Methods
Three communities on the north coast of New South Wales,
Australia (500-700 km north of Sydney), were chosen for the study
in 1978. These were Lismore (population 22 083), Coffs Harbour
(12 197), and Tamworth (27 280). Because they shared a television
station, Lismore and Coffs Harbour were chosen as test towns-
Lismore being chosen to test the combined effect of media plus community
programmes and Coffs Harbour to test the media programme
alone. Tamworth was chosen as a control region because it had a separate
media network and was in a different administrative health region.