Who’s got the Blues?
Posted on 23. Mar, 2009 by Ze Frollein in Communications, Health
A recent story in The Sun reported a strong connection between colours and their impact on our health. Colours can affect our memory, mental agility, reaction times and even our physical strength, according to researchers at the University of Essex. Interestingly, it was found that a vibrant red can increase a person’s confidence and may help lift depression whereas an intense blue has the potential to make us feel calmer.
This story triggered me to delve deeper into the effects and function of colour in health-related areas. Perhaps, the most well known of areas where colours play a role is nutrition; here the colour of food is used as an indicator of nutritional value and health-promoting benefits. This seems to be a simple and straightforward approach and has been taken up by national governments and health authorities to encourage people to eat at least one food of each of the five colour groups each day. The ‘Five a day, the colour way’ campaign introduced by the US Government in 1991 is such a public-private nutrition education initiative embracing this core concept.
However, caution is advised in foods that are artificially coloured as these often contain chemicals to hide the fact they are not fresh. Besides, chemical colourants have been found to cause allergic reactions in some people and growing evidence exists that they may also contribute to hyperactivity in children.
The power of colour has also been harnessed beyond food and nutrition. With much interest I consumed research reporting that patients respond best when the colour of the medicine corresponds with the intended results of the medication, e.g. a pill in ‘calm blue’ hints at a good night’s sleep whereas a ‘dynamic red’ suggests speedy relief. Captivatingly, research has also shown that patients perceive red and black capsules to be more powerful than blue, green, orange or yellow ones.
But it doesn’t stop there. With the arrival of ‘over-the-counter’ (OTC) products – medications previously only available on prescription – it seems that a whole new playground has opened up for colouring games. Patients are now more likely to buy their own medication and make their buying decisions on the spot in the pharmacy. This, of course, presents a growing opportunity for catching the customer’s eye and conveying information, meaning that colour takes on a critical role for brand and product communication.
What’s more, designed medication seems to have the potential to improve patients’ compliance and help avoid dosing errors. According to a study published in Pharmacy World & Science, visual appearance of medication affects patient’s preference and compliance with prescriptions. Whilst patients preferred white medicine over any other colour, this changed as soon as the amount of medication increased to over ten pills per day. In this case, bright colours were favoured among relevant patients to distinguish between different medications. I can imagine such research is of particular interest to pharmaceutical companies developing products for age-related diseases such as dementia.
All in all I think it becomes clear that colour does matter as it allows information to be communicated in a functional and subliminal way. Of course, there is a lot of potential for further research to determine practical implications, for example, how exactly this can be used for the pharmaceutical industry and ultimately accomplish even more patient benefits.
phaedrus
24. Mar, 2009
This is really interesting. It relates to something we were recently discussing at Aurora about appreciating the emotive potential of music and sound in general. Sound and colour as abstract catalysts of human emotion can also be co-associated. Next time you listen to a piece of music, try to visualise the colour that it evokes in your mind and see if this relates to the emotional ‘colour scheme’ described in this post. It fascinates me how the metaphysical and the conceptual are realised or distorted in the mind.