Can you use social marketing to tackle any health inequality?
Posted by TeamPC on 8 Aug 2017
Can you use social marketing to tackle any health inequality?
Absolutely – and there are many examples of highly effective behaviour marketing interventions across the UK.
If you’re online and searching for details about social marketing, you’ll probably find references to it dealing with issues like alcoholism, obesity and heart disease, and so on. Very often these health conditions are associated with a person’s social position, circumstances and lifestyle choices.
In other words, you are less likely to live a long, healthy and happy life, if you don’t have access to quality healthcare.
Inequality is not just about access to healthcare
But our health and lifestyles are not only influenced by our access to quality healthcare services, but also by the physical and social conditions in which we live.
Too many people are dying prematurely given their social position
The Marmot Review was set up by the Secretary of State for Health in 2010, and sets out evidence-based strategies for reducing health inequalities in England. One of the most dramatic findings of the evidence presented is that far too many people each year are dying prematurely as a result of general health inequalities. That effectively means, the lower on the social scale a person sits, the worse his or her health, and the more likely they are to die prematurely.
Social marketing redresses health inqualities
Social marketing aims to redress the balance and gets to grip with target audiences and their concerns, issues and problems. It facilitates better access, knowledge and awareness of available healthcare, and links positive lifestyle choices with improved health outcomes.
Preventive health management – early in the process
Social marketing encourages people to take control of their personal health, by making more informed choices about their lifestyle, health and habits.
Social marketing can tackle wide-ranging health inequalities and is making a real difference to people’s lives across society – and that’s a positive thing that needs to be encouraged by the NHS, healthcare sector and its associated partners.
We’re Perfect Circle – an open and honest social marketing agency that delivers life changing behavioural change campaigns.
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