Improving Health Outcomes with C4H
The foundation of public health is strategic communication, which is more crucial than ever in the digital era. Over 1.5 billion people gained access to the internet in the last five years, globally, bringing total users to more than 5.1 billion. Total social media users worldwide topped 4.8 billion in 2023, an increase of over 10 per cent from 2022.
Strategic communication demands knowledge, abilities, and resources to empower healthcare professionals and to provide the best care possible, encourage governments to enact appropriate policies, and persuade individuals to take actions that safeguard and enhance their own health as well as the health of their families and communities. There remains a persistent disparity between the actions people should take to protect their health and the actions they actually take, even with the importance and investments made in various public health communication domains such as health promotion, health literacy, strategic communications, risk communications, and community engagement.
Closing this gap requires a combination of data and analysis, behavioural science and insights, storytelling and other communication-related skills and approaches, and strategic partnerships. This is the basis of Communication for Health (C4H).
In the Western Pacific Region, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has developed C4H, a set of principles and practices to help ensure communication interventions are designed to inform and change attitudes and behaviours in ways that support the achievement of defined public health outcomes.
Since 2019, the WHO, in the Western Pacific has begun using the C4H approach in its communication efforts to improve health outcomes and support countries to do the same. C4H is based on six principles called IMPACT: Informed by data and theory; Measurable; Planned; Audience- and people centred; Collaborative; and Targeted. Application of the C4H approach requires a series of steps to first understand, then plan, develop, test and implement a communication programme or campaign, before evaluating and identifying lessons.
This approach recognises that health communication can play a vital role alongside other public health interventions to improve outcomes and extend lives. The approach builds on a range of disciplines and strategic communications approaches that have been used for decades to inform, change attitudes and behaviours, and help improve health at the individual, community and societal levels.
The WHO’s goal is to work with countries and use C4H to contribute to improved health outcomes in the region, to help achieve the shared vision of making the region the world’s healthiest and safest.
The C4H approach has already been used with success in several countries across the region. China used it to nudge people to reduce their salt intake, in a series of initiatives from 2018 to 2022. Similarly, Malaysia adopted it to ensure communication was as effective as possible to support COVID-19 prevention. While Papua New Guinea used the C4H approach to address high maternal and newborn mortality.
The goal now is to deepen and extend its reach to maximise public health impact.
Hence WHO is building technical capacity and experience in C4H at both regional and country levels, in collaboration with academic experts and other partners. The WHO is committed to using its capacity and experience to support countries in this area. To that end, WHO is investing in C4H technical staff in a growing number of country offices in the region.
Leaders at the WHO Regional Committee for the Western Pacific’s 74th session, held in October 2023, endorsed a framework which embraces behavioural sciences within C4H.
The approach brings together varied theories, tools and techniques, including from social and behavioural sciences, storytelling and evidence-based planning, monitoring and learning – to develop communication intended to support improving health-related behaviours.
It underpins the regional C4H resolution, which endorses the Regional Action Framework on C4H: A vision for using communication to improve public health in the Western Pacific Region. This framework guides countries on applying C4H to improve knowledge, change attitudes and shift behaviours for improved health outcomes.