The Planned Approach to Community Health Model was developed in 1983 by the Centers for Disease Control. State and Local Health Departments use this model to develop community-based health education programs (Kreuter, 1992). The model is a cycle of five steps that keep going as the created program becomes something of a sustainable activity.
What are you afraid of? Probably a lot of things. If there is something you are afraid of, you will avoid it. That’s what fear appeals do, they make you fear something to avoid it. Fear appeals can be used in good ways (think CDC’s anti-smoking campaign). Some in not so good ways (think of Dr. Wakefield’s Lancet study forever incorrectly linking the MMR vaccine to autism). The Protection Motivation Theory first developed in 1975 was designed to explain fear appeals.
Social Ecological Models are not one model per se, they are models that are multi-level. They idea is that a person is influenced by their environment from their family to the community, to the society as a whole. McLeroy, Bibeau, Stecklter & Glanz (1988) developed the model for use in health education programs. The model starts with the individual and the knowledge they have within. The next is interpersonal which includes family and friends and now in this day and age friends in person and on the Internet. Organizational which are the organizations that the individual works with and the community which is the network of organizations. Finally, public policy which are the laws that everyone abides by.
The Transtheoretical Model or Stages of Change was developed by James O. Prochaska and Carlo Di Clemente in 1977. It outlines the different stages a person goes through to make a health behavior change, hence the reason it is also called “Stages of Change”. It starts by the person not being ready to make a change to the final stage of dropping the old behavior in favor of a new one. Here is what the model looks like:
A new study was published in PLoS Currents Outbreaks that surveyed a sample of people in Florida to get their thoughts on the use of genetically modified (GM) mosquitos. In a nutshell, many of those surveyed were skeptical of their use. The reason they cited were concerns about the possible negative effect on humans and the ecosystem. What was interesting about this finding is the less worried someone was about mosquito-borne disease, the less likely they were to accept the use of GM mosquitos. The main outcome of the study was to further risk communication and education about the use of GM mosquitos. What does this mean, exactly?
Kerry Chamberlain, PhD, MPH 