ASPO Abstracts
Understanding How Self-Endorsed Values Influence Support for Preventative Health Policies
Category: Behavioral Science & Health Communication
Conference Year: 2022
Abstract Body:
Purpose: To examine how individual values relate to support for preventive health policies for tobacco, alcohol, and nutrition, which may inform value-tailored messaging to increase policy support.Methods: NCI's 2020 Health Information National Trends Survey (cycle 4) provided data for this study. One item assessed which of seven values was most important in respondents' day-to day life (e.g., being happy, helping people). Support for each of 9 potential preventive health policies for junk food, alcohol, and tobacco products (e.g., requiring health warnings on alcohol containers, not advertising tobacco products on social media), was dichotomized as supportive (strongly support, support) or not supportive (strongly oppose, oppose, neither support nor oppose). Analyses described the percentage of supportive respondents for each policy in each value category. General support was computed as the mean percent of supportive responses across all nine policies in each value category. Results: Among 3,676 respondents, general support across all policies was lowest (51%) among the 14% of respondents who most valued making their own decisions, and this was consistent across individual policies. General support was 55% among the 21% who most valued being happy, though this group was relatively more supportive of policies related to social media advertising. General support was highest among those who valued connection to religion (8%) and good health (13%), at 64% and 62%, respectively, and this pattern of high support was consistent across alcohol and tobacco-related policies, but not junk food. General support across preventive health policies was 58% among the 30% who most valued assuring one's family is safe and secure. Surprisingly, this group was no more likely to support policies focused on protecting children. Helping people (7%) and loyalty to family and friends (6%) were endorsed less frequently, and support for limiting social media advertisements of junk food products to children was highest in these groups.Conclusions: Reported values are related to support for preventive health policies in general and in specific health policy domains. Further examination of these patterns may inform communication and dissemination of evidence for preventive policies.
Keywords: Policy, Values, Communication