LEARNING AIM D: INVESTIGATE HOW HEALTH PROMOTION ENCOURAGES INDIVIDUALS TO
CHANGE THEIR BEHAVIOUR IN RELATION TO THEIR OWN HEALTH
P7: Explain how models or theories that justify behaviour change can be used to overcome barriers in
relation to a selected health promotion campaign.
P8: Explain the features of a selected health promotion campaign and the approaches used to
increase public awareness.
M5 Analyse how theories or models and approaches have been used in a selected health promotion
: campaign to overcome barriers and increase public awareness.
D3: Evaluate the success of a specific public health campaign in encouraging behaviour change in
relation to health.
D4: Evaluate how far a recent health promotion campaign met the aims of public health policy
through the strategies and approaches used to improve the health of a demographic area.
In this assignment I will be investigating how health promotion encourages individuals to change their
behaviour in relation to their own health. Firstly, I will be explaining how behaviour change theories
could be used to overcome barriers in Change4Life. I will also be explaining the features of a selected
health promotion campaign (Change4Life) and the approaches used to increase public awareness (about
the problems associated with obesity). I will moreover be analysing how theories or models have been
used in Change4Life to overcome barriers and how approaches have been used in Change4Life to
increase public awareness. Furthermore, I will be evaluating the features of a specific health promotion
campaign (Change4Life) in encouraging behaviour change in relation to health. Finally, I will be
evaluating how far a recent health promotion campaign (Change 4 Life) met the aims of public health
policy through the strategies and approaches used to improve the health of a demographic area (Tower
Hamlets).
P7: Explain how models or theories that justify behaviour change can be used to overcome
barriers in relation to a selected health promotion campaign.
M5: Analyse how theories or models and approaches have been used in a selected health
promotion campaign to overcome barriers and increase public awareness.
In this section of the assignment I will be explaining individual resistance and ways to overcome this
using the Health Belief Model, the Theory of Reasoned Action and the Stages of Change Model.
BARRIERS IN CHANGE4LIFE- INDIVIDUAL RESISTANCE/INDIFFERENCE:
Some individuals are hesitant to be a part of the Change4Life campaign. This could because of feeling
threatened by exercising or taking part in healthy sports and activities. Some people feel threatened by
specific healthy activities, such as taking part in sport. They may recall negative experiences of school, of
1
,Rumana Akthar 13TTN
Mrs Neal
Unit 8- Promoting Public Health
13A/H11
being forced to join in a sporting activity, or they may think that participating in sport will not be of
benefit to them. This means that they are not going to try to exercise or join clubs as they associate it
with feeling embarrassed or bullying. Individuals might not follow Change4life as they do not feel that it
will benefit them. This means that they do not want to exercise or change their lifestyle as in the present
they are not suffering from health conditions or problems caused by their lifestyle. They could have
negative attitudes and think that wanting Change4Life is trying to reduce/prevent such as obesity could
never happen to them. This attitude could have been developed by growing up with people seeing
people who had bad diet and exercise habits live a high quality of life. Negative attitudes may be caused
by lack of self-esteem, not being encouraged by family or friends when they were younger, or parents or
carers passing on negative health behaviours. Therefore, they have no motivation to look into
Change4Life as they believe that these negative behaviours and habits are ordinary and do not need
fixing. Some people are reluctant to take part and follow the advice of Change4Life because they are not
interested in making the effort to eat well or to exercise, or they have an ‘it won’t happen to me’
attitude. For example, it can be difficult to persuade a small child or teenager to eat well as they might
not be able to envisage the effects on their health in several years’ time. This may be due to apathy or to
mental health issues. Since negativity is a learned response, it can be taught to an otherwise content
child. A parent with a negative attitude is modelling this way of thinking, and the child learns by example
to be pessimistic. If a parent has an unhealthy lifestyle, the child will most likely learn these behaviours
and therefore be unhealthy too. Alternatively, if they do see the risks involved and want to get advice
from change for life. They might take the advice given but that does not mean they will use it. People
might overlook the important support and advice given by having an ‘I’ll do it tomorrow’ attitude. This is
a thinking strategy, the ‘tomorrow syndrome’, where exercise and healthy eating will start tomorrow –
and, of course, tomorrow never comes! This type of behaviour results in the support given not being
used as it is always being pushed back to a later day. (Pearsonschoolsandfecolleges.co.uk, 2020) Those
with this mind-set will continue with their unhealthy behaviours and not follow the advice from
Change4Life because they believe that they will do it ‘tomorrow’, even though they know that the
lifestyle they have is unhealthy which shows that they are aware of the consequences of their lifestyle,
they just need the motivation to change their unhealthy habits.
