European Journal of Health Communication

The Ambivalent Role of Social Aspects in Health Promotion

Paula Stehr — 2022-12-09

Through various mechanisms such as social comparison, social control, and social support, social networks may impose both positive and negative effects on people’s health. The purpose of this brief research report is to highlight the role of social aspects in health promotion in the context of evidence-based communication strategies to promote physical activity among older adults in Germany. Results are based on a two-study formative research project, combining 20 semi-structured interviews with a telephone survey of a representative sample of 1,001 older adults. They show that interpersonal communication is an important source of health information. However, a strong normative influence of the social network may also undermine self-determined motivation to be physically active and therefore decrease activity levels in the long-term. In contrast, feeling related to others and being able to exercise together with other people can facilitate physical activity for older adults, which underlines the ambivalent role of social aspects. Hence, (interpersonal) communication aiming at the promotion of physical activity among older adults should support their perceived autonomy by explaining potential health and social consequences of the behaviour, providing choices, and acknowledging individual barriers and facilitators such as (lack of) sports companions.

The Performance of the Health Communication Assessment Tool© (HCAT-f) in Calibrating Different Levels of Nurse Communication Skills in a French-Speaking Context

Anh Nguyet Diep — 2022-12-07

Communication skills training is essential in nurse education. Miscommunication may lead to adverse events and unsafe healthcare. To date, valid and reliable instruments to serve both communication training and assessment purposes across different cultural contexts are scarce. The present study empirically tested a French-language version of the Health Communication Assessment Tool© (HCAT-f) across different levels of communication skills performance to establish its reliability and validity through a cognitive fluency framework. Ten experts in communication and 52 nurse educators rated three videos simulating conversations between a nurse and a patient scheduled for lumpectomy. Each video captured a different level of communication skills performed by the nurse: High, medium, and low. Three distinct constructs were identified, i.e., professional presentation, empathy, and trust building. At absolute single-measure, an ICC = .43 suggested adequate interrater reliability of the whole scale for the medium-performed scenario, which decreased in low-performed (ICC = .35) and high-performed (ICC = .18) scenarios. The HCAT-f fulfils the criteria of linguistic equivalence, contextual relevance, and demonstrates acceptable construct validity. It can be used as a summative assessment tool after prior training on scale calibration is in place because interrater agreement was difficult to be established in high and low performance scenarios.

The Effects of Teacher Communication During a Health Intervention on Older Adolescents’ Predictors of Health Behaviour

Mathijs Mesman — 2022-11-24

This study investigated the influence of teacher communication behaviours on predictors of alcohol use, snack intake, and physical exercise during a school-based health intervention. Additionally, we investigated whether students’ evaluations of the intervention mediated these effects. In a two-way prospective study, 389 adolescents (222 females; M_age = 16.64, SD_age = 1.97) completed a survey. Key variables were teacher communication behaviours (i.e., clarity, verbal immediacy, and content relevance), predictors (i.e., attitudes, social norms, perceived behavioural control, and intentions) of alcohol use, snack intake, and physical exercise, and students’ evaluations of the health intervention were investigated. Results showed that teacher clarity resulted in significantly healthier injunctive norms and higher perceived behavioural control regarding alcohol use, and for exercise in significantly healthier attitudes, descriptive norms, and intentions to exercise. No effects of teacher clarity were found for snack intake. Furthermore, teacher clarity, verbal immediacy, and content relevance did not indirectly result in healthier predictors of health behaviour through evaluations of the intervention. Findings support the role of teacher clarity for intervention effectiveness, and advise designers of health interventions to incorporate the role of teacher clarity in their teacher training programs to achieve more desired changes in health behaviour.

How Informed are the Swiss about Covid-19 and Prevention Measures?

Sabrina Heike Kessler — 2022-10-26

Since the coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic began, large amounts of (mis)information have been disseminated worldwide. We conducted an online survey in Switzerland (N = 1,129) in April 2021 to ask respondents which information has received too little attention in public discourse, which measures help containing coronavirus infection and Covid-19, and about subjectively perceived Covid-19 misinformation. Content analysis of the open answers revealed that vaccination and its potential side effects, aspects related to political measures, psychological and social aspects, as well as science and research topics deserved more attention in the eyes of the respondents, mostly from politics or media. The most frequently mentioned effective measures were social distancing, wearing masks, general hygiene, and vaccination. Notably, the number of measures mentioned was related to the degree to which the pandemic affected individuals subjectively, trust in public institutions, and their individual level of science-related populism. Swiss residents with less trust in public institutions and who consume less news media on Covid-19 are more likely to believe misinformation on (in)effective measures against the virus. Most respondents encountered Covid-19 misinformation and could name examples, including sources. Education and information use affect the frequency of subjectively encountered misinformation. More highly educated people can name more misinformation instances encountered than less educated people.

