support behaviour change.

In conclusion, the authors propose areas for improvement, such as investment in longer better-funded campaigns to achieve adequate population exposure to media messages.