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BMC Psychology Mar 2023Body dissatisfaction is a public health issue, however, low awareness of its seriousness, and stigma, may inhibit treatment seeking. The current study evaluated... (Randomized Controlled Trial)
Randomized Controlled Trial
BACKGROUND
Body dissatisfaction is a public health issue, however, low awareness of its seriousness, and stigma, may inhibit treatment seeking. The current study evaluated engagement with videos promoting awareness of body dissatisfaction using a persuasive communication approach.
METHOD
Men (n = 283) and women (n = 290) were randomly allocated to view one of five videos; (1) Narrative, (2) Narrative plus persuasive appeal, (3) Informational, (4) Informational plus persuasive appeal and (5) Persuasive appeal only. Engagement (relevance, interest, and compassion) was examined post-viewing.
RESULTS
Among both men and women, superior engagement ratings (in compassion for women, and relevance and compassion for men) were demonstrated for the persuasive appeal and informational videos relative to narrative approaches.
CONCLUSION
Videos using clear and factual approaches may promote engagement in body image health promotion videos. Further work should be done to examine interest in such videos specific to men.
Topics: Male; Humans; Adult; Female; Body Image; Persuasive Communication; Health Promotion; Narration; Social Stigma
PubMed: 36991488
DOI: 10.1186/s40359-023-01120-7 -
International Journal of Environmental... Mar 2023Indoor radon is a natural radioactive gas and is one of the leading causes of lung cancer. Despite multiple policy and communication interventions to increase radon...
Indoor radon is a natural radioactive gas and is one of the leading causes of lung cancer. Despite multiple policy and communication interventions to increase radon testing and mitigation, the uptake of these measures remains insufficient. A participatory research design was applied in Belgium and Slovenia to probe the barriers and facilitators homeowners experience regarding radon protective behavior on the one hand and co-designing communication tools on the other hand. The results show that there remains a need for interventions on all levels (i.e., policy, economic interventions, and communication). Moreover, results indicated a need for a communication strategy that follows the different steps between awareness and performing mitigation measures. Further, involving the target group in the early stages of intervention design was beneficial. Future research is needed to test the effectiveness of the proposed communication strategies in a controlled setting.
Topics: Humans; Radon; Air Pollution, Indoor; Health Communication; Lung Neoplasms; Belgium; Air Pollutants, Radioactive
PubMed: 36981872
DOI: 10.3390/ijerph20064965 -
Campbell Systematic Reviews Jun 2022Limited knowledge regarding the relative effectiveness of workplace accident prevention approaches creates barriers to informed decision-making by policy makers, public... (Review)
Review
BACKGROUND
Limited knowledge regarding the relative effectiveness of workplace accident prevention approaches creates barriers to informed decision-making by policy makers, public health practitioners, workplace, and worker advocates.
OBJECTIVES
The objective of this review was to assess the effectiveness of broad categories of safety interventions in preventing accidents at work. The review aims to compare effects of safety interventions to no intervention, usual activities, or alternative intervention, and if possible, to examine which constituent components of safety intervention programs contribute more strongly to preventing accidents at work in a given setting or context.
DATE SOURCES
Studies were identified through electronic bibliographic searches, government policy databanks, and Internet search engines. The last search was carried out on July 9, 2015. Gray literature were identified by searching OSH ROM and Google. No language or date restrictions were applied. Searches done between February and July of 2015 included PubMed (1966), Embase (1980), CINAHL (1981), OSH ROM (NIOSHTIC 1977, HSELINE 1977, CIS-DOC 1974), PsycINFO (1806), EconLit (1969), Web of Science (1969), and ProQuest (1861); dates represent initial availability of each database. Websites of pertinent institutions (NIOSH, Perosh) were also searched.
