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Communication Methods and Measures 2018Target audience ratings of the likely impact of persuasive messages, known as perceived message effectiveness (PME), are commonly used during message development and...
Target audience ratings of the likely impact of persuasive messages, known as perceived message effectiveness (PME), are commonly used during message development and selection. PME is also used to examine receptivity of messages after they are fully developed or deployed. Despite this, we know little about the conceptual and methodological characteristics of extant PME measures used in the literature. We conducted a systematic review of tobacco education video, print, and audio campaign studies to examine conceptual and methodological characteristics of PME measures. One hundred twenty-six PME measures from 75 studies conducted in 21 countries with more than 61,000 participants were reviewed. Results indicated considerable variability in measures' focus on general perceptions of a message (i.e., message perceptions) versus perceptions of expected message effects (i.e., effects perceptions). Considerable variability was also found on underlying persuasive constructs, use of referents, and referencing of behavior in PME items and measures. We conclude with several recommendations for future research on PME measurement and validation.
PubMed: 31428217
DOI: 10.1080/19312458.2018.1483017 -
International Journal of Medical... Dec 2016Research has shown that web-based interventions concerning mental health can be effective, although there is a broad range in effect sizes. Why some interventions are... (Meta-Analysis)
Meta-Analysis
BACKGROUND
Research has shown that web-based interventions concerning mental health can be effective, although there is a broad range in effect sizes. Why some interventions are more effective than others is not clear. Persuasive technology is one of the aspects which has a positive influence on changing attitude and/or behavior, and can contribute to better outcomes. According to the Persuasive Systems Design Model there are various principles that can be deployed. It is unknown whether the number and combinations of principles used in a web-based intervention affect the effectiveness. Another issue in web-based interventions is adherence. Little is known about the relationship of adherence on the effectiveness of web-based interventions.
OBJECTIVE
This study examines whether there is a relationship between the number and combinations of persuasive technology principles used in web-based interventions and the effectiveness. Also the influence of adherence on effectiveness of web-based interventions is investigated.
METHODS
This study elaborates on the systematic review by [37] and therefore the articles were derived from that study. Only web-based interventions were included that were intended to be used on more than one occasion and studies were excluded when no information on adherence was provided. 48 interventions targeted at mental health were selected for the current study. A within-group (WG) and between-group (BG) meta-analysis were performed and subsequently subgroup analyses regarding the relationship between the number and combinations of persuasive technology principles and effectiveness. The influence of adherence on the effectiveness was examined through a meta-regression analysis.
RESULTS
For the WG meta-analysis 40 treatment groups were included. The BG meta-analysis included 19 studies. The mean pooled effect size in the WG meta-analysis was large and significant (Hedges' g=0.94), while for the BG meta-analysis this was moderate to large and significant (Hedges' g=0.78) in favor of the web-based interventions. With regard to the number of persuasive technology principles, the differences between the effect sizes in the subgroups were significant in the WG subgroup analyses for the total number of principles and for the number of principles in the three categories Primary Task Support, Dialogue Support, and Social Support. In the BG subgroup analyses only the difference in Primary Task Support was significant. An increase in the total number of principles and Dialogue Support principles yielded larger effect sizes in the WG subgroup analysis, indicating that more principles lead to better outcomes. The number of principles in the Primary Task Support (WG and BG) and Social Support (WG) did not show an upward trend but had varying effect sizes. We identified a number of combinations of principles that were more effective, but only in the WG analyses. The association between adherence and effectiveness was not significant.
CONCLUSIONS
There is a relationship between the number of persuasive technology principles and the effectiveness of web-based interventions concerning mental health, however this does not always mean that implementing more principles leads to better outcomes. Regarding the combinations of principles, specific principles seemed to work well together (e.g. tunneling and tailoring; reminders and similarity; social learning and comparison), but adding another principle can diminish the effectiveness (e.g. tunneling, tailoring and reduction). In this study, an increase in adherence was not associated with larger effect sizes. The findings of this study can help developers to decide which persuasive principles to include to make web-based interventions more persuasive.
Topics: Guideline Adherence; Health Behavior; Humans; Information Storage and Retrieval; Internet; Mental Health; Persuasive Communication
PubMed: 27117057
DOI: 10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2016.04.005 -
British Journal of Health Psychology Feb 2019In an innovative approach to improve the contribution of health psychology to public health we have analysed the presence and nature of affect within the visual...
OBJECTIVES
In an innovative approach to improve the contribution of health psychology to public health we have analysed the presence and nature of affect within the visual materials deployed in antimicrobial stewardship interventions targeting the public identified through systematic review.
DESIGN
A qualitative analysis focused on the affective content of visual materials garnered from a systematic review of antibiotic stewardship (k = 20).
METHODS
A novel method was devised drawing on concepts from semiotics to analyse the affective elements within intervention materials.
RESULTS
Whilst all studies examined tacitly rely on affect, only one sought to explicitly deploy affect. Three thematic categories of affect are identified within the materials in which specific ideological machinery is deployed: (1) monsters, bugs, and superheroes; (2) responsibility, threat, and the misuse/abuse of antibiotics; (3) the figure of the child.
