How the Department of Health Influences healthy living

The use of behaviour change programmes in public health

Lila Rabinovich, Claire Celia, Philipp-Bastian Brutscher, Annalijn Conklin

ResearchPublished Nov 6, 2009

Initiatives aimed at influencing the behaviour of citizens to improve individual and societal outcomes have been systematically used by governments (as well as by non-governmental bodies) for decades in many fields including transport, education, crime and health. Such initiatives are very prominent in the public health field, where they typically focus on aspects of people's lifestyles which can lead to adverse health outcomes, such as hazardous alcohol consumption, tobacco smoking, drug use, bad diet, lack of physical exercise, and risky sexual behaviour.

Governments typically use a range of measures to influence or shape the behaviour of citizens, including laws and regulations, fiscal incentives, and the provision of certain infrastructure. In addition, governments use programmes ranging from media-based information and awareness campaigns to more comprehensive programmes including targeted service delivery, training and so forth to positively influence behaviour. The latter, which are the focus of this study, are very common in the UK and elsewhere, and significant financial resources are spent on them; in the UK, for example, around £115 million is spent annually on public health marketing campaigns (DH, 2009(a)).

Against this background, the UK National Audit Office has commissioned a study to examine the use of behaviour change programmes campaigns in today's Department of Health (DH). More specifically, the study aims to improve understanding of the importance, nature and impact of behaviour change programmes in today's DH.

Topics

Document Details

  • Copyright: RAND Corporation
  • Availability: Web-Only
  • Year: 2009
  • Pages: 88
  • Document Number: TR-780-NAO

Citation

Chicago Manual of Style

Rabinovich, Lila, Claire Celia, Philipp-Bastian Brutscher, and Annalijn Conklin, How the Department of Health Influences healthy living: The use of behaviour change programmes in public health. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2009. https://www.rand.org/pubs/technical_reports/TR780.html.
BibTeX RIS

Research conducted by

The research described in this report was prepared for the UK National Audit Office and was conducted by RAND Europe.

This publication is part of the RAND technical report series. RAND technical reports, products of RAND from 2003 to 2011, presented research findings on a topic limited in scope or intended for a narrow audience; discussions of the methodology employed in research; literature reviews, survey instruments, modeling exercises, guidelines for practitioners and research professionals, and supporting documentation; and preliminary findings. All RAND technical reports were subject to rigorous peer review to ensure high standards for research quality and objectivity.

This document and trademark(s) contained herein are protected by law. This representation of RAND intellectual property is provided for noncommercial use only. Unauthorized posting of this publication online is prohibited; linking directly to this product page is encouraged. Permission is required from RAND to reproduce, or reuse in another form, any of its research documents for commercial purposes. For information on reprint and reuse permissions, please visit www.rand.org/pubs/permissions.

RAND is a nonprofit institution that helps improve policy and decisionmaking through research and analysis. RAND's publications do not necessarily reflect the opinions of its research clients and sponsors.