The Norwegian Mental Health Campaign in 1992. Part II: changes in knowledge and attitudes

A one-Sunday fund-raising TV show in the autumn of 1992 was broadcast by the Norwegian Broadcasting Cooperation, one of two TV channels covering the whole country. The 6 h TV show consisted of information on mental health problems and prevention interspersed with entertainment and reporting fund-raising results. Newspapers, radio and TV had covered the forthcoming TV show extensively. The campaign was evaluated as a nationwide mass-media-based mental health campaign through a stratified random sample of 574 persons. The proportion of the population aware of the fact that suicide takes more lives than traffic accidents increased from 28.2 to 49.3% in men (P<0.001) and from 21.3 to 46.0% in women (P<0.001). Both sexes showed a significant increase in the proportion having an open attitude towards mental illness in the family. A higher proportion stated they would recommend people with a minor mental health problem to consult a general practitioner after the campaign than before from 18.9 to 31.3% in men (P<0.001) and from 21.8 to 34.1% in women (P<0.001). The Norwegian Mental Health Campaign seems to have succeeded in changing knowledge about and attitudes towards mental health problems in the general Norwegian population.