STUDY ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA PARTICIPANTS AND INTERVENTIONS
Included studies had to focus on accidents at work, include an evaluation of a safety intervention, and have used injuries at work, or a relevant proxy, as an outcome measure. Experimental, quasi-experimental, and observational study designs were utilized, including randomized controlled trials (RCTs), controlled before and after (CBA) studies, and observational designs using serial measures (interrupted time series, retrospective cohort designs, and before and after studies using multiple measures). Interventions were classified by approach at the individual or group level, and broad categories based on the prevention approach including modification of: Attitudes (through information and persuasive campaign messaging).Behaviors (through training, incentives, goal setting, feedback/coaching).Physiological condition (by physical training).Climate/norms/culture (by coaching, feedback, modification of safety management/leadership).Structural conditions (including physical environment, engineering, legislation and enforcement, sectorial-level norms). When combined approaches were used, interventions were termed "multifaceted," and when an approach(es) is applied to more than one organizational level (e.g., individual, group, and/or organization), it is termed "across levels."
STUDY APPRAISAL AND SYNTHESIS METHODS
Narrative report review captured industry (NACE), work setting, participant characteristics, theoretical basis for approach, intervention fidelity, research design, risk of bias, contextual detail, outcomes measures and results. Additional items were extracted for studies with serial measures including approaches to improve internal validity, assessments of reasonable statistical approaches (Effective Practice of Organization of Care [EPOC] criteria) and overall inference. Random-effects inverse variance weighted meta-analytic methods were used to synthesize odds ratios, rate ratios, or standardized mean differences for the outcomes for RCT and CBA studies with low or moderate levels of heterogeneity. For studies with greater heterogeneity and those using serial measures, we relied on narrative analyses to synthesize findings.
RESULTS
In total 100 original studies were included for synthesis analysis, including 16 RCT study designs, 30 CBA study designs, and 54 studies using serial measures (ITS study designs). These studies represented 120 cases of safety interventions. The number of participants included 31,971,908 individuals in 59 safety interventions, 417,693 groups/firms in 35 safety interventions, and 15,505 injuries in 17 safety interventions. Out of the 59 safety interventions, two were evaluating national prevention measures, which alone accounted for 31,667,110 individuals. The remaining nine safety interventions used other types of measures, such as safety exposure, safety observations, gloves or claim rates. Strong evidence supports greater effects being achieved with safety interventions directed toward the group or organization level rather than individual behavior change. Engineering controls are more effective at reducing injuries than other approaches, particularly when engineered changes can be introduced without requiring "decision-to-use" by workplaces. Multifaceted approaches combining intervention elements on the organizational level, or across levels, provided moderate to strong effects, in particular when engineering controls were included. Interventions based on firm epidemiologic evidence of causality and a strong conceptual approach were more effective. Effects that are more modest were observed (in short follow-up) for safety climate interventions, using techniques such as feedback or leadership training to improve safety communication. There was limited evidence for a strong effect at medium-term with more intense counseling approaches. Evidence supports regulation/legislation as contributing to the prevention of accidents at work, but with lower effect sizes. Enforcement appears to work more consistently, but with smaller effects. In general, the results were consistent with previous systematic reviews of specific types of safety interventions, although the effectiveness of economic incentives to prevent accidents at work was not consistent with our results, and effectiveness of physiological safety intervention was only consistent to some extent.
LIMITATIONS
Acute musculoskeletal injuries and injuries from more long-time workplace exposures were not always clearly distinguished in research reports. In some studies acute and chronic exposures were mixed, resulting in inevitable misclassification. Of note, the classification of these events also remains problematic in clinical medicine. It was not possible to conduct meta-analyses on all types of interventions (due to variability in approach, context, and participants). The findings presented for most intervention types are from limited sources, and assessment of publication bias was not possible. These issues are not surprising, given the breadth of the field of occupational safety. To incorporate studies using serial measures, which provide the only source of information for some safety interventions such as legislation, we took a systematic, grounded approach to their review. Rather than requiring more stringent, specific criteria for inclusion of ITS studies, we chose to assess how investigators justified their approach to design and analyses, based on the context in which they were working. We sought to identify measures taken to improve external validity of studies, reasonable statistical inference, as well as an overall appropriate inferential process. We found the process useful and enlightening. Given the new approach, we may have failed to extract points others may find relevant. Similarly, to facilitate the broad nature of this review, we used a novel categorization of safety interventions, which is likely to evolve with additional use. The broad scope of this review and the time and resources available did not allow for contacting authors of original papers or seeking translation of non-English manuscripts, resulting in a few cases where we did not have sufficient information that may have been possible to obtain from the authors.
CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS OF KEY FINDINGS
Our synthesis of the relative effectiveness of workplace safety interventions is in accordance with the Public Health Hierarchy of Hazard Control. Specifically, more effective interventions eliminate risk at the source of the hazard through engineering solutions or the separation of workers from hazards; effects were greater when these control measures worked independently of worker "decision-to-use" at the worksite. Interventions based on firm epidemiological evidence of causality and clear theoretical bases for the intervention approach were more effective in preventing injuries. Less effective behavioral approaches were often directed at the prevention of all workplace injuries through a common pathway, such as introducing safety training, without explicitly addressing specific hazards. We caution that this does not mean that training does not play an essential function in worker safety, but rather that it is not effective in the absence of other efforts. Due to the potential to reach large groups of workers through regulation and enforcement, these interventions with relatively modest effects, could have large population-based effects.
PubMed: 36911341
DOI: 10.1002/cl2.1234 -
International Journal of Environmental... Mar 2023In the climate of great uncertainty characterizing the COVID-19 pandemic, health communication played a significant role: several communicative strategies and channels...
In the climate of great uncertainty characterizing the COVID-19 pandemic, health communication played a significant role: several communicative strategies and channels were used to inform, educate and alert. Entropy-related risks were soon translated into the "infodemic", a wide-spread phenomenon with psychosocial and cultural roots. Therefore, new challenges for public institutions occurred: public health communication, especially expressed through advertising and audiovisual spots, was engaged to offer key support in combatting the disease, mitigating its effects and supporting health and psychological wellbeing. This work aims to investigate how the Italian public institutions addressed those challenges by employing institutional spots. We tried to answer two main research questions: (a) in line with the literature concerning persuasive communication, what were the main variables that social advertising concerning health attitudes and behaviors relied on; and (b) how the different variables were combined to propose specific communicative pathways following both the different waves/phases of the COVID-19 pandemic and the elaboration likelihood model. To answer these questions, 34 Italian spots were analyzed by means of qualitative multimodal analysis (including scopes, major narratives themes, central and peripheral cues). The results enabled us to individuate different communicative pathways, oriented by inclusivity, functionality and contamination, in line with different rounds as well as with the holistic configurations of cultural narratives, central and peripheral cues.
Topics: Humans; COVID-19; Advertising; SARS-CoV-2; Health Communication; Pandemics; Communication
PubMed: 36901433
DOI: 10.3390/ijerph20054424 -
Digital Health 2023Our goal is to establish the feasibility of using an artificially intelligent chatbot in diverse healthcare settings to promote COVID-19 vaccination.
OBJECTIVE
Our goal is to establish the feasibility of using an artificially intelligent chatbot in diverse healthcare settings to promote COVID-19 vaccination.
METHODS
We designed an artificially intelligent chatbot deployed via short message services and web-based platforms. Guided by communication theories, we developed persuasive messages to respond to users' COVID-19-related questions and encourage vaccination. We implemented the system in healthcare settings in the U.S. between April 2021 and March 2022 and logged the number of users, topics discussed, and information on system accuracy in matching responses to user intents. We regularly reviewed queries and reclassified responses to better match responses to query intents as COVID-19 events evolved.
RESULTS
A total of 2479 users engaged with the system, exchanging 3994 COVID-19 relevant messages. The most popular queries to the system were about boosters and where to get a vaccine. The system's accuracy rate in matching responses to user queries ranged from 54% to 91.1%. Accuracy lagged when new information related to COVID emerged, such as that related to the Delta variant. Accuracy increased when we added new content to the system.
CONCLUSIONS
It is feasible and potentially valuable to create chatbot systems using AI to facilitate access to current, accurate, complete, and persuasive information on infectious diseases. Such a system can be adapted to use with patients and populations needing detailed information and motivation to act in support of their health.
PubMed: 36896332
DOI: 10.1177/20552076231155679 -
Digital Health 2023Addressing gaps in COVID-19 vaccine-hesitancy research, the current study aimed to add depth and nuance to the exploratory research examining vaccine-hesitant groups....
