Risky behaviors a threat to development—World Bank report

A new World Bank report warns that risky behaviors—smoking, using illicit drugs, alcohol abuse, unhealthy diets, and unsafe sex—are increasing globally and pose a growing threat to the health of individuals, particularly in developing countries.

The report looks at how individual choices that lead to these behaviors are formed and reviews the effectiveness of interventions such as legislation, taxation, behavioral change campaigns, and cash transfers to combat them.

Risking your Health: Causes, Consequences and Interventions to Prevent Risky Behaviors concludes that legislation and taxation, for example, tend to be effective, especially when combined with strong enforcement mechanisms.

Cash transfers also have proven to be promising in some settings. Behavior change campaigns, such as school-based sex education and calorie-labeling laws, are often less effective on their own, unless they are complemented with broader risk behavior change programs.

“Risky behaviors not only endanger an individual’s health and reduce life expectancy, they often impose consequences on others,” said Damien de Walque, Senior Economist in the World Bank’s research department and principal editor of the report.

“The health consequences and monetary costs of risky behaviors to individuals, their families, and society as a whole are staggering and justify public interventions.”