Health care think tank The King’s Fund has slammed the government for wasting money on ineffective campaigns to curb obesity and smoking. In a paper entitled “Kicking Bad Habits”, summing up a year’s worth of research into government strategies to overcome obesity and nicotine addiction in the UK, the charitable foundation claimed that “The NHS will fail to tackle the rising tide of obesity and tobacco related illnesses unless it adopts more sophisticated techniques” .
Currently, the NHS spends millions of pounds on TV and print advertising campaigns to convince the nation to change their wicked ways; the most recent, an anti-cocaine series featuring a dog voiced by comedian David Mitchell, cost £1m. However, the Kings Fund says that while media onslaughts such as this can be useful, more important is a personalised service and tailored information to help people not just make informed choices, but change ingrained, life-long habits.
Obesity, smoking and unhealthy living are costing the government an astonishing £6b a year and the cost set to rise steeply, as patients are diagnosed with life-style related diseases such as lung cancer, diabetes and heart disease. Worldwide, developed countries are struggling to cope with the rising tide of obesity and particularly in developing countries smoking rates are skyrocketing. There is a certain irony that while in Africa charities today warned that malnutrition is increasing despite campaign after campaign, in the West no one seems quite sure how to stop our self-inflicted damage.
Dr Anna Dixon, the King’s Fund Director of Policy and co-author of the paper, said that the first step had to be an investment in data collection and marketing studies. ‘There simply isn’t enough reliable data on what works and what doesn’t …This lack of evidence has to be urgently addressed so more money isn’t wasted on ineffective interventions.’ The report also recommended that staff who see patients need to be more pro-active about helping them change their lifestyle, and use a variety of methods to help them do so.
The main crux of this report seems to be that while patients probably realise they need to lose weight or stop smoking, the actuality of doing this often seems beyond their reach. I would imagine that most people’s response having the telly tell them, in three-minute soundbites, how stupid and selfish they are for smoking/eating too much/ hating vegetables (delete as appropriate) is to change channels. We know our lifestyles are bad, but changing them can seem near-impossible. Another person offering tangible, individual-centred support is infinitely more encouraging than a generic approach, for it suggests that it matters to them that you personally regain your health. Lifestyle programs, contracts, incentives, medication - we need to help people find the best solution for them.