Effects of newsletters designed to change behavior, distributed during specific health checkups

Abstract

The Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare provides specific health checkups and specific health guidance that are intended to prevent, and to improve the metabolic syndrome. However, no assistance is provided to people with unhealthy lifestyles that do not have actual health problems. Therefore, a newsletter that included information based on the behavior change model, and content chosen on the basis of the change process theory, as well as the small change strategy were distributed to people attending specific health checkups (n = 700). Among those that received the newsletter, data of people that responded to a pre-and a post-survey questionnaire (n = 250), were analyzed. Results indicated that specific health checkups and the newsletter significantly increased health awareness in women. Furthermore, reading the newsletter and recognizing its usability were lower among men, compared to women. These results indicate the need for providing information tailored to the gender, for increasing health awareness levels, and for increasing the appeal of specific health checkups. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved)