Establishing communication networks for health promotion in industrial settings

Health educators, medical personnel, and managers interested in worksite efforts to change health behaviors often face problems in communicating effectively with rank and file members of the workforce. This article describes an effective strategy for getting health information flowing among an industrial workforce and changing health behaviors. Identifying effective communication routes at a worksite and creating new ones, establishing relationships with key information carriers, and making health information salient to potential communicators are keys to successful information flow. Wellness Committees can provide access to formal communication routes, which may or may not work for health information. One-to-one counseling and development of buddy systems, however, create short-link, health-oriented communication networks. If people whom large numbers of employees contact for plant business get recruited into these health networks, information spreads rapidly. Poster posting can generate interaction with people so that they read and talk about health messages. Unusual motion, sound, and messages can call attention to special events. Using these methods has increased participation in specific health activities from a handful to between fifty and one hundred people at a time.