A health campaign is a type of
media campaign which attempts to promote
public health
Public health is "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities and individuals". Analyzing the det ...
by making new
health interventions
A public health intervention is any effort or policy that attempts to improve mental and physical health on a population level. Public health interventions may be run by a variety of organizations, including governmental health departments and ...
available. The organizers of a health campaign frequently use education along with an opportunity to participate further, such as when a vaccination campaign seeks both to educate the public about a vaccine and provide the vaccine to people who want it. When a health campaign has international relevance it may be called a
global health campaign.
Examples
Health education
Many diseases and medical problems have a "health education campaign" or "awareness campaign" associated with them. The goal of such a campaign is to make people conscious of the impact of diseases and to provide them information about the disease if they want to learn more about it.
Eradication of infectious diseases
Various health campaigns have taken the goal of eradicating
infectious diseases
An infection is the invasion of tissues by pathogens, their multiplication, and the reaction of host tissues to the infectious agent and the toxins they produce. An infectious disease, also known as a transmissible disease or communicable di ...
. In such campaigns the organizers recruit the public to participate in the campaign by talking about it with others and encouraging others to participate.
Behavior modification campaign
An organization may organize a campaign which asks for participants to change their behavior in some way. Examples of such projects are smoking cessation campaigns which ask people to
quit smoking
Smoking cessation, usually called quitting smoking or stopping smoking, is the process of discontinuing tobacco smoking. Tobacco smoke contains nicotine, which is addictive and can cause dependence. As a result, nicotine withdrawal often make ...
,
HIV prevention
HIV prevention refers to practices that aim to prevent the spread of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). HIV prevention practices may be undertaken by individuals to protect their own health and the health of those in their community, or may ...
campaigns which ask people to do things such as use condoms to reduce HIV infection risk, or exercise campaigns which encourage people to engage in physical activity for health.
Organizations as campaigns
In some cases the work of an organization may itself be a health campaign. This may happen when, for example, an organization exists to provide health information or medical resources to anyone who requests them. The organization itself may conduct a series of health campaigns, and its entire operation may be called a health campaign.
Sources
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*{{cite book, last1=Wallack , first1=Lawrence , last2=Woodruff , first2=Katie , last3=Dorfman , first3=Lori , title=News for a change : an advocate's guide to working with the media. , year=1999 , publisher=Sage Publications , location=Thousand Oaks , isbn=978-0761919247