Individual responsibility for health and self-care are key themes in recent health policy development in England. The King's Fund have addressed the issue with three papers:
- Paying the Patient: Improving health using financial incentives identifies programmes based on both positive and negative incentives, finds that financial incentives are effective in encouraging people to perform clearly defined, time-limited, simple behavioural tasks, and also in encouraging participation in lifestyle programmes.However, healthier behaviour is not maintained and financial incentives are not effective when the behaviour change required is complex, for example, giving up smoking.
- Low-income Groups and Behaviour Change Interventions: A review of intervention content and effectiveness considers interventions targeted specifically at low-income groups, this paper asks which interventions are effective in getting people to quit smoking, eat healthily and exercise. It reveals that the most frequently used techniques are providing information and encouraging people to set goals, which can be particularly effective at changing behaviour in disadvantaged groups.
- Using Information to Promote Healthy Behaviours looks at the theory and selected evidence of interventions in practice, and what this can tell us about the role of information in behaviour change programmes. Information-based health campaigns are a major part of the government's health promotion strategy. A £75 million marketing programme has recently been announced to encourage healthy behaviour in children. This paper looks at the theory and selected evidence of interventions in practice, and what this can tell us about the role of information in behaviour change programmes.
Two more papers are due in the Kicking Bad Habits series before a final report is drafted.
