Behaviour Change in Public Health: Evidence and Implications Assignment

Assignment Task

Imagine you are working for a public health organisation. You are tasked with developing a policy aimed at encouraging behaviour change to improve health outcomes in relation to a significant health modifying behaviour. Your policy should include the following details:

A description of the behaviour to be addressed

• Provide a rationale for your selection of the particular health modifying behaviour (for example, smoking).
• Briefly outline the social determinants which might predict this behaviour, it’s prevalence and the need for a policy to address the issue.

The population of concern.

• For example, people who inject drugs within a specific city.

The proposed aim and objectives of the policy.

• Ensure that objectives are written as SMART objectives. Please limit this to no more than three objectives.

The health promotion approach to be used to achieve the aims and objectives of the policy, with rationale for its selection. 

• Where does this policy fit within Beattie’s (1991) Typology of Health Promotion (for example, health persuasion or legislative action?)
• Critically reflect on the potential strengths and limitations of this approach in comparison to existing policies which have been implemented elsewhere. For example, if your policy focuses on addressing alcohol misuse, you could reflect the success of existing on policies such as ‘dry areas’ in Australia.

Critically reflect on any potential ethical issues associated with the implementation of this policy. 

• Often policies aimed at promoting health behaviour change have ethical implications for the people they target. For example, when the smoking ban came into force in the United Kingdom, some pro-smoking groups argued this contravened their personal liberties and the right to smoke.

An evaluation plan

• Indicate the key evaluation questions for the policy (for example, how will you know if your policy has been effective?
• What kind of data will be needed in order to answer these questions (for example quantitative, data from a questionnaire or database, or qualitative data from focus groups or interviews? Why will this kind of data be helpful in answering the evaluative questions?

How evaluation results will be disseminated?

• Provide a brief summary of how the results of an evaluation of this policy will be shared (for example, via a social media campaign or televised advertisements).
• Which stakeholders will it be important to communicate findings to? (For example, the general population or specific sub-groups, health organisations, researchers or educators).

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