#BetterHealth: A qualitative analysis of reactions to the UK government's better health campaign - Bournemouth University Research Online

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                   HPQ0010.1177/1359105320985576Journal of Health PsychologyTalbot and Branley-Bell

                                          Brief Report

                                                                                                                               Journal of Health Psychology

                                          #BetterHealth: A qualitative
                                                                                                                               1­–7
                                                                                                                                © The Author(s) 2021

                                          analysis of reactions to the UK                                                      Article reuse guidelines:

                                          government’s better health                                                           sagepub.com/journals-permissions
                                                                                                                               https://doi.org/10.1177/1359105320985576
                                                                                                                               DOI: 10.1177/1359105320985576

                                          campaign                                                                             journals.sagepub.com/home/hpq

                                          Catherine V Talbot1,2
                                          and Dawn Branley-Bell1

                                          Abstract
                                          This study examined reactions to the UK government’s Better Health campaign through a thematic analysis
                                          of tweets. Four themes were generated: Embracing Better Health; There is no Better Health without mental
                                          health; Inconsistent messaging; Only a surface-level solution. Findings suggest the campaign is problematic,
                                          given its lack of consideration for mental health and wider societal factors that contribute to obesity. The
                                          campaign could exacerbate mental health difficulties for individuals with eating disorders due to its focus on
                                          weight and perceived fat-shaming approach. Recommendations are made to develop future campaigns that
                                          avoid negative public responses, minimise harms, and maximise intended benefits.

                                          Keywords
                                          communication, obesity, public health, weight

                                          Introduction                                                compared with individuals with healthy BMIs
                                                                                                      (Docherty et al., 2020; Hussain et al., 2020).
                                          The ‘Better Health’ campaign was launched by                Consistent with this, the general population
                                          the UK government on 27th July 2020 (Public                 have reported facing difficulties staying healthy
                                          Health England, 2020). This national campaign               during the pandemic, with Duffy (2020) finding
                                          encouraged individuals to make healthier life-              that almost half of respondents reported putting
                                          style choices, by losing weight, getting active             on weight and 29% reported increased alcohol
                                          and quitting smoking. A range of tools were                 consumption.
                                          available to help people manage their health,                  Responses to the Better Health campaign
                                          including mobile applications (e.g. NHS                     have been mixed, with Sport England (2020) and
                                          Smokefree; Couch to 5K), online support
                                          groups, virtual fitness videos, a body mass
                                          index (BMI) calculator, and offers with organi-             1
                                                                                                          Northumbria University, UK
                                          sations who provide weight loss plans (e.g.                 2
                                                                                                          Bournemouth University, UK
                                          Slimming World). The campaign launched dur-
                                          ing the COVID-19 pandemic and was driven by                 Corresponding author:
                                                                                                      Catherine V Talbot, Department of Psychology, Faculty of
                                          data showing that obese people are significantly            Science and Technology, Bournemouth University, Fern
                                          more likely to become seriously ill and be                  Barrow, England BH12 5BB, UK.
                                          admitted to intensive care with coronavirus                 Email: Ctalbot@bournemouth.ac.uk
2                                                                     Journal of Health Psychology 00(0)

