Rapid and radical changes to systems that currently support unhealthy unsustainable behaviour are needed to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, but current commitments are unmatched by action, say Professor Dame Theresa Marteau and colleagues in a BMJ article, adding that COP26 offers a precious opportunity to get back on track. Professor Marteau, […]
Communicating evidence of policy effectiveness can increase public support, a new study from the University of Cambridge has found
Smoking and excessive consumption of alcohol and unhealthy snacks are leading causes of years of life lost globally. Promising interventions include nudging – changes to the physical environment that make healthier behaviours more likely – and taxation. Public acceptability of policies is increasingly recognised as playing a pivotal role in determining the extent to which […]
Increasing healthy life expectancy equitably in England by 5 years by 2035: could it be achieved?
In this Lancet Comment, Professor Dame Theresa Marteau, Professor Martin White and colleagues explain how increases in healthy life expectancy for the poorest as well as the rich might be achieved, in the context of an expected new prevention strategy for England setting out how the UK Government seeks to achieve life expectancy goals it […]
Changing Behaviour for a Healthier Population: PCU contributions to the Annual Report of the CMO, 2018
Professor Dame Sally Davies’s tenth report as Chief Medical Officer, published just before Christmas 2018, examines the strategic opportunities over the coming two decades for the health of the nation. The report includes a detailed look at how principles for changing behaviour to improve health and reduce health inequalities could be applied, authored by Professor […]
The art of medicine: Changing minds about changing behaviour
This short essay by Professor Dame Theresa Marteau, Director of the Behaviour and Health Research Unit, published today in The Lancet, addresses a series of questions key to effective behaviour change. Whose minds need changing? About what? And how? Click here to access the essay in The Lancet, or if you are unable to access […]