— There is little evidence showing whether health information transmitted via text messages can change health and educational outcomes. We conducted a randomized field experiment involving 900 primary students in rural China to study whether a health education campaign conducted via text message could affect caregiver knowledge or student outcomes. When caregivers received both weekly health me...

For low dose CT lung cancer screening to be effective in curbing disease mortality, efforts are needed to overcome barriers to awareness and facilitate uptake of the current evidence-based screening guidelines. A sequential mixed-methods approach was employed to design a screening campaign utilizing messages developed from community focus groups, followed by implementation of the outreach campa...

BACKGROUND Social marketing integrates communication campaigns with behavioural and environmental change strategies. Childhood obesity programs could benefit significantly from social marketing but communication campaigns on this issue tend to be stand-alone. METHODS A large-scale multi-setting child obesity prevention program was implemented in the Hunter New England (HNE) region of New Sout...

BACKGROUND Illicit tobacco (IT) undermines the effectiveness of tobacco control strategies. We assessed the implementation and impact of a new programme designed to reduce demand for, as well as supply of, IT, in the north of England, where IT was prevalent. METHODS 'Mixed methods' research was undertaken. Qualitative methods included stakeholder interviews (at outset and 1 year later) and et...

Mass media can powerfully affect health decision-making. Pre-testing through focus groups or surveys is a standard, though inconsistent, predictor of effectiveness. Converging evidence demonstrates that activity within brain systems associated with self-related processing can predict individual behavior in response to health messages. Preliminary evidence also suggests that neural activity in s...

BACKGROUND In late 2007, Canada's ParticipACTION national physical activity mass media campaign was re-launched, with an initial campaign targeting parents of elementary school-aged children. The campaign informed them about the risks of physical inactivity for children and youth. The purpose of this study was to assess campaign awareness and understanding following the campaign, and to identif...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate Safe Kids Week 2001-a national public awareness campaign on scald and burn prevention-run by Safe Kids Canada. DESIGN Random digit dial telephone survey. SETTING Canada. SUBJECTS Parents or guardians of children under 9 years. Two groups of parents were compared, those "exposed" to the campaign (defined as having "seen, heard, or read anything about scald and burn pr...

Objective: To evaluate Safe Kids Week 2001—a national public awareness campaign on scald and burn prevention—run by Safe Kids Canada. Design: Random digit dial telephone survey. Setting: Canada. Subjects: Parents or guardians of children under 9 years. Two groups of parents were compared, those “exposed” to the campaign (defined as having “seen, heard, or read anything about scald and burn prev...