Setting Objectives: Health Communication and Intervention

Setting objectives is an essential part of intervention design. When informed by strong theory, objective-setting leads to more successful health communication interventions because it requires the interventionist to systematically analyze population needs that must be addressed, which [Page 1236]improves the interventionist's ability to determine what an intervention can realistically achieve. Setting objectives is challenging, however, as it involves careful consideration of a wide array of factors. The leading communication and behavioral theories offer useful guidelines for choosing which of these factors are appropriate intervention targets, and for setting realistic and quantifiable objectives for these factors.