Health promotion and campaign design for QCE Health Unit 4
“Design and justify a health promotion campaign that uses the Ottawa Charter action areas to build resilience and shift social norms in the post-schooling transition”
A health promotion campaign in Unit 4 must be designed and justified, not described. Define a priority issue and a specific post-schooling audience using data, then build action across the five Ottawa Charter action areas so the strands reinforce each other. Tailor evidence-based messages to channels the audience uses and frame them around protective factors and social norms. Justify every decision against the issue and evidence, and plan evaluation using criteria such as reach and effect. Strong campaigns aim to change behaviour and norms, not just awareness.
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What this dot point is asking
Unit 4 asks you to design a health promotion campaign, not just describe one. QCAA wants you to apply the Ottawa Charter, target a defined audience in the post-schooling transition, and justify each design decision with evidence. "Design and justify" is the key: every choice (the audience, the channel, the message, the action areas) must be explained against the issue and the evidence. The strongest campaigns aim beyond awareness, toward changed behaviour and shifted social norms.
The answer
What health promotion is
Health promotion is the process of enabling people to increase control over and improve their health, as defined in the Ottawa Charter. Effective health promotion does not just inform; it changes the conditions, norms and skills that drive behaviour. That is why a single poster is weak and a multi-strand campaign is strong.
Define the issue and audience
Start by defining a priority issue and a specific audience within the post-schooling transition (for example, school leavers managing new independence). Use data to establish the issue and to profile the audience: their risk and protective factors, where they get information, and what messages they trust. A campaign aimed at "everyone" reaches no one; precise targeting is rewarded.
Apply the Ottawa Charter
Build the campaign across the five action areas so the strands reinforce each other:
- Build healthy public policy: organisational or institutional policy that supports the goal.
- Create supportive environments: settings that make the healthy choice easy.
- Strengthen community action: peer-led and community-led involvement.
- Develop personal skills: education and skill-building for the audience.
- Reorient health services: linking the audience to relevant services.
A campaign that combines policy, environment and community action is far stronger than one that only develops personal skills, because it changes the conditions, not just the knowledge.
Design the message
Effective messages are tailored to the audience, evidence-based, and built on protective factors rather than fear alone. Use channels the audience actually uses, frame messages around social norms (most people do the healthy thing), and make a clear call to action. Salutogenic framing, emphasising strengths and what builds health, fits the course approach better than purely scaring people.
Effective health promotion campaigns go beyond raising awareness to change behaviour and social norms. They are designed with a defined audience, multiple reinforcing Ottawa Charter action areas, evidence-based messages, and a clear evaluation plan, rather than a single message strand.
Define the issue and the precise audience
Choose a priority issue (for example, risky alcohol use during the move to new independence) and profile a specific cohort of recent school leavers using data on their risk factors, information sources and trusted channels.
Build across reinforcing Ottawa Charter action areas
Combine institutional policy that supports the goal (policy), settings that make the healthy choice easy such as low-alcohol social spaces (environment), and peer-led messaging (community action), so the strands change conditions, not just knowledge.
Design evidence-based, norm-framed messages
Tailor messages to the channels the audience actually uses, frame them around social norms (most people in the cohort drink moderately) and protective factors rather than fear, and include a clear call to action.
Justify every choice and plan evaluation
For each decision explain why it suits the issue, audience and evidence, then set criteria and measures using RE-AIM and check equity, so the campaign can be judged on reach and effect rather than activity alone.
Justify and plan evaluation
Justification is where marks are won. For each decision, explain why it suits the issue, the audience and the evidence. Then plan evaluation: set criteria and measures so you can judge reach, engagement and effect. The RE-AIM framework (reach, effectiveness, adoption, implementation, maintenance) is a useful evaluation lens, as is the diffusion of innovations idea that new norms spread through a population over time via early adopters. A campaign you cannot evaluate is incomplete.
- Designing an awareness-only campaign
- A single poster or social-media post develops personal skills at best. Combine action areas to change conditions and norms.
- Vague targeting
- "Aimed at young people" is too broad. Profile a specific audience with data and design for it.
- Skipping justification and evaluation
- Listing campaign elements without justifying them, or with no plan to measure success, caps the response in the lower band.
Exam-style questions
Questions in the style of QCAA exam questions on this dot point, each with a worked answer. They are written by ExamExplained unless tagged "Past paper"; the year shows the paper a question is modelled on.
Practice7 marksDesign a health promotion campaign for school leavers managing new independence, using at least three Ottawa Charter action areas, and justify your audience and channel choices with evidence.Show worked answer →
Seven marks: a targeted design across three or more action areas, with justified choices.
- Define audience and issue (2 marks)
- Profile a specific cohort (recent school leavers) using data on their risk factors, information sources and trusted channels, rather than aiming at "everyone".
- Design across three or more action areas (3 marks)
- For example: institutional policy supporting the goal (policy), settings that make the healthy choice easy (environment), and peer-led involvement (community action).
- Justify channels and messages (2 marks)
- Justify using channels the audience actually uses and framing messages around social norms and protective factors, supported by evidence.
Markers reward precise targeting, three or more reinforcing action areas, and justified, evidence-based channel and message choices.
Practice6 marksJustify why a multi-strand health promotion campaign is more likely to change behaviour and social norms than a single awareness poster, and explain how you would evaluate it.Show worked answer →
Six marks: the justification, then the evaluation plan.
Why multi-strand (3 marks). A single poster develops personal skills at best and changes knowledge, not conditions. A multi-strand campaign combining policy, environment and community action changes the conditions and norms that drive behaviour, so it is more likely to shift behaviour and is more durable.
Evaluation plan (3 marks). Set criteria and measures using RE-AIM (reach, effectiveness, adoption, implementation, maintenance), distinguish outputs from outcomes, and check equity (who was reached and missed).
Markers reward the conditions-versus-knowledge argument and a concrete, criteria-based evaluation plan.