Eating Disorders as a Social Problem. An Impact Analysis on Health Campaign Videos
Eating Disorders as a Social Problem. An Impact Analysis on Health Campaign Videos

Summary/Abstract: The eating disorder phenomenon has become an intensely disputed social marketing product among developed societies. However, if we were to consider statistics, the viability of such an effort remains a dilemma. The number of persons affected by anorexia and bulimia is exponentially increasing along with the penetration of eating disorders into developing or even third world countries. An array of causes might be imputed to the futility of the social marketing actions, but a first step in effectively identifying those causes is to assess the impact of such activities. This study essays to shed light onto the impact analysis issue formerly mentioned and it was designed in several steps. During the first step, the vast literature regarding eating disorders was consulted in order to set the research direction. This theoretical background made it possible to identify various factors of influence that ought to be closely studied in the prevention and treatment of eating disorders. The anorectic and bulimic mechanisms were then schematized for a thorough understanding. In the second stage of the study, the synthesized information was correlated with several theoretical models regarding message structure and expected reactions of the individuals. Therefore, the design of this study focuses on theoretical concepts in order to determine the extent to which a social marketing product follows the specialists’ recommendations. The impact analysis has been applied to a series of videos that were part of several eating disorder social campaigns. Content analysis and focus groups were conducted during the study. The content analysis proved to be an efficient instrument for objectively determining the structure of the selected videos. The subjective dimension of the study, or the focus groups, tried to determine the level of impact and the efficiency of the videos as perceived by individuals. By combining the objective and subjective results major discrepancies were noticed, leading to the conclusion that the information contained in the messages conveyed is different from the actual information needed to obtain the desired behavior changes.

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