Nutrition Meets Social Marketing: Targeting Health Promotion Campaigns to Young Adults Using the Living and Eating for Health Segments.

Clare F Dix,Amy Barklamb,Annika Molenaar,Linda Brennan,Helen Truby,Tracy A Mccaffrey,Mike Reid,Shinyi Chin

doi:10.3390/nu13093151

Clare F Dix, Amy Barklamb + Show 6 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/nu13093151

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Abstract

Young adults are a key target age group for lifestyle behaviour change as adoption of healthier behaviours has the potential to impact long term health. This paper arises from a multi-disciplinary research project, Communicating Health, which aims to bridge the gap between nutritionists, media, and social marketing professionals to produce the tools that may be used to improve engagement with young adults and reduce the prevalence of obesity. The aim of this paper is to provide nuanced details of the psycho-behavioral characteristics of each of these Living and Eating for Health Segments (LEHS). The design and validation of the LEHS employed a four-stage mixed methods design underpinned by the Integrated Model of Behaviour Change and incorporating sequential formative, qualitative, and quantitative phases. This paper defines the psycho-behavioural characteristics of six distinct market segments: Lifestyle Mavens, Aspirational Healthy Eaters, Balanced-all Rounders, the Health Conscious, those Contemplating Another Day, and the Blissfully Unconcerned. These psycho-behavioural characteristics are important to understand to help build our capability in designing campaigns that are specifically and purposefully targeting these different market segments of young adults. Social marketing practices can enhance the utility of nutrition and health messages to young adults in order to engage them in adopting positive lifestyle change. Tailoring health promotions to the perceived needs of sub-groups or segments of young adults should lead to increased engagement and uptake of messages and cost-efficient use of health promotion budgets.

Highlights

Overweight and obesity are increasing in young adults (YAs) and in 2014, 39% of young Australian adults are above a healthy weight [1]
A total of 2019 young adults aged 18 to 24 years old residing in Australia completed the online survey in December 2018
As the focus of this inquiry was related to obesity prevention, some specific questions related to what the young adults believed were the main causes of obesity

Summary

Introduction

Overweight and obesity are increasing in young adults (YAs) and in 2014, 39% of young Australian adults are above a healthy weight [1] This weight trajectory is underpinned by modifiable health behaviours such as poor diet and lack of physical activity [2,3]. To develop effective diet and health promotion campaigns for young adults, it is important to understand the various barriers and enablers for adopting different food practices, including lifestyles, attitudes, and other psycho-behavioural characteristics that shape behaviour This information can be used to design campaigns and behaviour change initiatives tailored to YAs perceived needs and targeted to enhance engagement [3]

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