TOWARDS A RESEARCH STRATEGY TO SUPPORT PUBLIC-HEALTH PROGRAMS FOR BEHAVIOR-CHANGE

Major public health programs have had mixed results in improving healt h behaviours. In part, the failure to modify some key health behaviour s is attributable to a lack of appropriate research on which to base b ehaviour-change programs. The research published by the Australian Jou rnal of Public Health (now the Australian and New Zealand Journal of P ublic Health), as representative of Australian research, was analysed. The analysis indicated shortcomings in existing research as a basis f or practitioners to build effective programs. While the Journal publis hed a substantial amount of health-behaviour research, few studies use d a randomised trial to asses the effects of interventions. Little res earch ws designed to help practitioners to identify the types of strat egies that would reliably result in behaviour change; identify strateg ies to work with hard-to-reach groups like women from Aboriginal and n on-English-speaking backgrounds; assess the costs and cost-effectivene ss of different strategies; disseminate effective strategies at a stat e or national level. If improvements in public health are to occur, th ere is a need to develop and implement a strategy to ensure that resea rch more effectively meets the needs of public health practitioners.