3FOUR50

I spent my entire weekend at Filter Coffee Shop in Hillcrest. The entire two days went to do doing research for diabetes in India. (For those of you who don't know, India is projected to have about 30-something million people diagnosed with diabetes by 2025). While doing this, I came across www.3FOUR50.com. It is an initative that is funded by the Oxford Health Alliance. It's focus to prevent the THREE risk factors (ppor diet, lack of PA, and poor diet) that lead to the FOUR chronic diseases (CVD, diabetes, chronic lung disease, and some cancers) that contribute to more than FIFTY percent of deaths worldwide. Why do I mention this? Because their main method of communication is through social networking and the power of the Internet. "The site is not only building an online global health community- it is also communicating health messages in an innovative and compelling way" (www.3FOUR50.com). My point is that their major way of spreading their message is through social marketing. They are working to fight diabetes through social marketing. Their main method? Advocacy. Policy makers do not see the urgency in the diabetes problem. Hopefully, this will be one way to catch their attention.