In an article in the July issue of Gesundheitswesen, Loss and coauthors examine the potential and limitations of using social marketing in health promotion programs in Germany. They note:
In Anglo-Saxon countries, the social marketing concept has achieved widespread application and is subject to controversial scientific discussions, whereas this approach is hardly considered in German health promotion research and practice. Given the increasing call for quality management and evaluation of health promotion interventions, the social marketing concept may contribute useful insights at an operational level and thus add to a discussion on effective approaches for programme planning.
One of the earlier looks at social marketing and health promotion was done by the investigators of the German Cardiovascular Prevention Project who consulted extensively with the US heart disease prevention trials in the mid-1980s. The concepts were best expressed in the attention to formative research, segmentation and process measurement, and significant changes in risk factors were reported for the study as a whole.
We'd like to hear more about how social marketing is evolving in Germany. German readers, or others who are familiar with the work, are encouraged to drop me a line or post some comments here.
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