Attitudes towards healthy lifestyle promotion in mass media in the Polish adult population

Background: Healthy lifestyle promotion in mass media is a very important way to diminish cardiovascular diseases morbidity and mortality. Effectiveness of healthy lifestyle promotion can, among others, depend on people's attitudes towards it. Aim: To characterise the Pole's attitudes towards healthy lifestyle promotion in mass media and identify their socio-demographic predictors. Methods: A research project consisted of qualitative and quantitative studies. Qualitative research containing 30 individual in-depth interviews was carried out from June 2007 to April 2008. A survey on national Polish sample including 934 adults was conducted in November 2008. In the study there was used the scale to estimate the attitudes towards healthy lifestyle promotion in mass media containing four subscales: appraisal of the idea of healthy lifestyle promotion in mass media (regarding a need of healthy lifestyle promotion in mass media), appraisal of its practice (which means credibility as well as effectiveness manifested in the change of people's behaviour), propensity to receive messages and propensity to avoid messages promoting healthy lifestyle. Results: Above 71% of Poles is characterised by a positive attitude towards healthy lifestyle promotion in mass media. As much as 87% of people positively evaluate its idea; about 70% have high propensity to receive messages promoting healthy lifestyle and only 21% is characterised by high propensity to avoid them. On the contrary, only 29% of the respondents positively evaluate the practice of healthy lifestyle promotion in mass media. The results of multivariable linear regression analysis show that being a woman and having higher education are the predictors of relatively positive attitude towards healthy lifestyle promotion in mass media while living in the biggest cities and being executives or intellectuals are related to more negative attitude. Conclusions: Results indicate the need to enhance credibility of messages promoting healthy lifestyle as well as create ones that would better reach men and low-educated people.