Evaluation of the 'Healthy Citizen Campaign’: a population-based survey in Tehran, Iran

Objective (s): Health education campaigns play an important role in improving public rsquo;s health. This study aimed to evaluate the Health Citizen rsquo; campaign in Tehran, Iran. The campaign was launched by the Tehran municipality and included health statements on nutrition, physical activity, smoking and risky behaviors using billboards and lasted for a month (January 2016).Methods: A populationbased survey was conducted in Tehran and a random sample of adults living in different districts of Tehran was interviewed using a structured questionnaire. They were asked whether they have seen the campaign or not. Then a number of questions related to the campaign including items on attention, remembering the main idea, relevance, design and place were examined. Descriptive statistics were used to explore the data.Results: In all 1196 individuals took part in the study (561 female and 615 male). Of these 491 (41%) indicated that they have seen the campaign. Of those who seen the campaign 85% (n = 415) said that they could remember the main idea, and 95% of participants (n = 466) believed that the campaign was informative, convincing (n = 426, 87%), believable (n = 455, 93%), and well done (n = 387, 79%). In addition the data analysis showed that 90% (n = 443) of participants indicated that messages were worth remembering, interesting (n = 437, 89%), and personally relevant (n = 331, 67%). Participants also indicated that the best way for communicating health messages are electronic media (n = 287, 58.5%), and billboards (n = 279, 56.6%).Conclusion: It seems that communicating health messages via billboards received well by participants and could be repeated in different occasions in order to put health in public rsquo;s agenda.