Public Health Risk versus Community Resources: Implications for Behaviour Change

Abstract

Public health educational campaigns, in common with many other training interventions, generally aim to change the recipients' behaviour in some way and are often based on the premise that by providing the target group with information, thereby increasing their knowledge and generally raising awareness, they will be persuaded to adopt new behaviours. However, the success of such programmes in promoting sustained behavioural change is often limited [1,2]. This paper considers how the broader socio-economic and political context and available community resources interact with individual and community levels of knowledge and beliefs, and influence decision-making.