the British Heart Foundation (2020) welcoming             As we were primarily interested in the con-
measures that aim to tackle obesity, such as the       tent of individual tweets, retweets were
9pm watershed on fast food adverts. In contrast,       excluded from the sample. Only tweets written
the campaign has also received some negative           in English were included in the sample. We also
press coverage (Mead, 2020; Wilson, 2020) and          excluded tweets from health organisations
reactions from eating disorder organisations (e.g.     advertising the campaign (e.g. Public Health
BEAT, 2020) who argue that the campaign may            England, the National Health Service and
be damaging for some people. This is substanti-        National Health Trusts) as these do not repre-
ated by research showing that people with eating       sent public reaction. Company advertisements
disorders have been negatively impacted by ‘a          were also excluded from the sample. The final
public preoccupation with food, weight gain and        sample included in the qualitative analysis
exercise’ during the COVID-19 pandemic                 comprised 181 tweets (approximately 13.5% of
(Branley-Bell & Talbot, 2020, p. 10). Insight into     individual tweets collected by Ncapture).
public reactions can identify whether the cam-
paign is perceived as socially excluding or dam-
                                                       Analysis
aging to some populations. It is important to
know how the campaign is being received by the         Tweets were imported into NVivo12 and ana-
public more widely. These insights can help to         lysed thematically, following the six steps out-
guide the design of future campaigns to maxim-         lined by Braun and Clarke (2006): data
ise positive behaviour change, and minimise the        familiarisation; generating initial codes; search-
potential for unintended negative impacts.             ing for themes; reviewing themes; defining and
   Social media provides a valuable source of          naming themes; producing the report. The first
information about public attitudes, opinions and       author began by familiarising herself with
even behaviours (Snelson, 2016). Twitter is one        tweets and coded the entire dataset, identifying
of the widely used social media platforms and is       initial themes. These themes were then shared
often regarded as a platform used to publicly          with the second author who provided critical
voice opinions (Branley & Covey, 2017;                 feedback. Changes were made to themes where
Highfield, 2016). Consistent with this, research-      appropriate and the analysis was refined until
ers have used tweets to evaluate health campaigns      both authors agreed upon the finalised themes.
(e.g. Schlichthorst et al., 2018), yet to our knowl-
edge, this method has not been used to evaluate
                                                       Ethics
the Better Health campaign. Our study addresses
this gap and uses public tweets to examine reac-       Ethical approval was obtained from the
tions to the Better Health campaign.                   Northumbria University ethics board [26267].
                                                       The British Psychological Society code of
                                                       Ethics and Conduct (2014) states that unless
Methods                                                consent has been sought, observation of public
                                                       behaviour must take place in spaces where
Data collection and sampling                           individuals would expect to be observed by
Ncapture was used to collect tweets posted             strangers. Tweets can therefore be viewed as
between 27th July 2020 and 7th August 2020             public behaviour. However, to promote the
containing at least one of the following search        anonymity of users it is good practice to para-
terms: ‘#BetterHealth’; ‘Better Health cam-            phrase quotations of tweets to reduce the likeli-
paign’. Tweets were collected across this 10-day       hood of users being identified using search
time period to capture immediate reactions to          engines. Therefore, all quotes in this paper
the campaign and also to ensure the sample was         have been paraphrased in a manner that retains
not unweildy. Ncapture identified 4606 tweets          the original meaning, with both authors agree-
in total, including 3266 retweets.                     ing on the phrasing of each tweet.
Talbot and Branley-Bell                                                                                        3

Data availability                                          This suggests that the campaign was a positive
                                                           influence for some users, motivating them to
Data are not available for this study given that           adopt healthier lifestyles.
account holders could be identifiable if it were
made accessible.
                                                           There is no better health without
                                                           mental health
Results
                                                           Unfortunately, other users tweeted that there
Our thematic analysis generated four themes:               was a lack of consideration for mental health by
Embracing Better Health; There is no Better                the campaign, with one person advocating:
Health without mental health; Inconsistent mes-            ‘there is no #BetterHealth without mental
saging; Only a surface-level solution. Despite             health’. This is particularly problematic, given
the campaign focusing on different factors asso-           that the campaign was established during the
ciated with health, tweets tended to focus on              COVID-19 pandemic – a time when mental
weight loss and this is reflected in our themes.           health problems were more pronounced (Pierce
                                                           et al., 2020):
Embracing better health
                                                              It isn’t #BetterHealth though? It’s #WorseMental
Researchers have found that social media can                  Health. Mental health is important and I wish the
provide individuals with access to supportive                 government would not ignore it.
communities that can help with weight loss
(May et al., 2016). This was also evident in our           Above and beyond the campaign simply over-
sample, with users documenting their weight                looking mental health, many felt that it could
loss journeys and sharing personal experiences             actually be detrimental for mental health, par-
on Twitter. For example, users often described             ticularly for those with eating disorders. Users
the positive physical and mental changes that              commented that the campaign was triggering of
accompanied weight loss:                                   disordered eating behaviours because of its fat-
                                                           shaming approach, and focus on lower weight
   After my heart attack, I could have stayed as I         and calorie intake as equating to health:
   was, but I didn’t. I changed my diet and walked
   daily, it wasn’t difficult, I didn’t do anything           #BetterHealth does not (and should not) equal
   special but as a result, I lost five stone in a year,      being thin. Calorie counting to control your diet
   which helps my heart, relieves some pressure,              is known to be a big trigger if you suffer from
   small changes #BetterHealth                                disordered eating. Restricting food intake is not
                                                              always the healthier choice.
Some users felt that the campaign engendered a
sense of community among the population,                   Many users tweeted about representations of
with one person tweeting:                                  obesity in the campaign, with some stating that
                                                           the campaign was ‘fatphobic’, ‘disempowering’
   Yesterday, I started a vegan diet. I feel like I’ve     and reinforcing of stereotypes:
   joined a slimming club with the whole country. I
   like it. #BetterHealth                                     The NHS #BetterHealth advert is such a one-
                                                              dimensional portrayal of overweight people – it
Whilst others tweeted that they felt motivated                depicts them as just fatties who fail when it comes
by the campaign:                                              to exercise!

