HEALTH LITERACY, PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENTS AND HEALTH POLICIES - THE DISCONNECTED FLOW

Within the health sector, emphasizing the importance of preventive health care is the starting point of numerous reforms through the world. However, many programs tend to ignore the health literacy aspect when directing consistent efforts towards health communication, seeking to change unhealthy behaviors of the population. The physicians, public policies, nudges and mandates are involved in the process of influencing individual and collective unhealthy behaviors. In promoting desirable behaviors, Public Service Announcements (PSAs) are the tool of choice in many countries. Our study shows that being not such as an essential influencer as expected on influencing the determinants of health, PSAs would be more effective in conjunction with proper support given by the General Practitioners, harmonized with in-place health policies and adapted to the health literacy level of the targeted population. As it looks now, the broadcasted PSAs lack the capacity to fill in the gap from knowing to doing for individuals with all levels of education.