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A Review of Social Marketing Campaigns in Occupational Injury, Disease or Disability Prevention
February 2007
| Principal Investigator: | Cameron Mustard (Institute for Work & Health) |
For more information about this study please contact Dr. Cameron Mustard.
Issue
Workers' Compensation Boards in Canada have provided leadership in social marketing aimed at improving the prevention of occupational injury, disease and disability. Typical annual expenditures in this area are in the range of $100 per 100 workers, and improving the effectiveness of social marketing efforts is an important program objective. In order to assess the relevant research evidence, this project systematically reviewed published evaluation and research studies on occupational health and safety social marketing campaigns.
Key findings
- Campaigns based exclusively on mass media communications do not appear to be as effective in reducing the incidence of work-related injury, disease or disability as campaigns that integrate public communications strategies with companion programs involving consultation services, inspection and enforcement, or education and training.
- Additional factors that appear to be related to effectiveness are:
- Having sufficient resources to reach the target audience and provide for sustained target audience exposure to the campaign.
- Focusing on specific hazards and risks rather than on general awareness.
- Because few studies reported the economic costs or economic value of campaign outcomes, there was not enough information to conduct a cost-effective analysis of social marketing campaigns in occupational health.
Objectives
- To conduct a review of evaluations of social marketing campaigns in the field of occupational injury, disease and disability prevention.
- To examine whether enough high quality economic evaluations are available to enable a cost-effectiveness analysis of social marketing campaigns in this area to be conducted.
Method
A standardized methodology was used to conduct a systematic review of the evaluations of social marketing campaigns in occupational health. This methodology included the following three steps:
- A systematic and comprehensive search of relevant electronic databases and other resources was conducted to identify potentially relevant research and evaluation reports.
- The titles, abstracts and a subset of the full reports identified in step one were reviewed to identify and select to the research and evaluation reports that were relevant to the objectives of the project.
- The quality of the research methods in the research or evaluation reports identified in step two was critically examined, using explicit quality criteria. To be considered high quality, studies had to have examined outcomes that were aligned with the campaign's objectives and have involved a control group, comparison group or a time series analysis.
Results
- A total of 62 reports, representing 56 different social marketing campaigns, were found to be relevant to the research question. Out of the 56 evaluations, 30 were found to be high quality and selected for further examination.
- Of the 30 campaigns reported to a high quality standard, one targeted infection control, 14 targeted injury prevention, three targeted disease prevention, four targeted sun protection behaviors and seven targeted the prevention of disability following the onset of a work-related injury or disease.
- Of the 30 campaigns for which evaluations were reviewed, the majority integrated public communication with other strategies such as educational programming, consulting services, or inspection and enforcement activities. Only a minority used public communications exclusively.
- Campaigns based exclusively on mass media communications do not appear to be as effective in reducing the incidence of work-related injury, disease or disability as campaigns that integrate public communications strategies with companion programs involving consultation services, inspection and enforcement, or education and training.
- Additional factors that appear to be related to effectiveness are:
- Having sufficient resources to reach the target audience and provide for sustained target audience exposure to the campaign.
- Focusing on specific hazards and risks rather than on general awareness.
- Because few studies reported the economic costs or economic value of campaign outcomes, researchers were unable to conduct a cost-effective analysis of social marketing campaigns in occupational health.
Conclusions
There is a lack of high quality evidence relating to the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of social marketing campaigns. The researchers recommend that future investments in social marketing campaigns include resources to support high quality evaluations.
Future directions
The researchers recommend several ways to improve the evidence base in this area, including the following:
- Evaluation studies should have stronger internal validity, which can be achieved by including a comparison group or comparison conditions within the study. This provides a way to assess whether or not changes in attitudes, behaviour or health are a result of the intervention.
- Evaluations should measure both intermediate outcomes (e.g., awareness, knowledge, beliefs) and final outcomes (i.e., changes in behaviour or incidence of injury, disease, and disability).
- Implementers of social marketing interventions proven successful in other jurisdictions should also include (replicate) the evaluation component of those interventions.
- Evaluation studies and reports should include information on the intensity of the intervention, including the frequency, duration and coverage of a mass media campaign and other complementary activities.
- The role of the Internet, an increasingly utilized communication tool in social marketing campaigns, needs to be explored. Research and evaluation efforts could focus on the characteristics of website visitors and the consequences of website visits on attitudes, knowledge, beliefs and behaviours.