   I’m very encouraged by #Betterhealth. The NHS           Fat-shaming media messages can be damaging
   ‘Better Health’ campaign encouraging weight             to people with eating disorders (Spettigue et al.,
   loss is a good idea, it’s commendable.                  2004). For example, these type of messages can
4                                                                        Journal of Health Psychology 00(0)

enhance implicit anti-fat attitudes, which have             #BetterHealth campaign = because you are fat,
been associated with reduced wellbeing (Ravary              you are causing coronavirus deaths to rise. Lose
et al., 2019; Webb et al., 2016). Consistent with           weight!! Eat out to Help out scheme = here’s
this, users commented that the pandemic posed               50% off your bill, take your family to KFC or
heightened risks for people living with, or sus-            McDonald’s!
ceptible to, eating disorders. For example, one
person highlighted that the general population            Users also pointed out unfortunate TV advert
may not notice calories on menus, but this could          scheduling, where Better Health commercials
have detrimental impacts on individuals with              were immediately followed by fast food or
eating disorders:                                         takeout adverts:

    I would love to know how many people, who do            Watching the TV, I saw the #BetterHealth
    not have disordered thinking about food, will           campaign for the first time. The advert was im-
    actually read calories on menus. Most people will       mediately followed by an advert for McDonald’s.
    just be like ‘whatever’ but those of us with eating
    disorders will be left feeling like we can’t eat      These inconsistent messages were clearly con-
    anything.                                             fusing for users and could potentially impact
                                                          the effectiveness of the campaign. Instead, a
It was evident from the tweets that many users            cohesive, whole systems approach may be more
had lived experience of eating disorders, with            effective in promoting Better Health.
some stating that the campaign would make
their daily experiences more difficult:
                                                          Only a surface-level solution
    I am lost for words about the #BetterHealth
                                                          Obesity is a complex condition and researchers
    campaign. I’m terrified for those of us who have
                                                          have identified genetic, lifestyle, educational
    worked so damn hard to develop a happier
    relationship with food. This campaign will only       and environmental risk factors (Fruh, 2017).
    make this everyday battle a lot harder.               Some users felt that the campaign fails to
                                                          account for the complexity of obesity by not
This suggests that the campaign may pose                  considering these wider societal factors:
heightened challenges for people with eating
disorders – a population that has already faced             Already, after less than a week, I’m tired of seeing
                                                            the Better Health adverts. Instead of addressing
significant difficulties during the COVID-19
                                                            the reasons why some people find it hard to eat
pandemic (Branley-Bell & Talbot, 2020).                     well, it’s just a surface level solution.

Inconsistent messaging                                    Some drew attention to health inequalities that
                                                          contribute to obesity, for example highlighting
In their tweets, some users perceived the UK gov-         the cost involved in eating healthy:
ernment to be delivering inconsistent messaging.
For example, one month after the campaign was               #BetterHealth Make fruit and veg cheaper for
established (August 2020), the government                   everyone as I find it so expensive to eat healthy!
launched the ‘Eat Out to Help Out’ scheme which             In comparison, crisps and chocolate are cheap,
encouraged the public to dine at restaurants by             cheap, cheap!
providing discounts; helping to support the econ-
omy during the pandemic. This was perceived by            Instead of promoting calorie-counting, many
many as contradictory and hypocritical, particu-          users advocated for better education around
larly as some perceived the restaurants as focus-         health behaviours and cooking skills, and
ing on fast-food or unhealthy options:                    increased access to exercise facilities:
Talbot and Branley-Bell                                                                                5

   We need to recognise the psychological reasons    individuals experiencing eating disorders have
   behind conditions, give people the skills to      already been shown to be reluctant to seek help
   prepare healthy food, and access to exercise.     during the pandemic due to worrying that they
   Prescribing cycling and cutting calories misses   might be a ‘burden’ to the NHS (Branley-Bell &
   the point! #BetterHealth is not enough.
                                                     Talbot, 2020).
                                                        Despite aiming to achieve positive changes,
These findings highlight that some users felt the    the campaign is likely to have been detrimental
campaign did not account for the complexity of       to some of the population. Clearly, there is a
obesity and excluded certain groups of people,       need for future campaigns to avoid negative
such as those who cannot afford to engage in         public responses, minimise harms and maxim-
Better Health behaviours.                            ise the intended benefits. To achieve this, we
                                                     suggest the following points of action guided by
Discussion                                           the findings from our research:

