Some of the public safety films I saw on TV as a child had such a profound effect on me that they’re still as vivid now and they were then – electrocution, stranger danger and the perils of crossing the road. The list could go on. And although public health campaigns today don’t rely on giving us nightmares they can be just as effective in changing people’s behaviour.
One example is the 2005 ‘Clean Your Hands’ campaign. A study in the British Medical Journal a few days ago estimated that the campaign saved about 10,000 lives. And, even though it’s no longer running, the success of the campaign lives on. It’s had a lasting effect on people’s behaviour, with handwashing and hygiene still at the forefront of people’s minds in hospital settings.
But good handwashing is not only something that should be done as protection from hospital infections. It’s just as relevant in food businesses and in the home. It’s a simple and effective measure to stop germs spreading and protect public health – yet it often isn’t taken seriously enough. So, without the resource to reproduce the success of some of these previous campaigns, how do we go about bumping it up people’s agendas?
A Guardian article on the pros and cons of hand gels is worth a read. Dr Val Curtis, at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical medicine, warns against campaigns that instil a sense of contamination, but advises that the most effective way to get people to practise good hygiene is to use the power of the social norm – in other words, making people believe that by not doing a particular thing they are doing something unusual.
But what works for one person may not work for another. Let me know what you think is most effective – something hard hitting or a little gentle persuasion?