EEPRU

Health Communication and Health Related Behaviour

A person wearing a brown top sticking up a poster about steps to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Communication is vital to public health messaging, for example reducing people’s expectations for antibiotics to tackle the antimicrobial resistance (AMR) crisis, encouraging uptake of invitations for screening tests or vaccination programmes and supporting the interactions between health care professionals and their patients.

Small differences in how messages are worded or the tone of voice in which they are delivered can make substantial differences to behavioural outcomes and well-being and can help address health inequalities.

Patients with chronic illnesses are often given advice about how to manage their condition and even small interventions can help them to understand or enact different strategies, develop habits or co-opt their social networks to help them optimise outcomes.

A group of staff and PhD students sitting and standing on some steps on Colchester campus.
Essex ESNEFT Psychological Research Unit for Behaviour, Health and Wellbeing (EEPRU)

Run in collaboration with ESNEFT, the EEPRU is working on a programme of research on behavioural and psychological processes in the development, onset, prevention, early detection, management and progression of illness, and promotion of health and wellbeing.

Read more about our work