Social behavioral design for public health programs

Many public health challenges are deeply rooted in human behaviour, and most programs depend upon people adopting healthy behaviors. Behavioral design applies insights from behavioral and social sciences to understand and influence health-related behaviors. Integrating social behavior change (SBC) into the development of public health policies, programs, and practices is essential if programs are to be impactful and resilient.

In this course, we will look at how to generate, gather and analyze social and behavioral data. Participants will learn how to make data tell the stories that in turn can inform practice and programming. This participatory course will show how behavioral insights can be used to develop effective behavior change communications and other interventions including psychological inoculation against misinformation.

Impact come from programs, not single interventions, and this course will consider the development of behaviour-informed strategies, and how we may inform public health policies with SBC insights.

By the end of the course participants will:

• Understand the importance of designing public health interventions with a social behavioural insights lens;
• Understand how the communication ecosystem, including misinformation, can influence public health behaviours;
• Be able to develop effective, context-specific, behaviorally-informed SBC communications to encourage vaccine acceptance and demand;
• Apply learnings to a use case of psychological inoculation against misinformation;
• Understand the potential impact of effective interpersonal communication;
• Develop a plan for a behaviorally-designed program to increase vaccine uptake.

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None.

• Introductory lectures;
• Case studies;
• Peer group exercises.

To get the Certificate of completion and the 1 ECTS participants MUST:

• Attend at least 80% of the course;
• Attend the plenary offered on the first day of the course;
• Actively participate in exercises;
• Work in a group to prepare the final presentation which will serve as an assignment for the course.

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The facilitators plan to be present in Lugano, and the course will be held entirely on-site. If face-to-face meeting was problematic for unforeseen reasons, the course could be held online or using a hybrid format. The course will take place at Università della Svizzera italiana (USI).

For course pricing information, see here. Discounts are available for participants from LMICs, PhD and Master Students, and Students and Employees from the LSS Partner Universities (SSPH+, USI, SUPSI, and SWISS TPH).  

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