[Not Available]. / Impact d'un site internet dans une campagne de promotion de la santé : le << Défi Santé 5/30 >>

In 2005, a 12-week health promotion campaign in Québec utilized a multimedia communications strategy in which a website was used to supply information and to serve as an accompaniment to support individual engagement with the campaign. The "Défi Santé 5/30" or "5/30 Health Challenge" was intended to reinforce behaviours related to healthy eating and the regular practice of physical activity. This communications strategy offered the public the ability to personally engage in a "health challenge" by fixing objectives to attain over the course of the campaign. The campaign's media use and impact are evaluated with the aid of a telephone survey (n = 609), discussion groups with individuals (n = 102) who had been exposed to the campaign, and discussion groups with health professionals (n = 32). The article explores underlying explanations for behavioural changes during the campaign with a focus on the role of the website. Several characteristics can potentially contribute to the development of motivation and fidelity in users: specific objectives of the website; content; architecture and usage techniques; media convergence and contribution of partners; an accompaniment approach that is at once virtual, media-based, interpersonal while also using contributions from health professionals. Non-facilitating factors are also discussed: technical and socio-cultural accessibility; ethics and constraints related to the participation of health professionals. The "Défi Santé 5/30" has demonstrated that a website utilizing virtual, media-based, interpersonal and technical accompaniment can contribute to behavioural change.

[Complex management of partnerships during a health promotion campaign]. / Gestion complexe des partenariats lors d'une campagne de promotion de la santé.

This article discusses an analysis of partnerships in the context of health promotion. The 5/30 Health Challenge, or "Défi Santé 5/30", is a campaign to promote healthy eating habits in Quebec. The authors employ this as a case study in order to 1) describe the actors and the nature of their involvement during the campaign's development, design and dissemination; 2) illustrate the interaction of these actors during the conceptualization and rollout of the campaign; 3) propose a paradigm that supports the identification of factors that contribute to or impede partner relationships. The "Défi Santé 5/30" example demonstrates that the creation and maintenance of a partnership network depends on the following key factors: dialogue between partners and the organization responsible for the campaign; the participation of partners at every stage of the campaign (no matter how many there are); allocation of sufficient time for the conceptualization of campaign materials. Dialogue between partners and the central organizer must be guaranteed through the establishment and use of a managerial contract that clearly outlines the role of each actor in the campaign. Further, the partners' activities during the campaign should be regulated through both a formal agreement and a code of ethics. Any campaign's efficiency is directly linked to these factors, among others. The study of partnerships between public, public-private, and private organizations within the framework of health promotion campaigns, thus, merits further study. In addition, to maintain alliances with partners, it is important to demonstrate the benefits of such arrangements to each partner and to equally ensure the contributions of each, be they public, private, media, or community-based organizations.

[Messages about physical activity and nutrition offered by Quebec mass media?]. / Messages d'activité physique et d'alimentation: que nous offrent les médias québécois?

As social elements of our environment, mass media are regarded as determinants of individual and population beliefs, social norms and habits. Since it is recognized that they influence population health, this study aims to obtain a better portrait of Quebec media content regarding physical activity and nutrition messages on a public health level. First, we analyzed the content of fictional television shows (n = 1 3) and advertisements broadcast during those shows (n = 68). Second, we reviewed the content of La Presse newspaper and of French television Société Radio-Canada from 1986 to 2005 with regard to physical activity and nutrition messages. Our results indicate a difference between how men and women are portrayed on French television, with women more often being shown as underweight and men as at or above healthy body weight. The results also show that during the 20-year period of the reviewed content, there were fewer messages about physical activity than about nutrition. To be successful in their goal of improving population health, mass media should address both subjects together in their messages.

A model of mechanisms underlying the influence of media on health behaviour norms.

Media-based interventions are common in health promotion, yet their conceptual underpinnings tend to be based on a simple linear model of direct influence on individuals' health behaviour. Recent studies have suggested that the processes through which media influence health behaviours are actually far more complex. This paper presents a conceptual model of how the medias influence the emergence and maintenance of the social norms that can contribute to shaping health behaviours. Through positive (amplifying) and negative (dampening) loops, a total of six potential influence pathways are proposed, and the role of opinion leaders and specialists is specified. Future directions for empirical tests of the model are identified.

[Media treatment of messages on weight loss products by the Association for Public Health of Quebec and its reception]. / Le traitement médiatique des messages émis sur les produits, services et moyens amaigrissants par l'Association pour la santé publique du Québec et sa reception.

BACKGROUND: The results of a study on weight loss products and services were released during a press conference organized by the Association pour la santé publique du Québec (ASPQ). The media widely covered this press conference. The purpose of this article is to answer the question: "How are messages emitted by public health institutions transmitted by the media and received by the population?" METHOD: The transcripts of the press conference, the press release as well as 43 documents from the print and broadcast media were evaluated according to a press analysis method. The analysis of these documents was based on the concept of the information unit. The compilation of these information units was used to produce charts which include data such as the frequency, partiality, weight tendency ("poids-tendance") and tendency-impact ("tendance-impact"). Furthermore, two focus groups of persons using weight loss products and services were conducted. RESULTS: In this article, we compare the emitted message with the one transmitted. The analysis of the message emitted by the ASPQ and that conveyed by the media revealed that for almost all subjects dealt with during the press conference, the media have been more partial than the ASPQ. The media not only expanded on the emitted message but also gave a negative image of weight loss products and services. Furthermore, the message transmitted by the media was very similar to the initial message. The focus groups on how the message was received by persons using weight loss products and services also revealed that the message was lost in the flow of information on weight loss products and services. CONCLUSION: This analysis of the emitted, transmitted and received messages has given us some indications on how to readjust the initial message and on what to emphasize in future press conferences.