CONCLUSIONS
The study demonstrates how affect is a present but tacit communication strategy of antimicrobial stewardship interventions but has not - to date - been adequately theorized or explicitly considered in the intervention design process. Certain affective features were explored in relation to the effectiveness of antimicrobial resistance interventions and warrant further investigation. We argue that further research is needed to systematically illuminate and capitalize upon the use of affect to effect behaviour change concerning antimicrobial stewardship. Statement of contribution What is already known on this subject? The (mis)use of antibiotics and consequent risk of antimicrobial resistance is a critical public health problem. If sufficient action is not taken, global society will face the 'post-antibiotic' era, in which common infections will lead to death for many millions. Key desirable behavioural changes are decreased patient demands for antibiotics, use of them for targeted purposes alone, and compliance with prescribed dosing. There is a growth of interest in the role of affect in mass media interventions designed to engage publics and produce health-related behavioural change. What does this study add? This article presents a novel analytic approach to understanding and intervening within behaviour change in public health that may complement other types of analysis. We present findings specifically from an 'affective' analysis based on semiotics in which we critically interrogated the visual imagery being deployed in mass media public health interventions concerning antimicrobial stewardship. Three thematic categories of affect are identified within the materials in which specific ideological machinery is deployed and that demonstrate some association with intervention effectiveness worthy of further investigation and testing.
Topics: Antimicrobial Stewardship; Audiovisual Aids; Health Behavior; Humans; Mass Media; Persuasive Communication; Public Health
PubMed: 30221433
DOI: 10.1111/bjhp.12339 -
Health Communication Feb 2020Target audience ratings of the likely impact of persuasive messages, known as perceived message effectiveness (PME), are commonly used in health communication campaigns.... (Meta-Analysis)
Meta-Analysis
Target audience ratings of the likely impact of persuasive messages, known as perceived message effectiveness (PME), are commonly used in health communication campaigns. However, applications of PME rely on a critical assumption-that is, that PME is a valid indicator of the likely effectiveness of messages. To examine the evidence supporting this assumption, we conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of longitudinal studies in the tobacco education campaigns literature. Six longitudinal studies examining the predictive validity of PME met inclusion criteria. Results indicated that PME ratings were significantly associated with the majority of outcomes studied. In fact, each of the six studies found PME to be associated with at least one outcome, and across the six studies, PME was associated with message recall, conversations about ads, beliefs about smoking and quitting smoking, quit intentions, and cessation behavior. Meta-analyses demonstrated that PME predicted quit intentions ( = .256, < .001) and cessation behavior ( = .201, < .001), revealing effects that were small to medium in magnitude. Our results suggest that PME provides some predictive value as to the likely effectiveness of messages, although additional work using different validation designs, with other health behaviors, and among other populations is needed.
Topics: Health Education; Health Promotion; Humans; Intention; Longitudinal Studies; Persuasive Communication; Smoking Cessation; Tobacco Use
PubMed: 30482058
DOI: 10.1080/10410236.2018.1547675 -
Nutrients Mar 2020Child-targeted food marketing is a significant public health concern, prompting calls for its regulation. Product packaging is a powerful form of food marketing aimed at...
Child-targeted food marketing is a significant public health concern, prompting calls for its regulation. Product packaging is a powerful form of food marketing aimed at children, yet no published studies examine the range of literature on the topic or the "power" of its marketing techniques. This study attempts such a task. Providing a systematic scoping review of the literature on child-targeted food packaging, we assesses the nutritional profile of these foods, the types of foods examined, and the creative strategies used to attract children. Fifty-seven full text articles were reviewed. Results identify high level trends in methodological approaches (content analysis, 38%), outcomes measured (exposure, 44%) and with respect to age. Studies examining the nutritional profile of child-targeted packaged foods use various models, classifying from anywhere from 41% to 97% of products as unhealthy. Content analyses track the prevalence of child-targeted techniques (cartoon characters as the most frequently measured), while other studies assess their effectiveness. Overall, this scoping review offers important insights into the differences between techniques tracked and those measured for effectiveness in existing literature, and identifies gaps for future research around the question of persuasive power-particularly when it comes to children's age and the specific types of techniques examined.
Topics: Advertising; Child; Child Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; Child, Preschool; Diet, Healthy; Food Industry; Food Packaging; Humans; Marketing; Nutritive Value; Pediatric Obesity; Public Health
PubMed: 32235580
DOI: 10.3390/nu12040958 -
Frontiers in Psychology 2021Persuaders face many message design choices: narrative or non-narrative format, gain-framed or loss-framed appeals, one-sided or two-sided messages, and so on. But a...
Persuaders face many message design choices: narrative or non-narrative format, gain-framed or loss-framed appeals, one-sided or two-sided messages, and so on. But a review of 1,149 studies of 30 such message variations reveals that, although there are statistically significant differences in persuasiveness between message forms, it doesn't make much difference to persuasiveness which option is chosen (as evidenced by small mean effect sizes, that is, small differences in persuasiveness: median mean s of about 0.10); moreover, choosing the on-average-more-effective option does not consistently confer a persuasive advantage (as evidenced by 95% prediction intervals that include both positive and negative values). Strikingly, these results obtain even when multiple moderating conditions are specified. Implications for persuasive message research and practice are discussed.
PubMed: 34267703
DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.664160