What we’ve learned from the health impact pyramid is that by directing our efforts on community-wide health plans, we’ll have a better chance at generating more impactful and long-term outcomes on the health of people.
So, the base is representative of public health strategies directed at changing and enhancing the health of an entire population. This is where we would see the kinds of interventions that make the greatest impression on society’s health. That’s because these interventions are designed to reach a lot of people all at once, instead of one person at a time. Also, these responses ask for minimal effort from people as individuals.
As we move up towards the top of the pyramid, the interventions have less impact because they’re mostly based on interventions that reach people on an individual basis, as opposed to the community as a whole.
Also, these interruptions (ahem, I mean interventions) require more effort on behalf of the individual.
In the middle, there’s a third level of the pyramid, which Frieden explains “represents 1-time or infrequent protective interventions.” [i]
That section reminds me specifically of the Theory Picker tool that we used in the last lecture. There’s a part where you identify whether the behavior you’re looking to change is a “Just a 1-time thing, not something that must be done over and over to benefit health or avoid a health risk.” [ii]