We were particularly interested in discovering if the broadcasts increased the knowledge of the participants and, in the case of the focus groups, if this translated into behaviour changes that could alter their health. in knowledge in some cases, as demonstrated by some participants correctly answering certain questions after the viewing compared to before. However we also found that in response to some questions the audience certainly initially knew more than we were expecting. The poland rcs data focus groups in particular allowed for new topics to come out that could be useful for expanding or targeting research in the future. In addition, focus group participants were contacted nine weeks later and asked if they had changed any habits to the benefit of their health: 30 per cent revealed that they had. This indicates that the impact did indeed have significance in addition to its documented reach.
Image credit: TVintage by Ajeet Mestry, via Unsplash (licensed under a CC0 1.0 license).
Mining Twitter elicited nearly 1,300 tweets but only one per cent were relevant to our research themes and it was impossible to say if there was lasting change in knowledge or habits, as the majority were made during the hours of broadcast and responded directly to what was shown on screen. So, fascinating as it was to see the response to the programmes without any kind of intervention, this route did not necessarily provide information about impact but rather on different audiences and topics to engage with in the future.