Journal of Health Communication

Huang, Yan; Shen, Fuyuan; Ye, Zhiyao

doi: 10.1080/10810730.2022.2134521pmid: 36268767

Encouraging hepatitis C screening, particularly among young adults who are at increased risk of infection, is essential for eliminating viral hepatitis. A 3 (narrative vs. exemplar vs. informational message) × 2 (processing motivation: low vs. high) between-subjects experiment was conducted among college students to compare the effectiveness of different message strategies and examine the moderating role of processing motivation. Findings revealed that the narrative was perceived more favorably than the exemplar message, and both messages led to a greater screen intention than the informational message. The narrative persuaded by increasing transportation and identification and, then, enhancing message perceptions. However, these mediation paths did not explain the effects of the simple exemplar. Moreover, the effects of the narrative and the exemplar did not differ significantly depending on levels of processing motivation. The study advances a theoretical understanding of the differences between narratives and exemplars. It also offers practical suggestions for campaign message design.

Link, Elena; Baumann, Eva; Kreps, Gary L.; Czerwinski, Fabian; Rosset, Magdalena; Suhr, Ralf

doi: 10.1080/10810730.2022.2134522pmid: 36250315

The Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS) is a well-established U.S.-based research program administered by the National Cancer Institute to track the public access to and use of health information. This paper introduces a German research initiative, part of the International Studies to Investigate Global Health Information Trends (INSIGHTS) research consortium. This adaptation of the HINTS is important for initiating analyses of global health communication practices and comparing health information seeking behaviors (HISB) across nations to pinpoint potentials and challenges of health information provision and contribute to a deeper understanding of socio-contextual determinants of HISB. First cross-country comparisons revealed that the share of residents seeking for health information is high in the U.S. (80%) and Germany (74%), but different primary sources are used. Whereas a clear majority of U.S. residents chose the Internet to gather health information (74.9%), Germans most often turn to health professionals (48.0%). Socio-structural and health(care)-related predictors were found to contribute to the explanation of HISB in both countries, whereas information-related predictors were only relevant in Germany. The results indicate the need to engage in patient-provider communication to initiate HISB and to improve the access to information for residents with lower socio-economic backgrounds.

Lovell, Judith; Clark, Louise

doi: 10.1080/10810730.2022.2134523pmid: 36217757

Effective communication is critical for engagement between clients and health professionals, transfer of health information and health decision-making. Internationally, there is recognition that if health communication interventions were successfully implemented, then health communication equity would improve. This rapid realist review was undertaken with the aim of providing guidance on the circumstances in which communication interventions were likely to work in regional health service settings accessed by First Nations people from remote and very remote geographic areas of Australia. The realist review involved a process of searching literature on key terms and the identification of relevant studies and policies by a content expert group, including non-Indigenous and First Nations health researchers. Evidence was extracted to inform and synthesize into guiding principles, using a realist perspective. This review identified studies that provided evidence from 37 Australian and international settings where the dominant language and culture of the health sector differs from that of the majority of service users. A number of guiding principles were synthesized: 1) to build trust and respect by inclusion of an individual patient’s cultural perspective; 2) to enhance concordant understanding of health information through two-way health literacies and learning; 3) to recognize the entanglement of health communication equity with regional socio-cultural and health determinants. This review generated realist informed guiding principles to suggest how and under what conditions health communication interventions can enable healthcare decision-making at an individual and service level.

Harper, Tauel; Tomkinson, Sian; Attwell, Katie

doi: 10.1080/10810730.2022.2136307pmid: 36250528

In February 2020 the World Health Organization declared an ‘infodemic’ in relation to COVID-19. The label infers that people are being contaminated by ‘misinformation’ as they would be by a virus. However, this metaphor conveys a simplistic empirical understanding of communication, which may encourage ‘information control’ responses. This article argues for the importance of understanding the diverse factors that impact the effectiveness of communication – including the context in which it is received, and the emergent properties created through communication processes. Analyzing ‘vaccine-critical’ Facebook activity in Australia between 1 December 2020 and 28 February 2022, we find that controlling access to or censoring vaccine-critical misinformation does not lead to a reduction in vaccine-critical narratives. Rather, discussions continue based on more tenable political and social arguments. Further, bans antagonize vaccine-critical Facebook users and encourage them to move to other platforms where they may be radicalized. Crucially, recruitment to vaccine-critical sites accelerated following both bans of ‘misinformation’ and the introduction of vaccine mandates, suggesting that such responses can lead to increased discontentment. Accordingly, we call for researchers, policy makers and media platforms to engage with a more nuanced view of communication, acknowledging the powerful role of audiences’ uses and gratifications in determining the effectiveness of public health messaging.

