About Communicating Health

Effective communication is a vital tool if we want to reduce the burden of disease in the world.

The NHMRC-funded Communicating Health project aims to further understand the use of social media and create strategies and tools for health professionals to use this channel to motivate, engage and retain audiences with health messages. (Grant number: GNT1115496)

Outline of the Communicating Health project

  • PURPOSE - Communicating Health is a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) funded study to understand the use of social media for health by young adults and enhance the effectiveness of communication strategies used by health professionals.


  • APPLICATION - While the research focused on young adults aged 18 – 24 years, the findings, as well as the strategies and theories for health communication, are applicable to other population groups.


  • STUDY PHASES - The four-year Communicating Health study was delivered over four phases that included formative research as well as the co-creation and evaluation of social marketing campaigns involving both industry stakeholders and young adults.


  • THE TEAM - The project was delivered by a team of academics with backgrounds in social marketing, consumer psychology, nutrition science and dietetics.

Why is health communication important for health professionals?


Health professionals play an integral role in reducing the global burden of disease by working to prevent or improve poor health. A key part of this is promoting healthful behaviours that will reduce health risks over time. Communication beyond one-to-one or group consultations can be a key tool for health professionals. When used effectively, communication strategies can support behaviour changes that improve health in the community.


Research conducted by the Communicating Health project aims to understand the use of social media and create strategies and tools for health professionals to use social media channels to motivate, engage and retain audiences with health messages.


Communicating Health is funded by the NHMRC and is a joint project of Monash University, RMIT University, the University of Queensland, the Burnet Institute, the Victorian Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation, the Victorian Department of Health and Human Services, Cancer Council Victoria, Nutrition Australia and VicHealth.


The project brings together academic experts in social marketing, consumer psychology, nutrition science and dietetics to gain better insights into social media habits and behaviours, costs and methods to optimise engagement, retention and impact on health behaviour.


The study protocol (summarised below) focused on understanding social media use by young adults aged 18 – 24 years. However, as social media is a channel that is used across all age groups, the insights and strategies developed as a part of the Communicating Health project can be adapted for a wide variety of audiences.


Communicating Health - Study protocol and study design

Communicating Health is a four-year study comprised of four phases:

    • Phase 1 was a formative phase that aimed to gain an understanding of young adults’, including Aboriginal Australian young adults’, psychosocial characteristics and behaviours related to accessing healthy eating content on social media, as well as defining Living and Eating for Health segments (LEHS).

    • Informed by Phase 1 results, in Phase 2 stakeholders and segments of young adults were brought together to co-create healthy eating campaign strategies and content.

    • In Phase 3, co-created content was evaluated in a real-world setting using novel engagement and retention tools.

    • Phase 4 is the translation phase where industry partners and the research team use outcomes from the study to inform future strategies and develop tools that can be useful for stakeholders – such as the Communicating Health Toolkit for Health Professionals.

For full details of the Communicating Health project as well as details of the lead researchers and publications from the study, visit the Communicating Health project website.

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