Intended for healthcare professionals

Rapid response to:

Editorials

One nudge forward, two steps back

BMJ 2011; 342 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.d401 (Published 25 January 2011) Cite this as: BMJ 2011;342:d401

Rapid Response:

A nudge a day could help keep the doctor away...

I am saddened to see the Nudge initiative get the push in this BMJ
editorial. As with your previous rapid responder, I would agree that
throwing the baby out with the bathwater is a fairly knee jerk reaction
and a little bit old fashioned.

The context in which the UK public health system operates has changed
since those heady days of water pumps and sewage systems. The traditional
models of health promotion are a good starting point but aren't
necessarily going to cut it anymore. Innovation in public health can be
stifled by always emphasizing the need for a thousand dusty tomes as
justification for every breath you take.

As a next generation public health consultant, I say let the nudge
initiative breathe. Public health initiatives that we now revere were
often ridiculed in their time. Give Nudge some credence and acknowledge
that the organisations who currently use this and other sophisticated ways
to persuade the public are laughing all the way to the corporate banks,
cashing in on the health of our population. Meanwhile, us well meaning and
worthy types tut and sigh and shake our heads at the idiocy of introducing
something new into our established ways of working...

Competing interests: No competing interests

09 February 2011
Rebecca Cooper
Public Health StR
Oxford Deanery