Evidence supports health communication campaigns

According to a systematic review from CDC's Community Guide Branch, health communication campaigns can change health behaviors when combined with the distribution of free or reduced-price related products.Based on this evidence review, the Community Preventive Services Task Force (Task Force) has issued the following recommendation:

"Based on strong evidence of effectiveness for producing intended behavior changes, the Community Preventive Services Task Force recommends health communication campaigns that use multiple channels, one of which must be mass media, combined with the distribution of free or reduced-price health-related products(defined below).”

"Because results were positive across all of the six behaviors evaluated, the Community Preventive Services Task Force concluded that these findings are likely to apply to a broader range of health-related products that meet the review's product eligibility criteria in the intervention definition. The effectiveness of interventions promoting the use of health-related products other than those distributed in the reviewed studies should be assessed to ensure applicability.”

The Task Force is an independent, nonfederal, unpaid group of public health and prevention experts that provides evidence-based findings about community preventive programs, services, and policies to improve health.