Cost Effectiveness
From our previous studies,27-29 we determined that a more traditional health education approach to influencing low-fat milk consumption behavior (utilizing community health education programs in worksites, schools, supermarkets, and other community settings) cost $2.28 per person in the target community. At that same time, media campaign (paid ads, public relations, and educational activities combined) cost $.22 per person. The use of paid media permits a much larger community to be impacted. Thus the cost per person drops precipitously with an effective mass media campaign. With limited funds available for health promotion and ever more attention being given to how to get the “best bang for the bucks,” such financial considerations are critical to future efforts. WHEELING WALKS, like our other media-based approach, succeeded in changing behavior and in doing it in a highly cost-efficient manner.
WHEELING WALKS - Principal Personnel and Their Qualifications
--Principal Investigator Bill Reger, Ed.D., served as the principal investigator of four media-based community campaigns in West Virginia24-26 and the Bayer Community Wellness Program. Dr. Reger is an Associate Professor of Community Medicine, with 40% of his professional time committed to intervention research.
--Linda Cooper, MSW, LCSW, served as Project Coordinator, is current pursuing an MBA degree. She has extensive experience in program development, management, and grant writing.
--Holli Smith, MS, MSW, CHES, was Intervention Community Coordinator. She is a Wheeling-area resident and has been extensively involved in community health education program development and research.*
--Deborah Mannarino, BA, was Project Facilitator. Ms. Mannarino is a Wheeling-area resident with experience in program implementation and community organizing.*
--Gus Nelson, MS, Comparison Community Coordinator, resides in Parkersburg and supervised community-based research there. He is an experienced community health promotion professional.
--Co-investigator Steven Booth-Butterfield, Former Chief of the Health Communication Research Branch of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (CDC), assisted with formative research and project design. He was a co-investigator on the 1% Or Less research project.
--Dr. Susan E. Middlestadt, at the Academy for Educational Development’s Center for Applied Behavioral and Evaluation Research, holds a Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of California at Berkeley, where she studied attitude theory and behavior change. Dr. Middlestadt served as the research director for Dr. M. Fishbein, the co-designer of the Theory of Reasoned Action and Planned Behavior. She served as AED’s technical director for WHEELING WALKS and supervised the project’s formative research.
--Co-investigator Margo Wootan, Dr.Sc, Director of Nutrition Policy for the Center for Science in the Public Interest, served as co-investigator of the WV 1% Or Less campaigns. Dr. Wootan designed the 1 % Or Less materials,27-29 that served as a model for this campaign.
--Co-investigator Bess Marcus, Ph.D., is Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, Brown University; Collaborating Senior Research Scientist, New England Research Institute; and Staff Psychologist at the Marian Hospital/Brown University. Dr. Marcus consulted on this project and has contributed extensively to the scientific literature on use of mass media in community interventions.
--Co-Investigator Adrian Bauman, MB.BS., M.P.H., Ph.D., PAFPHM, is on the faculty of Medicine, University of Sydney, Australia. Dr. Bauman’s research interests include the evaluation of health-related media campaigns and health promotion interventions. He consulted on this project.
--Gerry Hobbs, Ph.D., is Professor, Department of Statistics, West Virginia University, and chief statistician for the Department of Community Medicine, West Virginia University, assisted with statistical analyses and interpretation.
*Job Descriptions provided in Chapter 1--Appendix 1-a and Appendix 1-b.