Effective health education, patient education, health behaviour change

The Coronavirus Pandemic and the Future: Virology, Epidemiology, Translational Toxicology and Therapeutics

Source: © Royal Society of Chemistry

Adoption of suitable behavior change models and a mix of individual, group and mass approaches can help develop an effective health communication strategy

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The COVID-19 pandemic presents a challenge as well as an opportunity to test the widespread deployment of health education messaging. Care should be taken to ensure that the message is customized to the needs of the community and aims to reduce COVID-19 transmission in a respectful and non-stigmatizing manner to those already affected. Expertise developed from decades of work in health education needs to be customized to ensure effective health education for key epidemiological groups such as adolescents, youth, travellers, apart from the groups at high risk of severe COVID-19 such as elder care homes and nursing facilities. Further adoption of suitable behavior change models and a mix of individual, group and mass approaches can help develop an effective health communication strategy