Our findings suggest that public reactions to the       a. Campaigns must move away from
Better Health campaign were mixed, reflecting              ‘surface-level solutions’ and focus on
offline debates about its appropriateness (e.g.            a more appropriate, complete picture
BEAT, 2020). The campaign was received posi-               of health and wellbeing. It is vital that
tively by some individuals who tweeted about               campaigns recognise that mental and
the positive impact it was having on their lives,          physical health are intertwined and it
increasing      exercise     and      motivation.          is not appropriate to just target physi-
Interestingly, users tweeted that the Better               cal health without consideration of
Health campaign engendered a sense of com-                 related mental issues. Failing to en-
munity among the general population. Given a               compass mental health components
recent focus on social prescribing (Drinkwater             can lead some populations to feel
et al., 2019), our findings suggest that commu-            overlooked.
nities may be a valuable resource for promoting         b. Campaigns must consider other wider
healthy lifestyles. This supports public health            societal issues that may provide a bar-
campaigns as a potential driver of positive                rier to the behaviour being promoted
behaviour change, and although weaknesses                  (e.g. education, financial situation,
were also identified in the Better Health cam-             etc.). A successful campaign will rec-
paign – there are lessons to be learned. These             ognise and address these issues wher-
insights can help guide the design of future               ever possible – this can prevent users
campaigns to maximise the benefits and protect             reacting negatively to the campaign
against unintended harms.                                  due to feeling that important issues
    Despite the campaign being beneficial for              are being ignored (e.g. cost of healthy
some individuals, our findings show that the               diets).
Better Health campaign was perceived by some to         c. Campaigns and other public messages
be inappropriate, shaming, dismissive of mental            must pay careful consideration to the
health, hypocritical and potentially damaging.             language used, avoiding the use of
This echoes reactions from professional bodies,            shaming and/or triggering terminol-
mental health charities and organisations (e.g.            ogy. Emphasis should also be placed
BEAT, 2020) who have critiqued the campaign for            upon overall improved health and not
its use of shaming language. For example, when             on physical attributes such as weight
the campaign was first launched it was described           or body shape. Many negative reac-
using wording such as ‘war on obesity’ and ‘pro-           tions to the Better Health campaign
tect the NHS, save lives’ (Mead, 2020). The latter         resulted from perceptions of inappro-
statement is particularly concerning given that            priate language use.
6                                                                    Journal of Health Psychology 00(0)

    d. Campaigns must involve the public            a resource from which to learn and develop
       and targetted audiences during design        more effective campaigns in the future.
       and development. In the instance of              In conclusion, public reactions to the Better
       the Better Health campaign, it would         Health campaign were mixed, with some indi-
       have been beneficial to identify and         viduals appearing to embrace the campaign and
       involve audiences which may be par-          others being more critical due to its perceived
       ticularly affected by messages around        inconsistency with other guidance, lack of con-
       weight (e.g. individuals with lived ex-      sideration for mental health and ‘surface-level’
       perience of eating disorders). This can      solution to the complex issue of obesity. Our
       help to avoid widespread public back-        findings show that public health campaigns do
       lash and potential harm to vulnerable        have value in promoting positive behaviour
       populations. Individuals with lived          change. However, the Better Health campaign
       experience can help to advise on ap-         in it’s current form could potentially exacerbate
       propriate terminology, highlight wid-        mental health difficulties; particularly for those
       er societal factors and/or behavioural       with eating disorders due to it’s focus on weight
       drivers which may have been initially        and perceived ‘fat-shaming’ approach. We have
       overlooked, and help to provide initial      detailed clear points of action to help maximise
       insight into how the campaign may be         the positive impacts of future public health
       perceived prior to widespread public         campaigns, and minimise unintended harms. In
       release.                                     particular, we recommend that the voices of
    e. Care must be taken to promote a con-         vulnerable groups are centred in the develop-
       sistent message across campaigns             ment of future campaigns and a ‘whole systems
       and sectors. A ‘whole systems ap-            approach’ is taken to promote better health.
       proach’ is needed and opportunities
       for public messages to be perceived          Declaration of conflicting interests
       as contradictive or hypocritical must        The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of inter-
       be avoided. For example, although            est with respect to the research, authorship, and/or
       some restaurants on the ‘Eat Out to          publication of this article.
       Help Out’ scheme may have offered
       healthy food choices, the existence of       Funding
       this campaign and the ‘Better Health’        The author(s) received no financial support for the
       campaign were perceived by many to           research, authorship, and/or publication of this
       be contradictory.                            article.

Our research has some limitations. Firstly, only    ORCID iD
Twitter users were included in this study. While
                                                    Catherine V Talbot       https://orcid.org/0000-0001-
Twitter is a valuable resource for accessing        9353-8990
public opinions (Branley & Covey, 2017;
Highfield, 2016), researchers could also use        References
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