HEALTH BELIEF MODEL:
The health belief model was developed by social psychologists in the 1950s. The model studied people’s
attitudes and beliefs, to determine their health behaviours. The model proposed that people would
change their attitudes towards their own health if they were faced by threat of a disease that they
considered would cause serious health problems for them, and that they would take action to find out
about the symptoms and the best way to treat it. However, if people do not feel they are at serious risk,
they will continue their unhealthy lifestyle in the false belief that ill health will not happen to them.
Therefore, the model concluded two key points. Firstly, if individuals encounter anything that will
threaten their health, they are more likely to change their attitude or behaviour about health. Secondly,
individuals will try to learn and find out about the systems and the most efficient ways to prevent them.
Notably, there are six considerations that can impact the behaviour or attitude changes. Susceptibility is
2
, Rumana Akthar 13TTN
Mrs Neal
Unit 8- Promoting Public Health
13A/H11
an individual’s assessment of the risk of getting a disease. For example, if a young person believes a
certain disease only affects older people, they are less likely to take actions to prevent getting it.
Severity is the individual’s view about the disease’s impact on their health. Impacts range from the
worst scenario of death, to disablement, severe pain and how long illness will last. Benefits are the
individual’s view of how much a medicine or treatment would help. Barriers are the difficulties an
individual perceives about taking medicines or receiving treatments, including cost, physical and
psychological side effects. Action prompts the individual may use to take the prescribed action, for
example using their mobile to remind them to take the medicine, using a wall or email calendar etc.
Self-efficacy is the belief an individual has about taking the prescribed medicine or treatment. They may
not take it even if they know the medicine is good for them. Family and friends can encourage the
individual to take it. Individuals should consider their susceptibility which means that they should
consider whether they feel at risk to obesity or not. If they do not feel it is a serious threat to their
health they aren’t going to change their behaviour. If individuals feel as though obesity can severely
impact their health such as long-term symptoms and death. They are more likely to change their
behaviour. They should also consider the benefits of changing their behaviours and how much it will
actually help them in the future. They should consider if changing the behaviour could result in more or
less barriers that they have to face. For example, is the cost of going to the gym or buying food worth
lowering their risk of developing obesity. Perceived threat (a sum of severity and susceptibility), cues to
action, and perceived self-efficacy were significantly associated with behavioural intention of weight
reduction. The Health belief model could be a predictor of weight adjustment behaviours including
nutrition and physical activity behaviours. Therefore, educational interventions based on a health belief
model could be effective for improvement of these behaviours in obese and overweight people.
The Health Belief Model can be used by Change4Life to overcome individual resistance as people may
have the ‘It won’t happen to me’ belief. The Health Belief Model can be used to design short- and long-
term interventions. For example, Change4Life can gather information by conducting a health needs
assessments and other efforts to determine who is at risk and the population(s) that should be targeted,
convey the consequences of the health issues associated with risk behaviours in a clear and
unambiguous fashion to understand perceived severity, communicating to the target population the
steps that are involved in taking the recommended action and highlighting the benefits to action,
providing assistance in identifying and reducing barriers to action and demonstrating actions through
skill development activities and providing support that enhances self-efficacy and the likelihood of
successful behaviour changes. The Change4Life campaign makes people realise the consumption of
sugar children consume from drinking fizzy drinks which would aim to make parents aware of unhealthy
diet plans and consequences of such action, as a results from being aware of the health issues that could
arise, parents and children may drink less fizzy drinks and junk foods and start a healthier diet plan. This
fits into the health belief model which addresses negative issues and believes it can be replaced with a
proposed healthier option, so the parents may replace the unhealthy option with a healthier option and
use the smart swap options to take the proposed option. The website will offer guidance and support to
make the parents feel that they can still enjoy eating with healthier alternatives. (Rural Healthinfo.org,
2020)
3
CHANGE THEIR BEHAVIOUR IN RELATION TO THEIR OWN HEALTH
P7: Explain how models or theories that justify behaviour change can be used to overcome barriers in
relation to a selected health promotion campaign.
