Monday, April 18, 2005

New Food Guideline Graphic To Be Released Tuesday Well, some folks - like the creator of the South Beach Diet - believe that the soon-to-be-old food pyramid is responsible for the epidemic of childhood obesity. If it were that easy! Meanwhile, I notice he's been losing market share to the new "3 Hour Diet" so I guess it doesn't hurt to get your name out there one way or the other. Let's try to remeber as we "launch" another attack against childhood obesity that it's not about finding magic bullets, but multiple messages, multiple channels, reach, continuity and frequent repetition. And it won't hurt to have an audience-driven approach that crafts programs that focus on realistic behaviors, appropriate incentives, addresses relevant barriers, provides the opportunities to engage in the behaviors and promotes them aappropriately. USDA revamps food pyramid to unveil new symbol [Reuters Health eLine] For those who like lists, here's one on "lessons learned" from successful health communications and social marketing campaigns. [Adapted from C.K. Atkin, Theory and principles of media health campaigns. Public Communications Campaigns (3rd ed), R.E. Rice & C.K. Atkin (eds), Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2001]. Message efficiency can be maximized if subsets of the audience are ordered according to importance Message effectiveness can be increased if message content, form and style are tailored to predispositions and abilities of the distinct subgroups It is often valuable to supplement the direct approach (educating and persuading the focal segment) by influencing other target audiences that can exert interpersonal influence or help reform environmental conditions Through agenda setting on health issues, news coverage can shape the public agenda and the policy agenda pertaining to new initiatives, rules, and laws Awareness, instruction, and persuasion activities will vary on relative emphasis at different points of the campaign for different audiences Channels for communication need to take into consideration such factors as reach, frequency, credibility, accessibility, and efficiency The realities of health promotion and prevention often require exceptional persistence of effort over long periods of time. Perpetual campaigning is often necessary because focal segments of the population are in constant need of influence Basic incentives for health promotion include physical health, time/effort, economic, psychological/aspirational, and social dimensions Most health campaigns have attained rather modest impact due to meager resources, poor conceptualization, and narrow strategic approaches The formulation of a comprehensive strategic plan is needed to effectively integrate the optimum combinations of campaign components that will directly and indirectly influence behaviors The environment in which youth are growing up has changed dramatically since our own youth. The social environment – including peers, parents, media, entertainment, sports and digital media – has, in many cases, given children more unsupervised time, more (convenient and available) distractions to physical activity, fewer structured opportunities to be active, greater availability of high calorie and super-sized snacks, more disposable income, adults and peers who are already overweight, more responsibilities and time pressure, and a “compression of childhood” that encourages “adult” behaviors earlier in life. No state or community can reverse these social trends easily, but what they might consider is how to make their environments, expectations, and norms more “kid friendly.” Ask yourselves: Why are the ball fields empty? Why is the food court at the mall the place to hang out? Why are these kids always in a car? What is wrong with the lunch at their schools? Why is that child almost as big as his or her parent? Who encourages all that eating? Does anyone care what they do after school except sit in front of the TV or computer? Is “getting ahead” more important than “getting together” and having some fun? What could they do to have more energy during the day? Doesn’t anyone say something about the weight some kids have gained? Why don’t some of your friends get together more often to play a sport? Why don’t your kids? Do we squash activity by focusing so much on competitive, organized sports? Has the lack of physical education classes, access to the school yards after school and on weekends, and no adult supervision of recreational activities contributed to this problem? Then go out and ask some kids you know the same questions. Listen. And begin to devlop programs that comprehensively address the issue from all aspects of the marketing mix. 9:06:52 PM

Social Marketing in the News   Gambia Bishop Breaks Religious Opposition to Condom Use An Anglican bishop in The Gambia has for the first time promoted condoms to combat the spread of HIV/AIDS. The bishop's support for the use of condoms breaks with other religious leaders who oppose their use and comes amid worries about a spike in infections in the small west African country.   Catholic priests have spoken out against the aggressive state-sponsored campaign to put condoms within easy reach of Gambians, saying Catholics should seek more knowledge about their faith and its teachings in order to "avoid being misled by public opinion that condoms should be made easily accessible." Despite this, The Gambia Social Marketing Management Program has packaged condoms and contraceptive pills in chocolate-style packs which are sold cheaply under brand names like "cool." In his sermon, Bishop Tilewa said it was blasphemous to persecute those with AIDS and to allow this disease to spread.   Rep. Hyde Suggests More Global AIDS Funding Be Shifted To Groups Promoting Abstinence   Rep Henry Hyde (R-Ill) on Wednesday urged the Bush administration to direct more resources from the... President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief to groups promoting abstinence and away from those promoting condom use as an HIV/AIDS prevention method… Hyde said during the hearing that groups "best suited to promote A and B programs, such as faith-based and indigenous organizations, are often not the ones implementing these programs. Instead, organizations long-associated with the social marketing of condoms are given much of the funding for AB programs. This must not continue" (VOA News, 4/13). Martin Ssempa, director of Uganda's Makerere Youth Ministry and a representative of the Ugandan First Lady's AIDS Task Force, at the hearing said that the U.S. Agency for International Development and CDC are undermining the country's ABC prevention program through "what he calls a tilt toward condom distribution," according to CQ HealthBeat. Ssempa said that the social marketing of condoms "encourages sexual promiscuity."   Don't blame the youth   We can always 'take back the streets' - but we will have to keep taking them back over and over. The conquest of the Canterbury slum in Montego Bay, Tawes Pen in Spanish Town, August Town or West Kingston (Jamaica) will never be concluded by force of arms… In their paper on the determinants of crime, the World Bank researchers analysed mountains of data from all over the world to come to some conclusions which may seem obvious to some of us, but not at all obvious to our rulers… The second document, Caribbean Youth Development: Issues and Policy Directions, is perhaps even more important… The report examines the main causes for risky and expensive youth behaviour. It finds these in broken families, broken and inadequate school systems, poverty and gender… What we need to do . Reform the educational system and maximise the protective effects of schools by improving access and retention, improving the quality of education, eliminating corporal punishment, using educational campaigns to reduce violence and promote conflict resolution; and institutionalising permanent school-based information and education campaigns on sexual abuse and exploitation. The report also suggests a variety of low-tech solutions, many of which resemble what N W Manley began with Jamaica Welfare nearly 70 years ago. . Upgrading the public health system; . Institutionalising national level mentoring systems for youth at risk; . Reforming and strengthening legal, judicial and police systems by improving juvenile justice, increasing the control of weapons and reforming the police; . Using the media and social marketing to change norms and values related to key risk areas - sexual abuse and exploitation; early sexual initiation; corporal punishment; physical abuse; alcohol consumption; and drug use; . Making families and fathers a top public policy issue - putting in place measures to make parents more responsible for their children by legal measures and tax breaks and to use the education system, the public health system and the media to teach fundamental parenting skills; and finally, . Strengthening community and neighbourhood supports to adolescents and their families by establishing youth funds to finance innovative NGO and community-based initiatives for youth.       9:46:31 AM

© Copyright 2005 Craig Lefebvre. Last update: 5/1/2005; 8:46:25 PM.