Framing Depression

Annemarie Wiedicke — 2022-10-17

Responsibility framing research on health issues typically investigates the attribution of responsibility for causes and treatment options to either the individual or society. However, social epidemiological perspectives also stress the relevance of an individual’s social network and underline that the three levels of responsibility (individual, social network, and society) interact. Given that media portrayals can affect public perceptions, attitudes, responsibility attributions, and emotions, we examined causal and treatment responsibility attributions on these three levels in the media coverage of depression. Our quantitative content analysis of major German print and online news media from 2011 to 2020 (N = 755) shows that responsibility is not only assigned to the individual and societal level, but both to the social network and to interactions between the three levels. Our findings additionally stress that key events may influence the portrayal of responsibility in media coverage, but resulting changes are only short-term.

Digital Motherhood

Nariman Sawalha — 2022-09-27

Smartphone apps for self-tracking breastfeeding emerged as a popular tool among new mothers. Yet, we know little about how mothers use these apps and, most importantly, how self-tracking breastfeeding relates to maternal well-being. After surveying a sample of German mothers engaging with breastfeeding trackers (n = 234; recruited via an online access panel), we identified three types of self-tracking usage: (1) straightforward basic trackers, (2) meticulous data collectors, and (3) advisory-oriented self-trackers. These usage types differ regarding the data they register, the algorithmic feedback they retrieve, and their conversational levels about parameters tracked. Our findings suggest that overall maternal well-being – in terms of confidence, stress, and self-worth – remains largely unaffected by different self-tracking usage. However, when considering only the mothers’ confidence concerning breastfeeding, breastfeeding self-efficacy is lower among those most engaged in tracking and higher among those least engaged with it. Implications of these findings are discussed in terms of whether breastfeeding trackers enhance or undermine mothers’ confidence in their breastfeeding abilities relative to the intensity of their self-tracking use. Thus, future research may include longitudinal designs to validate these findings and derive effective app-supported smartphone interventions for breastfeeding mothers.

Message Reminders Encouraging Brisk Walking by Considering the Dynamic Factor of Cognitive Fatigue

Michelle Symons — 2022-08-22

Physical inactivity and sedentary behaviours are leading risk factors for preventable health problems worldwide. Therefore, several smartphone-based interventions have tried to enhance physical activity (PA) through goal reminders based on relatively stable characteristics. However, time-varying factors, such as cognitive fatigue, may act as barriers to engagement in PA. This study aims to unravel what type of goal reminder messages are effective for enhancing PA in situations of cognitive fatigue. First, using a 3 x 3 between-subjects design, we evaluated the effectiveness of goal reminders matched with real-time goals under different levels of cognitive fatigue. This study did not find evidence that the tested goal reminders, intended to be adapted to the real-time goals of the participants, were more effective in promoting PA than goal reminders not adapted to individuals’ real-time goals. Second, to better understand how to design future reminders, two questions explored what format and what content participants considered to be helpful when feeling cognitively fatigued. Results show that GIFs, textual reminders, and pictures are suitable formats in smartphone-based interventions and that humorous content is preferred when feeling cognitively fatigued. These findings contribute to the development of just-in-time adaptive interventions that consider dynamic factors to promote PA.

Organ Donation in Romanian Online Media

Oana Alexandra Petre — 2022-08-10

Mass media represents the primary source of information about organ donation for the general public. The present study explored the content of Romanian online media concerning organ donation. We conducted a content analysis of 313 media materials published online between October 2012 and October 2019 in Romanian. The coding categories were year of publication, media outlet, type of material, type of evidence, valence, topic, and proximity of the story. A semestral web-search was conducted between February 2016 and November 2019. The analysis revealed that the Romanian online coverage of organ donation was modest across time. Regarding the valence, results indicated that 57.2% of the materials presented organ donation in a positive way, 14.1% were neutral, 12.5% were negative, whereas 16.3% of the materials were mixed. Moreover, the valence of the materials varied across media outlets, proximity of the story and publication year. Promotion, information about organ donation and system were the topics that occurred most frequently, followed by events, policy, and legal categories. Findings provide insight into how media may shape people's opinions about organ donation. The study also contributes to understanding the Romanian organ donation macro-social environment and provides valuable information for practice.

Are Drug Safety Advisories Compatible with Physicians’ Information Behaviour?

Mathias Møllebæk — 2022-08-09

Physicians critically depend on up-to-date risk information when prescribing drugs, but they typically have little time to navigate the vast information. In the European Union, Direct to Healthcare Professional Communications (DHPC) letters are distributed to physicians to mitigate drug risks that emerge after market approval, but the letters show low impact. This study characterises general practitioners’ (GPs) information behaviour regarding drug safety and assesses the compatibility of DHPCs with the identified information behaviour. We conducted 17 semi-structured interviews and four follow-up interviews with Danish GPs about safety concerns and analysed them using Wilson’s model of information behaviour. We found that GPs primarily use an online drug monograph for point-of-care information needs and a newsletter from the authorities for clinical management strategies. They generally did not consider DHPCs a useful source of information. GPs argued that numerous sources contained the same information as the DHPC and believed these to be superior in terms of convenience, clinical relevance, and quality of evidence. A new digital mode of DHPC delivery from a public authority may improve the general adoption but also generated new problems. Overall, this suggests that DHPCs in their current form are not very compatible with information behaviour of GPs.