P8: Explain the features of a selected health promotion campaign and the approaches used to
increase public awareness.
M5 Analyse how theories or models and approaches have been used in a selected health promotion
: campaign to overcome barriers and increase public awareness.
D3: Evaluate the success of a specific public health campaign in encouraging behaviour change in
relation to health.
D4: Evaluate how far a recent health promotion campaign met the aims of public health policy
through the strategies and approaches used to improve the health of a demographic area.
In this assignment I will be investigating how health promotion encourages individuals to change their
behaviour in relation to their own health. Firstly, I will be explaining how behaviour change theories
could be used to overcome barriers in Change4Life. I will also be explaining the features of a selected
health promotion campaign (Change4Life) and the approaches used to increase public awareness (about
the problems associated with obesity). I will moreover be analysing how theories or models have been
used in Change4Life to overcome barriers and how approaches have been used in Change4Life to
increase public awareness. Furthermore, I will be evaluating the features of a specific health promotion
campaign (Change4Life) in encouraging behaviour change in relation to health. Finally, I will be
evaluating how far a recent health promotion campaign (Change 4 Life) met the aims of public health
policy through the strategies and approaches used to improve the health of a demographic area (Tower
Hamlets).
P7: Explain how models or theories that justify behaviour change can be used to overcome
barriers in relation to a selected health promotion campaign.
M5: Analyse how theories or models and approaches have been used in a selected health
promotion campaign to overcome barriers and increase public awareness.
In this section of the assignment I will be explaining individual resistance and ways to overcome this
using the Health Belief Model, the Theory of Reasoned Action and the Stages of Change Model.
BARRIERS IN CHANGE4LIFE- INDIVIDUAL RESISTANCE/INDIFFERENCE:
Some individuals are hesitant to be a part of the Change4Life campaign. This could because of feeling
threatened by exercising or taking part in healthy sports and activities. Some people feel threatened by
specific healthy activities, such as taking part in sport. They may recall negative experiences of school, of
1
,Rumana Akthar 13TTN
Mrs Neal
Unit 8- Promoting Public Health
13A/H11
being forced to join in a sporting activity, or they may think that participating in sport will not be of
benefit to them. This means that they are not going to try to exercise or join clubs as they associate it
with feeling embarrassed or bullying. Individuals might not follow Change4life as they do not feel that it
will benefit them. This means that they do not want to exercise or change their lifestyle as in the present
they are not suffering from health conditions or problems caused by their lifestyle. They could have
negative attitudes and think that wanting Change4Life is trying to reduce/prevent such as obesity could
never happen to them. This attitude could have been developed by growing up with people seeing
people who had bad diet and exercise habits live a high quality of life. Negative attitudes may be caused
by lack of self-esteem, not being encouraged by family or friends when they were younger, or parents or
carers passing on negative health behaviours. Therefore, they have no motivation to look into
Change4Life as they believe that these negative behaviours and habits are ordinary and do not need
fixing. Some people are reluctant to take part and follow the advice of Change4Life because they are not
interested in making the effort to eat well or to exercise, or they have an ‘it won’t happen to me’
attitude. For example, it can be difficult to persuade a small child or teenager to eat well as they might
not be able to envisage the effects on their health in several years’ time. This may be due to apathy or to
mental health issues. Since negativity is a learned response, it can be taught to an otherwise content
child. A parent with a negative attitude is modelling this way of thinking, and the child learns by example
to be pessimistic. If a parent has an unhealthy lifestyle, the child will most likely learn these behaviours
and therefore be unhealthy too. Alternatively, if they do see the risks involved and want to get advice
from change for life. They might take the advice given but that does not mean they will use it. People
might overlook the important support and advice given by having an ‘I’ll do it tomorrow’ attitude. This is
a thinking strategy, the ‘tomorrow syndrome’, where exercise and healthy eating will start tomorrow –
and, of course, tomorrow never comes! This type of behaviour results in the support given not being
used as it is always being pushed back to a later day. (Pearsonschoolsandfecolleges.co.uk, 2020) Those
with this mind-set will continue with their unhealthy behaviours and not follow the advice from
Change4Life because they believe that they will do it ‘tomorrow’, even though they know that the
lifestyle they have is unhealthy which shows that they are aware of the consequences of their lifestyle,
they just need the motivation to change their unhealthy habits.
