Health Promotion Drives Waste Money, Claim Nurses

Multimillion-dollar health promotion campaigns have failed to change people's behavior and are a waste of money and other resources, nurses say. In addition, they also called for funds to be directed towards treating patients at risk and targeted groups, rather than spending such sums on high-profile advertising campaigns.

The issue will also be discussed at England's Royal College of Nursing, which holds its annual conference in Bournemouth on Sunday. Over the past five years, the UK Department of Health has spent millions of dollars on advertising campaigns promoting healthy lifestyles.

Advertising

Such anti-smoking campaigns, safe sex advertisements and encouragements to consume fruits and vegetables have had no impact on the general public. The RCN Public Health Forum entitled "Wrong?" once again highlighting the fact that the money was wasted.

Additionally, the health resolution calls on public health officials to discuss whether resources allocated to health promotion campaigns can be better used by delivering services directly to patients who need them most.

More than $140 million of public funds have been spent on HIV/AIDS advertising campaigns. However, between 2000 and 2004, the number of HIV/AIDS cases in the UK increased by 50%. The number of heterosexuals diagnosed with HIV/AIDS exceeds the number of cases of homosexual infection. Rates of sexually transmitted infections such as chlamydia, herpes and gonorrhea continue to rise, especially among teenagers.

Despite $2 million spent on food advertising campaigns encouraging people to eat at least five servings of fruits and vegetables every day, there was no significant increase in the percentage of people eating healthy foods. A total of 205 women and 18 percent of men consumed five servings of fruits and vegetables per day. In this situation, $85 million will be spent on free fruit distribution in schools this year.

Advertising

In the anti-smoking campaign, the National Health Service (NHS) spent several million dollars to reduce smoking rates to 21% by the end of 2010. $145 million has been allocated as part of the budget allocation. . Although there are gross commissions, they are only 3%. But above all, in recent years the number of smokers has increased among the younger generation, which is especially sensitive to advertising claims.

Healthcare Stakeholder Discussion: Prevention and Well-Being