Authors: Innocent Sigauke, PhD (Solusi University, Zimbabwe), Kenneth Swansi, PhD (Adventist International Institute of Advanced Studies, Philippines) and Christinah Dlamini, PhD (Solusi University, Zimbabwe)
Abstract: Some studies have linked the Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) church health-lifestyle with better wellbeing and longevity. However, there are suggestions that current initiatives by the SDA-church to prompt health behavior modifications have been inadequate. Current attempts seem to be largely downstream approaches without clear marketing guidelines. While social marketing has been noted to be a key success factor in behavior modification initiatives, it does not seem to have been used in promoting SDA health- lifestyle initiatives. Hence the study sought to bring in a social marketing perspective to the current initiatives being done to make the SDA health-lifestyle modifications attainable for more people. A multi-method design combining grounded theory and appreciative inquiry was used. Data was collected from SDA-public health academics and practitioners, health-lifestyle program participants as well as social marketing extant studies and models. The sources of data were 30 interviews, 20 extant studies on social marketing, 5 social marketing models and 5 forum presentations. The major finding of the study is a social marketing theory for SDA health- lifestyle modification suggesting that health-lifestyle behavior modification is driven by centers of influence that run benchmarked programs shaped by distinctively Adventist worldview, and guided via marketing design criteria. Social marketing is suggested as the missing link that makes it easier to implement health- lifestyle behavior adoption efforts.