Frieden's Pyramid: A Case Study

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Frieden’s health impact pyramid (2010) illustrates how much an intervention tactic will impact a population. According to the pyramid, counseling and education, which are both at the tip of the pyramid, have the smallest impact on the population when trying to change a health behavior. The closer the intervention is to the base of the pyramid, the greater the impact is on the population. On the other hand, the closer the intervention is to the base of the pyramid, the lack of choice an individual has to participate in the intervention increases. “Although the effectiveness of interventions tends to decrease at higher levels of the pyramid, those at the top often require the least political commitment. Achieving social and economic change might …show more content…

The higher the intervention method is on the pyramid, the less applicable the intervention is towards a population. The education and counseling interventions are at the tip of the pyramid, and these interventions are more applicable towards individuals as opposed to a whole population. This is because everyone receives education differently. Depending on the individual, education might be very useful to change a health behavior, whereas education could be essentially useless to another individual. As a result of this, I do not feel that education and counseling interventions have a large enough impact that is needed to change health behaviors. According to Frieden’s pyramid, education and counseling have the lowest impact on a population. Frieden describes education and counseling as the “least effective type of intervention” (Frieden, 2010).

I agree with Frieden’s pyramid. The structure of this pyramid shows which intervention method will be most helpful in changing a health behavior. By implementing these intervention methods starting at the base and working up towards the tip, the health behavior in a population can be changed. It is essential to look at the bigger picture (the population) and work towards the smaller population (certain individuals) to have a health behavior successfully