Essay: Could media campaigns be a reliable solution in the prevention & reduction of obesity cases?

Media campaigns are most often used as a persuasion tool, through the organized use of mass media for a specific activity (Sullivan, 2009). These campaigns aim to influence targeted populations to undertake, or not, certain courses of actions. (Sullivan, 2009). The responses that arise from these mostly include policy changes, donations, changes in voting outcomes, and most importantly changes in the personal behavior or beliefs of the public. (Sullivan, 2009). In the interest of effectively conveying their message, media campaigns usually come under the form of the following traditional media channels: radio, television, newspapers, magazines and the internet. (Sullivan, 2009).
Health decisions and behaviors in particular have been heavily impacted by mass media campaigns, and have promoted changes. These campaigns have proven to be crucial platforms in the communication of health interventions within societies, due to their strategically planned out nature (Nelson & Namtira, 2017). Researchers believe that the flow of impact in the relationship between media campaigns and health behavior stems from the initial message of the campaigns increasing awareness or informing the public initiating a change in public policy, which would thus influence the individual to modify their health behavior (Nelson & Namtira, 2017). An example of this could be a campaign targeting smoking and the risk it presents with regards to the second-hand effect as a means of discouraging people from smoking (Nelson & Namtira, 2017). The campaign alone may not directly convince an individual to change their smoking behavior; however the increased health awareness may lead to a policy change prohibiting the act of smoking in specific public areas (Nelson & Namtira, 2017). This would then be more like have an effect on either persuading or forcing smokers to quit (Nelson & Namtira, 2017).
According to the World Health Organization (2009), prior to the First World War, public health posters (as a type of media campaign) were scarce. It was only after that governments felt the need to promote public health as means of strengthening populations (World Health Organization, 2009). In reaction to growing problems of alcoholism, tuberculosis and sexually transmitted diseases, the French government began to release public campaigns, primarily under the form of posters, as warning for these threats to public health (World Health Organization, 2009). These posters presented information on the treatment course for tuberculosis, as well as ways to avoid exposure by changing everyday behavior and being aware of the surrounding risk factors (World Health Organization, 2009). Means of communicating health messages via these posters has changed over the course of time (World Health Organization, 2009). Campaigns initially began with forceful propaganda; falling victim to a more negative tone by employing stigma and guilt as advertising tools (World Health Organization, 2009). With time, a more positive approach was implemented, through humorous, persuasive and stimulating campaigns (World Health Organization, 2009).
Despite noting their unmistakable presence in societies since World War One, the matter at hand remains as to whether these campaigns actually work and influence public behavior. Current research show that media campaigns have been repeatedly used to target different aspects of health. Some of the specific health topics at hand impacted by the implementation of said campaigns and the awareness they raise range from reduced spreading of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in Lagos State, to an increase in public enrollment in donor registries throughout the United States (Nelson & Namtira, 2017; Rady et al., 2012). An article published in The Lancet also showed that the use of mass media campaigns led to decreased rates of young individuals starting to smoke as well as a reduction in adults smoking, a dip in alcohol consumption, reducing birth rates and HIV infection rates, as well as an increase in cancer screenings (Wakefield et al., 2010). As defined by the WHO, obesity is the accumulation of excessive or abnormal fat, which poses a risk to the general health of an individual (World Health Organization, 2018). The presence of weight gain has had various implications throughout history, one of those being that storing fat was sign of wealth and well-being (World Health Organization, 2000). However nowadays, overweight and obesity pose one of the greatest threats to the public health on a global scale, replacing the burden undernutrition and infectious diseases to poor health (World Health Organization, 2000). Obesity is categorized as a chronic disease, present in both developed and developing countries, and unlimited in the age range of the individuals it can impact (World Health Organization, 2000).
A study conducted by Berghöfer et al. (2008) showed that the prevalence of obesity has significantly increased over recent decades in Europe, specifically in the Central, Eastern and Southern regions. A thirty percent increase in obesity cases within Europe over a scope of 10 to 15 years has been reported (Berghöfer et al., 2008). This phenomenon was also discovered in developing countries in Latin America (Filozof, et al., 2000). Prevalence of obesity in Brazil measured between 7 percent to 12.5%, ranging from 7.2 percent to 16.4 percent in Peru, and even more stagnating prevalence rates in Argentina, Chile, Mexico and Paraguay (Filozof, et al., 2000). Furthermore, notable figures arise within Pacific populations, where the prevalence of obesity in Samoa has been measured at 70.4% percent in women and 47.7 percent in men from the urban population (Hodge et al., 1995). All these figures come to show the rapid increase of obesity across different populations and regions.
Despite its growing prevalence already presenting a dire situation, Obesity also poses as a great risk factor for other diseases, such as type 2 diabetes mellitus, coronary heart disease (CHD), increased incidence rates for cancer, respiratory issues, and osteoarthritis (World Health Organization, 2000; Kopelman, 2000). Not only does Obesity present as a serious adversary to good health within an individual, it also has an impact on the economy, due to the large amount of health costs that are directed towards the treatment of obesity; it is reported that 2 to 7 percent of a developed country’s health expenditure is dedicated to this chronic disease (Kopelman, 2000). Obesity nowadays is becoming more and more a potential contributor to premature mortality in both developed and developing countries (Mehta, 2015). A study conducted by Preston and Stokes (2011) shows that obesity is responsible for a reduction of 1.54 years of life expectancy in Women at age 50 and 1.85 year reduction in men at the same age in the United States, and is a primary contributor to the the poor life expectancy rating of the US as a high-income country. These striking results are not exclusive to the US only, as research has shown that the impact of obesity on mortality is similar in Finland (Mehta, 2015).
With the prospective growth of Obesity cases in the near future presenting an obdurate primary threat to future healthcare, it is crucial to find a means of targeting and solving this problem. Healthcare professionals are adamant on lifestyle related changes being key to decreasing the occurrence of this condition, thus it is imperative to incentivize people to exercise, improve their nutrition, and other unhealthy habits that act as risk factors for Obesity (Lee, 2015). Based off of the reviewed success media campaigns in targeting certain health matters, this paper examines literature published on the topic of media campaigns targeting Obesity and their impact on the public’s health behavior towards this matter. The goal of this paper is to determine whether media campaigns could be a potentially reliable solution in the prevention and reduction of obesity cases. In order to fully understand the impact of past media campaigns on public health behavior towards different health issues, a literature review of existing studies will be conducted. This will then provide allow insight as to the current research gap on literature investigating obesity centered media campaigns and health behavior. A detailed methodology will follow, leading to a general review of the results and then a discussion which will give provide a concise answer to the research topic at hand. This review will then close with an analysis of the strengths and limitations, as well as recommendation for future research.
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