Health campaigns: Interpersonal communication

Health campaigns often have limited effects on health behavior. One reason is that the effects of health campaigns are mediated via interpersonal communication about the campaign topic. These conversations can either strengthen or weaken the campaign effects, depending on a positive or negative conversational valence. Interpersonal communication is more likely if campaign messages contain prompts to discuss their content. Other determinants of interpersonal communication are receiving a message in the presence of others, elicitation of emotions, positive message evaluation, and personal topic relevance. Also, messages that activate brain regions that indicate self-related or social consequences of sharing are more likely to be shared. Besides having an effect on behavior, conversations have been shown to influence intention and knowledge, but on average no effects are found on attitude and perceived behavioral consequences. Strongest positive effects are found for campaigns on smoking, condom use and HIV-testing, but not for campaigns on alcohol and drugs use. So far, largely similar effects are found for face-to-face communication and online sharing or chatting. Some health campaigns explicitly aim at interpersonal communication as a campaign tool, for example by stimulating parent–child communication. This has positive effects on health behavior, providing these conversations are of high quality, characterized by reciprocal conversations in which children feel that parents take their opinions seriously. Also, parent–child communication should focus on health risks. Regarding substance use, parents should not discuss their own negative experiences and avoid permissive messages that allow alcohol use in specific circumstances or in a limited amount.