Topic 9: Population Level Behaviour Change

aims to understand and change behaviours in large amounts of people by focusing on awareness and context of behaviour

population-level approach (aim)

Disadvantages for this includes: require identification and active engagement, have limited reach, de-emphasise contextual factors and blame individual

Individual Level Approaches (neg)

Advantages for this include; allows for intervention to be tailored for a person and fit their specific needs; are relationship based; have potential to produce large amounts of change to an individual

Individual Level Approaches (pos)

aims to change average levels of a behaviour in a community by targeting awareness and the associated context and needs

Population Level Approaches (aim)

conditions and circumstances in which people are born, grow up, learn, work, play and live, relevent to others

upstream social determinants

reflect distribution of power, wealth and resources

upstream social determinants

focus on the inter-relationships between people and their physical and sociocultural environment; also acknowledge the broader environment and policy as influences

ecological models of behaviour

Using the environment we can educate, persuade, train, coerce or advocate

information environment

Using the environment we can add resources, influence accessibility, functionality, structure, and quality

physical environment

the costs and affordability of a behaviour; adding taxes, to reduce or providing discounts or subsides to increase

economic/material environment

rules, regulations and procedures relevant to a behaviour

Policy Environment

Ecological models of behaviour focus on

• inter-relationships between people and their physical and sociocultural environment 

• differ from many other models of behaviour in that they acknowledge the broader environment and policy as influences on behaviour

• can incorporate constructs from other theories and models which focus on individual, social, and organisational influences on behaviour

aesthetic, temperature, weather, design, exposure

components to physical environment

instruction on how to perform behaviour

shaping knowledge

information about health side effects

natural consequences

Advantages for this approach includes: this has a large reach, moves beyond individual blaming, can have powerful change and acknowledges upstream influences

Population-level approaches (pos)

limitations of this approach includes: it is somewhat paternalistic, compromising individual autonomy; be seen as not personally salient among people in need; be complex and require extensive planning, commitment, resources, coordination, stakeholder liaison; have a high level of uncertainty; have a low level of control over intervention activities; require a long time for implementation and change; may produce a small magnitude of individual-level change

Population-level approaches (neg)