Social Marketing
Nutrition and Physical Activity

CDC

Plan Components for the Problem Description

I. Problem/health issueI: Problem/Health Issue

Find Existing Information
Look for data on various ages, genders, races/ethnicities, and for different geographic locations. Also, you may want to identify ideal goals, such as Healthy People objectives, to understand what people should be doing. Ideally, you will find data on your local population, but sometimes that isn't easy. Data on populations similar to your local population can be helpful as well. If you already know some potential audiences you want to work with, you may want to focus on data that you can gather about them. If not, look for data on a wide range of people.

Other potential resources that may be helpful include the following

  • Subject matter experts (obesity, nutrition, or physical activity)
  • Audience or community experts (people who may have some knowledge about a potential audience, about the community, or about a specific location)
  • Partners
  • Data collected by your organization or your partners and stakeholders
  • Epidemiologists in your state or local health department, or academic center
  • City planners