Sir, – I read with interest the article by Jacky Jones in which she referenced Safefood’s most recent consumer food safety campaign, which focused on the over-65s and how we should remove references to age from all our public-health communications (“Time to give ageism the old heave-ho”, Second Opinion, Health + Family, January 10th).
All our public health campaigns are founded upon robust science. As we get older, a declining immune system means we are less able to fight infection caused by bacteria, including those which may be ingested with food. This is evidenced by figures for food-borne diseases on the island of Ireland; over the last decade, more than half of listeriosis cases were among those aged over 65.
When developing our campaign, we listened to older people who told us they found our communication messages to be relevant and appropriate for them, even with a lifetime of preparing food for themselves and their families.
Age groupings throughout society are a generally accepted principle. Over-65 is an internationally recognised cut-off used by disease control centres worldwide to indicate an age beyond which populations can start to experience more severe effects from many common illnesses.
This does not imply that all people will experience these symptoms. A similar cut-off applies to the zero to five age group who, as a population, experience more severe symptoms as their immune system may not be fully developed.
If one was to remove all references to age from public-health campaigns, how would this translate into specific groups in society who need advice and support the most? No folic acid awareness campaigns aimed at young women? No winter flu campaigns targeting older people? No MMR vaccination campaigns to parents of young children?
Safefood, along with many of our peers in public health, follows a social marketing approach to target specific audiences in order to positively change health behaviours for the long-term. Adopting a one-size-fits all approach to public health communications risks being seen by everybody but being relevant to nobody. – Yours, etc,
RAY DOLAN,
Chief Executive Officer,
Safefood,
Eastgate Avenue,
Little Island,
Co Cork.