HEALTH BELIEF MODEL:
The health belief model was developed by social psychologists in the 1950s. The model studied people’s
attitudes and beliefs, to determine their health behaviours. The model proposed that people would
change their attitudes towards their own health if they were faced by threat of a disease that they
considered would cause serious health problems for them, and that they would take action to find out
about the symptoms and the best way to treat it. However, if people do not feel they are at serious risk,
they will continue their unhealthy lifestyle in the false belief that ill health will not happen to them.
Therefore, the model concluded two key points. Firstly, if individuals encounter anything that will
threaten their health, they are more likely to change their attitude or behaviour about health. Secondly,
individuals will try to learn and find out about the systems and the most efficient ways to prevent them.
Notably, there are six considerations that can impact the behaviour or attitude changes. Susceptibility is
2
, Rumana Akthar 13TTN
Mrs Neal
Unit 8- Promoting Public Health
13A/H11
an individual’s assessment of the risk of getting a disease. For example, if a young person believes a
certain disease only affects older people, they are less likely to take actions to prevent getting it.
Severity is the individual’s view about the disease’s impact on their health. Impacts range from the
worst scenario of death, to disablement, severe pain and how long illness will last. Benefits are the
individual’s view of how much a medicine or treatment would help. Barriers are the difficulties an
individual perceives about taking medicines or receiving treatments, including cost, physical and
psychological side effects. Action prompts the individual may use to take the prescribed action, for
example using their mobile to remind them to take the medicine, using a wall or email calendar etc.
Self-efficacy is the belief an individual has about taking the prescribed medicine or treatment. They may
not take it even if they know the medicine is good for them. Family and friends can encourage the
individual to take it. Individuals should consider their susceptibility which means that they should
consider whether they feel at risk to obesity or not. If they do not feel it is a serious threat to their
health they aren’t going to change their behaviour. If individuals feel as though obesity can severely
impact their health such as long-term symptoms and death. They are more likely to change their
behaviour. They should also consider the benefits of changing their behaviours and how much it will
actually help them in the future. They should consider if changing the behaviour could result in more or
less barriers that they have to face. For example, is the cost of going to the gym or buying food worth
lowering their risk of developing obesity. Perceived threat (a sum of severity and susceptibility), cues to
action, and perceived self-efficacy were significantly associated with behavioural intention of weight
reduction. The Health belief model could be a predictor of weight adjustment behaviours including
nutrition and physical activity behaviours. Therefore, educational interventions based on a health belief
model could be effective for improvement of these behaviours in obese and overweight people.
The Health Belief Model can be used by Change4Life to overcome individual resistance as people may
have the ‘It won’t happen to me’ belief. The Health Belief Model can be used to design short- and long-
term interventions. For example, Change4Life can gather information by conducting a health needs
assessments and other efforts to determine who is at risk and the population(s) that should be targeted,
convey the consequences of the health issues associated with risk behaviours in a clear and
unambiguous fashion to understand perceived severity, communicating to the target population the
steps that are involved in taking the recommended action and highlighting the benefits to action,
providing assistance in identifying and reducing barriers to action and demonstrating actions through
skill development activities and providing support that enhances self-efficacy and the likelihood of
successful behaviour changes. The Change4Life campaign makes people realise the consumption of
sugar children consume from drinking fizzy drinks which would aim to make parents aware of unhealthy
diet plans and consequences of such action, as a results from being aware of the health issues that could
arise, parents and children may drink less fizzy drinks and junk foods and start a healthier diet plan. This
fits into the health belief model which addresses negative issues and believes it can be replaced with a
proposed healthier option, so the parents may replace the unhealthy option with a healthier option and
use the smart swap options to take the proposed option. The website will offer guidance and support to
make the parents feel that they can still enjoy eating with healthier alternatives. (Rural Healthinfo.org,
2020)
3
