Encouraging healthier habits in communities

As a new year begins, many people make resolutions to improve their lifestyle by eating healthier food, giving up vices like smoking or drinking alcohol, or exercising more. But how many of these good intentions last beyond January? An article published by BBC News (Oyebode, 2020) explored the role that friends, colleagues and family can play in encouraging our healthy (or not so healthy) habits. The article argues that while our social networks can be good for our health if we have positive role models, they can also encourage bad habits as we tend to copy those around us. We can ‘catch’ obesity from our friends. Studies have found we are 57% more likely to become obese if a close friend does.

The article suggests that targeting health advice at ‘social butterflies’—those who are the backbone of their social networks, who interact with lots of people and are admired by others—may be a way of improving health more widely as they can influence their friends and relatives. This got me thinking, could practice nurses have this effect on patients? Perhaps seeing a practice nursing team adopting a healthy lifestyle could influence the local community to improve their own.