The impact of a personalised blood pressure warning on health behaviours

Abstract: We examine the impact of a tailored health warning on health outcomes and behaviours. We exploit two unique features of a household panel survey. First, people received tailored information as a function of their blood pressure (BP) score. Second, the sample includes representative samples interviewed in the same calendar year, however, due to the timing of the data collection they differ in their knowledge of their hypertensive status. We find that individuals update their hypertension status because of the biomarker collection. Among those who update, they are less likely to smoke. But we do not find changes in patterns of alcohol consumption or diet. We also find for those who get a new diagnosis they have fewer incidences of certain heart conditions.