Kalaji, Motasem; Mathios, Alan D; Skurka, Chris; Niederdeppe, Jeff; Byrne, Sahara

doi: 10.1080/10810730.2022.2138640pmid: 36322452

Warnings specifically focused on harm to younger users have been understudied in vaping warning research, even while vaping products may appeal specifically to a younger population through implicit advertising strategies. This study examined how youth and young adult-focused e-cigarette health warning messages and implicit advertising strategies influence affective responses, risk perceptions, cognitive elaboration about e-cigarette harms, and willingness to vape in the future. We recruited young adults (who, at the time, were not smoking combustible cigarettes) aged 18–25 to participate in an online survey experiment with a 3 (warning label type: current FDA/youth and young adult risk-focused/none) × 3 (advertising health message strategy: explicit/implicit/none) + 3 (non-vaping products control) design. The results show a main effect for warning such that both FDA and targeted warnings increased negative affect and decreased positive affect compared to no warning. Moreover, the youth and young adult-focused warning boosted youth-specific harm beliefs and cognitive elaboration relative to control and the FDA warning, which did not differ from one another. Implicit health messages produced greater positive affect relative to explicit messages and no message, but the ad strategy manipulations did not influence other outcomes. While the population studied here with a single exposure reported no effects of either manipulation on willingness to vape, previous research has associated similar emotions and cognitions with lowered intentions to vape. Regulatory bodies should consider further exploration of vaping warnings that emphasize youth and young adult-specific harms to educate young people about relevant risks.

Moyer-Gusé, Emily; Rader, Kara; Lavis, Simon

doi: 10.1080/10810730.2022.2138641pmid: 36314638

The current study considers how an entertainment narrative about childhood vaccination influences related attitudes. We consider the role of counterarguing in narrative persuasion by integrating extant research and theory to test cognitive mechanisms of narrative persuasion, namely self-referencing and positive issue-related thoughts. Results of this experiment show that exposure to a television narrative depicting the importance of the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine led to more favorable attitudes toward childhood vaccination as compared to a control group. As expected by narrative persuasion theorizing, transportation into the narrative predicted vaccine attitudes. In contrast to typical theorizing and some empirical results, counterarguing did not mediate that relationship, however, self-referencing and positive issue-related thinking did. Theoretical contributions and suggestions for future research expanding our understanding of issue-related thoughts are discussed.

Watts, Judy; Moyer-Gusé, Emily

doi: 10.1080/10810730.2022.2140365pmid: 36317831

Guided by the entertainment overcoming resistance model (EORM), participants (N = 334) were exposed to narrative correction strategies designed to reduce reliance on a character that portrayed misinformation about HPV within a narrative. In a 2 × 2 experiment, participants were randomly assigned to either read a warning about an untrustworthy character or a description of the show and to view a post-show video where hosts discussed the motives and actions of that character or a control clip. Both narrative correction strategies reduced individuals’ trust of the protagonist and, in turn, increased the number of correct answers on an HPV knowledge test. Identification moderated the indirect relationship between exposure to the post-show discussion and HPV knowledge. For those who reported greater identification with the protagonist, the post-show discussion reduced character trust whereas those who reported low identification were not impacted by this narrative correction strategy. The effect of the pre-show warning did not depend on level of identification. The results build on previous studies concerning narrative correction strategies as well as extend the EORM to narrative correction outcomes.

Kim, Eugene; Sarge, Melanie A.

doi: 10.1080/10810730.2022.2140366pmid: 36354006

The current study examined e-cigarette users’ risk information avoidance (i.e., RIA), which is a significant challenge to e-cigarette risk communication. Applying and extending previous RIA studies and the risk information seeking and processing (RISP) model, this study identified the predictors of e-cigarette users’ RIA with a comprehensive model that incorporated new roles for scientific uncertainty and relevant channel beliefs. Responses collected from an online survey were analyzed (N = 593) and support was found for two pathways that explain e-cigarette users’ motivation for RIA. One suggests heightened risk perceptions were associated with strong negative affective responses that include fear, anger, sadness, and guilt. These affective responses, in turn, were positively associated with RIA intentions. The second was a direct, positive association between scientific uncertainty and RIA as well as an indirect path mediated by relevant channel beliefs. More specifically, scientific uncertainty was negatively associated with quality perceptions of e-cigarette information making it more likely e-cigarette users would avoid it. Suggestions for how to prevent or mitigate these processes that result in e-cigarette users’ maladaptive response of RIA are discussed.