A great deal of current government health policy is predicated on the notion that improving health information or providing more health information to purportedly under informed citizens will improve their health behaviour. What is the evidence for this supposition? What is the evidence against it? What social and policy factors have contributed to the current government emphasis on information provision? Is the government overemphasising the power of information, for example by assuming that if underprivileged citizens have the same health (e.g. diet and exercise) information as more privileged citizens, their health behaviours will converge? Would governments have a greater impact on health by focusing on structural or systemic factors such as urban planning or national food policies that emphasised and subsidised the production and distribution of healthier foods, rather than, for instance, corn syrup? What social and political factors impel governments to focus on individual behaviour and choice rather than structural change? For example, the UK government has in recent years provided parents and children's with a great deal of information about the benefits of exercise and healthy diets -- yet childhood obesity rates continue to rise. Is the government taking the right approach? Are other viable approaches available to it?
These questions may be particularly significant given the rise of the obesogenic environment, not just in countries that have a recent tradition of unhealthy diets -- e.g. the US and UK -- but also in countries such as those of the Mediterranean that in the last decade have seen a rapid rise in unhealthy eating. A particularly interesting PhD project might be to compare the strengths, weaknesses, successes and failures of information-driven health (especially diet) behaviour campaigns in the UK, US and Spain, while also looking at the arguments and debates within each country.
If I researched this topic under the aegis of health literacy, my focus would have to be on the literacy/numeracy related aspects of information delivery, information seeking and/or avoiding, individuals' beliefs about the importance or lack of importance of health information in their lives, and governments' understanding of the role of information in motivating behaviour, especially among different social classes or family types. LSBU or UCL. Elsewhere?
If I researched it under the aegis of child health, my focus could be broader.
On a general level, it would be extremely interesting to research the relationship between information and behaviour. I think the current government understanding is based on the notion that if only you can help individuals ovecome their various information deficits, you can markedly change their behaviour is in ways that economically benefit the state and would purportedly benefit the individuals. I think this notion is very simplistic, and does not take into account societal Contexts and structures.
