Media Prevention Essay

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Primary prevention is an essential part of public health that focuses on encouraging activities designed to prevent the development of pathological conditions and disease (Coreil,2010,p.8). Often, primary prevention is promoted via media and information campaigns that aim to raise public awareness of healthy lifestyles. Poor nutrition, one of the most common causes of chronic disease (CDC, 2010), has been the focus of many of these campaigns. In a society where individuals are heavily influenced by the media, it is important to examine the results of these media campaigns to see what effects they are having on the individual.
Public health media and information campaigns around nutrition and individual eating habits can have both positive …show more content…

A lot of messages about healthy eating habits and obesity reflect on individual choice; such as choosing healthier food options, exercising, drinking more water, etc. When these ads or campaigns put an emphasis on chronic diseases such as obesity, being preventable it causes a negative attitude and stigma towards this condition (Puhl & Huer, 2010). This can impact an overweight individual both physically and psychologically. While some media ads aim to promote healthy behaviors such as the NYC “Don’t’ Drink Yourself Fat” campaign, the message also has negative outcomes. The message is to encourage residents to drink more water or choose a beverage that is more nutritional. By using the word “fat” it creates a stigma of being overweight (Fairchild, 2015), and by “pouring on the pounds”, it supports the idea that being overweight is a choice. If an individual is exposed to the negative attitudes that society puts on them for being overweight, this can cause negative emotions such as low self esteem and stress and put them at risk for psychological diseases (i.e.,depression) or continuing to engage in unhealthy …show more content…

Individuals have reported feeling judged or that all their health issues are a result of their weight, which is not always the case. This can then result in health issues being over looked or not properly diagnosed. This can create a barrier in communication between a patient and provider, which then lowers the quality of the care they are receiving.
Overall, these articles provided information that there are both positive and negative outcomes in response to public health media and information campaigns around nutrition and individual eating habits. By focusing on prevention and creating messages that emphasize on the benefits of healthy behaviors and lifestyles, I feel that they can impact an individual more than using a fear tactic approach. It is my belief that the evidence of public health campaigns has more positive outcomes than

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