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Results of a Mass Media Campaign in South Africa to Promote a Sugary Drinks Tax

Background: In South Africa, the increased consumption of sugary drinks has been associated with increased obesity rates. Mass media campaigns can play a crucial role in improving knowledge, shifting attitudes, and building support for government action on reducing sugary drink consumption. No study...

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Autores principales: Murukutla, Nandita, Cotter, Trish, Wang, Shuo, Cullinan, Kerry, Gaston, Fathima, Kotov, Alexey, Maharjan, Meena, Mullin, Sandra
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2020
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Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7353390/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32586040
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/nu12061878
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author Murukutla, Nandita
Cotter, Trish
Wang, Shuo
Cullinan, Kerry
Gaston, Fathima
Kotov, Alexey
Maharjan, Meena
Mullin, Sandra
author_facet Murukutla, Nandita
Cotter, Trish
Wang, Shuo
Cullinan, Kerry
Gaston, Fathima
Kotov, Alexey
Maharjan, Meena
Mullin, Sandra
author_sort Murukutla, Nandita
collection PubMed
description Background: In South Africa, the increased consumption of sugary drinks has been associated with increased obesity rates. Mass media campaigns can play a crucial role in improving knowledge, shifting attitudes, and building support for government action on reducing sugary drink consumption. No study to date has evaluated the effectiveness of mass media campaigns on the health harms of sugary drinks in South Africa. Objective: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of a mass media campaign on knowledge and attitudes around sugary drinks and on public support for a proposed tax on sugary drinks in South Africa. Methods: The “Are You Drinking Yourself Sick?” campaign aired in South Africa from October 2016 to June 2017 to shift attitudes toward sugary drinks, build personal risk perceptions of the health harms of consuming sugary drinks, and build public support for a proposed tax on sugary drinks. Campaign impact was measured in representative cross-sectional household surveys of adults ages 18 to 56. The surveys were conducted just prior to the launch of the campaign (N = 1000), from October 7 to 10, 2016, and immediately following its conclusion (N = 1000), from July 12 to 21, 2017. Campaign impact was assessed by comparing changes from the pre-campaign to the post-campaign period on key outcome indicators. In addition, the effect of campaign awareness was analyzed in logistic regression analysis of the post-campaign data. Results: The campaign was recalled by 55% of survey respondents, and 78% of campaign-aware respondents said that the campaign’s main message was “drinking sugary drinks can make you sick.” There were significant changes from the pre- to the post-campaign period in knowledge that sugary drink consumption can lead to obesity and related health problems and that sugary drinks contribute toward the obesity problem in South Africa. Campaign awareness was also significantly associated with increases in knowledge about the harms of sugary drinks, and in particular, on government action, including the proposed tax on sugary drinks. Discussion: Media campaigns are an effective intervention for obesity prevention. In addition to improving knowledge and shifting attitudes, media campaigns can effectively build public support for strong government action and therefore must be a component of a comprehensive obesity prevention approach.
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spelling pubmed-73533902020-07-15 Results of a Mass Media Campaign in South Africa to Promote a Sugary Drinks Tax Murukutla, Nandita Cotter, Trish Wang, Shuo Cullinan, Kerry Gaston, Fathima Kotov, Alexey Maharjan, Meena Mullin, Sandra Nutrients Article Background: In South Africa, the increased consumption of sugary drinks has been associated with increased obesity rates. Mass media campaigns can play a crucial role in improving knowledge, shifting attitudes, and building support for government action on reducing sugary drink consumption. No study to date has evaluated the effectiveness of mass media campaigns on the health harms of sugary drinks in South Africa. Objective: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of a mass media campaign on knowledge and attitudes around sugary drinks and on public support for a proposed tax on sugary drinks in South Africa. Methods: The “Are You Drinking Yourself Sick?” campaign aired in South Africa from October 2016 to June 2017 to shift attitudes toward sugary drinks, build personal risk perceptions of the health harms of consuming sugary drinks, and build public support for a proposed tax on sugary drinks. Campaign impact was measured in representative cross-sectional household surveys of adults ages 18 to 56. The surveys were conducted just prior to the launch of the campaign (N = 1000), from October 7 to 10, 2016, and immediately following its conclusion (N = 1000), from July 12 to 21, 2017. Campaign impact was assessed by comparing changes from the pre-campaign to the post-campaign period on key outcome indicators. In addition, the effect of campaign awareness was analyzed in logistic regression analysis of the post-campaign data. Results: The campaign was recalled by 55% of survey respondents, and 78% of campaign-aware respondents said that the campaign’s main message was “drinking sugary drinks can make you sick.” There were significant changes from the pre- to the post-campaign period in knowledge that sugary drink consumption can lead to obesity and related health problems and that sugary drinks contribute toward the obesity problem in South Africa. Campaign awareness was also significantly associated with increases in knowledge about the harms of sugary drinks, and in particular, on government action, including the proposed tax on sugary drinks. Discussion: Media campaigns are an effective intervention for obesity prevention. In addition to improving knowledge and shifting attitudes, media campaigns can effectively build public support for strong government action and therefore must be a component of a comprehensive obesity prevention approach. MDPI 2020-06-23 /pmc/articles/PMC7353390/ /pubmed/32586040 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/nu12061878 Text en © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Murukutla, Nandita
Cotter, Trish
Wang, Shuo
Cullinan, Kerry
Gaston, Fathima
Kotov, Alexey
Maharjan, Meena
Mullin, Sandra
Results of a Mass Media Campaign in South Africa to Promote a Sugary Drinks Tax
title Results of a Mass Media Campaign in South Africa to Promote a Sugary Drinks Tax
title_full Results of a Mass Media Campaign in South Africa to Promote a Sugary Drinks Tax
title_fullStr Results of a Mass Media Campaign in South Africa to Promote a Sugary Drinks Tax
title_full_unstemmed Results of a Mass Media Campaign in South Africa to Promote a Sugary Drinks Tax
title_short Results of a Mass Media Campaign in South Africa to Promote a Sugary Drinks Tax
title_sort results of a mass media campaign in south africa to promote a sugary drinks tax
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7353390/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32586040
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/nu12061878
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