Millions ‘wasted on health campaigns’
December 13th 2008
The King’s Fund health care think-tank says millions of pounds are being wasted on unfocused public health campaigns that do not work.
The Fund, which carried out a year-long investigation into the effectiveness of programmes to tackle smoking, alcohol misuse, poor diet and lack of exercise suggests the NHS needs to learn from professional advertisers on how to target specific consumers if it wants to truly encourage the public to adopt healthier lifestyles.It also says more sophisticated techniques including encouraging people to pass on health messages to each other are required.
Andrew Lansley, the shadow health secretary, said: “This report underlines once again that we must do more to reverse the ticking time bomb, we currently face of alcohol, smoking and obesity problems.”Dawn Primarolo, the public health minister, defended the initiatives: “Our public health campaigns are fully researched, innovative and deliver real results.They are built to last and made to inspire change.”
(Independent,Telegraph, p13, Kate Devlin, 5 col.”;Expressp11)
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