Scott Beth, Curtis Val, Rabie Tamer, Garbrah-Aidoo Nana
The Hygiene Centre, Department of Infectious and Tropical Diseases, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK.
Health Policy Plan. 2007 Jul;22(4):225-33. doi: 10.1093/heapol/czm016. Epub 2007 May 25.
Each year more than 2 million children die from diarrhoeal diseases; the same number again die from acute respiratory infections. The simple hygiene behaviour of washing hands with soap represents an effective way of preventing the transmission of many of these infections. However, rates of handwashing across the globe are low, presenting a challenge for health promotion programmes. Behaviour change is not easy, and past efforts based upon health education have met with limited success. New approaches are needed. We propose that much can be learnt from the world of consumer marketing. Rather than base communications programmes for behaviour change on increasing knowledge, marketers aim to respond to the inner desires and motivations of their target audiences. This study used consumer research to investigate the factors motivating handwashing with soap in order to inform a national communications campaign for Ghana. It revealed that the strongest motivators for handwashing with soap were related to nurturance, social acceptance and disgust of faeces and latrines, especially their smell. Protection from disease is mentioned as a driving force, but was not a key motivator of handwashing behaviour. The ways in which these findings have been translated into a handwash promotion campaign are discussed.
每年有超过200万儿童死于腹泻疾病；另有相同数量的儿童死于急性呼吸道感染。用肥皂洗手这种简单的卫生行为是预防许多此类感染传播的有效方式。然而，全球洗手率很低，这给健康促进项目带来了挑战。行为改变并非易事，过去基于健康教育的努力成效有限。需要新的方法。我们认为，从消费营销领域可以学到很多东西。营销人员并非将基于增加知识的行为改变传播项目作为基础，而是旨在回应目标受众的内在欲望和动机。本研究运用消费者研究来调查促使人们用肥皂洗手的因素，以便为加纳的全国传播活动提供信息。研究表明，用肥皂洗手的最强烈动机与养育、社会接纳以及对粪便和厕所的厌恶有关，尤其是厕所的气味。预防疾病被提及是一个推动因素，但并非洗手行为的关键动机。本文讨论了如何将这些研究结果转化为洗手推广活动。
