Label, nudge or tax? A review of health policies for risky behaviours

Risky behaviours, such as over-eating, smoking, sedentary lives, and excess alcohol drinking are primary drivers of chronic health conditions, premature deaths, and health care spending. Public health decision-makers have dealt with risky behaviours by implementing three clusters of health policies: i) releasing information on health risks and consequences; ii) introducing incentives; and iii) directly intervening in markets, through regulation and taxation. In order to inform current and future health policy-making, the time is ripe to gather rigorous scientific evidence to assess the relative effectiveness of each type of interventions. At the same time it is crucial to highlight the public health approach staying beyond each type of policy on risky behaviours, and to critically consider them within the context of more general health and social policy interventions. Such a critical review lacks at the moment. This work aims at contributing to fill this gap.