swiss cheese slices with a family and covid 19 virus image
Posted in mental models

Swiss Cheese Model for COVID-19

The Swiss Cheese Model for COVID-19 is an excellent mental tool to visualize COVID-19 prevention strategies at the system level, a bird’s eye view. First, about the Swiss Cheese Model. As emphasized by James Reason, the model’s creator, it invites us to view human errors as a consequence, not as…

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legendary journey of the ottawa charter
Posted in health promotion

The legendary journey of the Ottawa Charter

Above are logos of the global health promotion conferences held in different cities in the world since 1986. Thirty years have passed since its inception in 1986. As its name implies, the first one was launched in Ottawa, Canada. This post sails through to peer back into the Charter’s legendary…

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social norms
Posted in Behavior Change theories message framing

How social norms shape our behavior

You must have been in a library; you stay silent. That is a classic social norm example. Another common one is littering. As we all know social norms can either be socially desirable or socially undesirable. Every day we adhere to social norms that are an array of unwritten sets…

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Posted in Behavior Change theories

Theories of reasoned action and planned behavior

Can we change behaviour by changing attitudes towards the behaviour of concern? Not really, contrary to the popular belief. The connection between attitude and behaviour is not straightforward. In the 1960s, Fishbein and Ajzen concluded it by reviewing research published to that date. They developed a theory to explain the…

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Posted in Behavior Change theories

Stages of Self-Change

Although behaviour change occurs in a continuum, researchers have identified stages of self-change in some behaviours such as quitting smoking. Let us embark on this journey starting 37 years ago: In 1983. 1983: “Stages of change” Since the early 1980s, two researchers – James Prochaska and Carlos DiClemente – had…

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Posted in Behavior Change theories

Health belief model

The Health Belief Model (HBM) is a mental tool. It helps us to create messages to persuade others to start healthier habits. It also helps us to design upstream public health interventions. In this blog post, we will explore, Health Belief Model’s origins The model has a rich history. It…

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