Studying the costs and benefits of health messaging to young women

Physical inactivity is a leading risk factor for both poor physical and mental health, with women being less likely than men to engage in exercise. This imbalance is evident from childhood, persists throughout adulthood and results in women being more likely to suffer the negative health consequences of being inactive. This may be unsurprising to many, given that exercise and sport have long been gendered, which fosters widely held stereotypes that act to discourage women from participating.

Common sayings in popular culture and media, such as “run like a girl” or “throw like a girl”, link women to weakness in the context of physical activities and can harm women’s confidence and reduce their engagement in such activities. These stereotypes are often reflected in the health messaging women receive, with many campaigns taking a gender-neutral or male-centric approach that fails to address the specific needs and motivations of women.

Efforts to create more inclusive, women-focused campaigns began only in the late 20th century, marking an important step towards challenging such stereotypes and supporting women’s engagement in sport and exercise. But more work is needed to help bridge the physical activity gap between men and women. This includes research to understand the best ways in which to structure physical activity communications aimed towards women audiences.

Studies have demonstrated that the way in which the risks and benefits of exercise are communicated can significantly influence how people engage, or fail to engage, with tailored messages being more effective. However, how to tailor messages most effectively for women remains an under-researched topic, despite the growing popularity of women-centric messaging such as “This Girl Can” and “Move Her Mind”. Indeed, our own findings indicate that 70% of inactive women decline support to increase their own physical activity, even when they are informed of the health risks of inactivity and are physically able to start exercising. This finding may be partly explained by message reactivity, whereby individuals dismiss or ignore messages and react negatively to communications that are perceived to threaten their freedom or personal choices.

For example, an inactive woman may dismiss a message about exercise if she perceives it as a criticism of her own behaviour. This raises the critical question of which communication strategies can most effectively engage women with the content of exercise-related messages and, in turn, indirectly support them to act for the benefit of their own health and wellbeing?

To explore this, we examined how different ways of framing messages around physical activity influenced message reactivity among young women, between the ages of 18 and 25, who were physically able to exercise but did not meet UK or global activity guidelines. Specifically, we compared gain-framed messages, which emphasise the benefits of exercising, such as better bone and heart health, with loss-framed messages, which highlight the risks of physical inactivity, like worse bone and heart health. Each framing condition was paired with either appearance-focused outcomes such as loss of tone and muscle tightness, as is often seen in popular magazines articles and television adverts, or health-focused outcomes, as is typical in public health campaigns, like fatigue, immune system functioning, and bone and heart health. This approach allowed us to test for the combination of message framing that was most effective at reducing message reactivity and provided the most effective form of communication. Additionally, messages were tailored to outcomes particularly relevant to this age group, to ensure the content of the messages resonated with their priorities and experiences.

To begin, we recruited 48 insufficiently active women to read the messages that we developed to ensure that they properly communicated the intended risks or gains, as well as the health- or appearance-focused outcomes, in a way that resonated with our target audience. Participants were randomised to view one of the four messages and then rated the received message on several dimensions, including:

1. the extent to which the message discussed what they could lose from not engaging in regular physical activity,
2. the extent to which the message discussed what they could gain from engaging in regular physical activity,
3. the degree to which the message highlighted health-related outcomes associated with exercise,
4. the extent to which the message focused on appearance-related outcomes, and
5. whether they perceived the message as scientifically based.

These measures allowed us to assess how effectively each message communicated risks or benefits and intended outcomes, while also maintaining credibility. The messages were interpreted as intended as participants agreed that all four messages were scientifically based and confirmed the categorisation of each message as either gain or loss-framed and as focused on appearance or health outcomes. Therefore, we were confident that any differences in responses reflected genuine effects of message design rather than miscommunication.

Following the testing of our messages, we recruited a new cohort of 369 insufficiently active women who were randomly assigned to receive one of the four validated messages. After viewing one of the messages, participants indicated whether the information was new to them and rated their reactions. About 76% of women reported that the message provided information they had not known before, showing that the content was informative.

We found that loss-framed messages, which highlighted the risks of being inactive, caused stronger negative reactions, including anger, feeling that their choices were being restricted and discounting the message, compared with gain-framed messages, which emphasised the benefits of exercise, when focused on health outcomes. Messages framed around health outcomes were also found to generally cause fewer negative reactions than those focused on appearance.

These findings suggest that exercise messages for young women should be carefully framed to reduce negative reactions and increase engagement with the content. Gain-framed messages that emphasise the benefits of activity, particularly when focused on health outcomes, appear to be the most effective. In contrast, messages that highlight appearance or focus on potential losses or downsides of being physically inactive are more likely to provoke resistance and may cause women to disengage with the intended content entirely.

Communicating the importance of exercise for overall health and wellbeing is a key first step in the behaviour change process, as education alone is often necessary but not sufficient to facilitate lasting change. Attention to the priorities of the target audience, the credibility of the information and the framing of outcomes can make exercise messages more effective in encouraging openness to behaviour change.

Our work suggests that messages should focus on what young women can gain from regular exercise, particularly in terms of their immediate overall physical and mental health. These insights offer practical guidance for health practitioners, policymakers, and campaign designers seeking to support young women in adopting and maintaining active lifestyles.

Dr Kimberly R. More, Lecturer in Health Psychology, School for Psychology and Neuroscience, University of St. Andrews and 2022 RSE personal research fellowship awardee, and Dr Curt More, Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, Heriot-Watt University

This article originally appeared in ReSourcE ReSourcE Autumn/Winter 2025.

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