Bridging the gap between health recommendations and individual behaviour

A seemingly inherent bias of much public health policy lies in the presupposition of personal interest/knowledge of health which can be effectively applied for disease prevention. While prior research notes the relevance of age and education to health, gaps exist between health knowledge/‘literacy’, individual behaviours, and scientific recommendations regarding communicable diseases. This paper presents primary survey data to explore how individual behaviours/preventative actions compared with recommendations from authorities and science. Findings reveal minimal engagement with simple, proactive steps for three health issues: the prevention of mosquito-borne diseases, the common cold and gastroenteritis. The findings demonstrate a need to better transform recommendations into public knowledge and action. With personal risk perception known to affect individual behaviour, we argue changing individual health behaviours requires challenging presuppositions underscoring existing health campaigns about knowledge acquisition and transfer perceived relevance of action options, and sociocultural context guiding how information is communicated and received. Additionally, change also requires active engagement with counter-normative ideologies exhibited by health movements that question/reject normative recommendations, such as mass vaccination.