OBJECTIVE
Addressing gaps in COVID-19 vaccine-hesitancy research, the current study aimed to add depth and nuance to the exploratory research examining vaccine-hesitant groups. Using a larger, but more focused conversation occurring on social media, the results can be used by health communicators to frame emotionally resonant messaging to improve COVID-19 vaccine advocacy while also mitigating negative concerns for vaccine-hesitant individuals.
METHODS
Social media mentions were collected using a social media listening software, Brandwatch, to examine topics and sentiments in COVID-19 hesitancy discourse during a period of September 1, 2020, through December 31, 2020. The results from this query included publicly available mentions on two popular social media sites, Twitter and Reddit. The dataset of 14,901 global, English language messages were analyzed using a computer-assisted process in SAS text-mining and Brandwatch software. The data revealed eight unique topics before being analyzed by sentiment.
RESULTS
Among the COVID-19 hesitancy data, trust-related topics emerged that included declining vaccine acceptance, a parallel pandemic of distrust, and a call for politicians to let the scientific process work, among others. Positive sentiment revealed interest in the sources which included healthcare professionals, doctors, and government organizations. Pfizer was found to elicit both positive and negative emotions in the vaccine-hesitancy data. The negative sentiment tended to dominate the hesitancy conversation, accelerating once vaccines hit the market.
CONCLUSIONS
Relevant topics were identified to help support targeted communication, strategically accelerate vaccine acceptance, and mitigate COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy among the public. Strategic methods of online and offline messaging tactics are suggested to reach diverse, malleable populations of interest. Topics of personal anecdotes of safety, effectiveness, and recommendations among families are identified as persuasive communication opportunities.
PubMed: 36896330
DOI: 10.1177/20552076231158308 -
Risk Management and Healthcare Policy 2023This study was to analyze the responses of informants about Instagram infographics on Covid-19 prevention for pregnant women.
PURPOSE
This study was to analyze the responses of informants about Instagram infographics on Covid-19 prevention for pregnant women.
METHODS
This was a qualitative study that used Rapid Assessment Procedure (RAP) and used pretesting communication theory. The informant selection technique was purposive sampling that consist of three pregnant women as main informants, a midwifery lecturer and a visual graphic designer as key informants. One-to-one pretesting communication procedure was selected because the research was conducted at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, so it had a difficulty in recruiting informants. The interview guideline was conducted by the research team and was examined in a field trial. Data collection was by semi-structured interview using voice call WhatsApp application. Data were analysed using thematic analysis.
RESULTS
In attraction aspect, this was considered quite interesting by the informants. In comprehension aspect, the messages were easily understood because of using brief, concise, and simple sentences. Furthermore, the messages were supported by images and comprehensive. In acceptance aspect, all the informants' opinions were identified that the messages of this infographic did not have a conflict with the existing norms. In self-involvement aspect, this infographic was in accordance with the current condition of the informants. In persuasion aspect, it had a good persuasive value as the informants were willing to share the infographic with others.
CONCLUSION
The infographic still needed improvements from the attraction aspect such as consider using contrasting colour between the background and text, equalize the font size and change icons to become related to the text. As from the comprehension aspect consider using terms that are more popular in the community. There were no need improvements from acceptance, self-involvement, and persuasion aspects. However, evidence-based research is still needed on how this infographic is developed and implemented to optimize transfer of knowledge.
PubMed: 36883053
DOI: 10.2147/RMHP.S392106 -
Medicine, Health Care, and Philosophy Jun 2023In contemporary paternalism literature, persuasion is commonly not considered paternalistic. Moreover, paternalism is typically understood to be problematic either...
In contemporary paternalism literature, persuasion is commonly not considered paternalistic. Moreover, paternalism is typically understood to be problematic either because it is seen as coercive, or because of the insult of the paternalist considering herself superior. In this paper, I argue that doctors who persuade patients act paternalistically. Specifically, I argue that trying to persuade a patient (here understood as aiming for the patient to consent to a certain treatment, although he prefers not to) should be differentiated from trying to convince him (here understood as aiming for the patient to want the treatment) and recommending (the doctor merely providing her professional opinion). These three forms of influence are illustrated by summaries of video-recorded hospital encounters. While convincing and recommending are generally not paternalistic, I argue that persuasion is what I call communicative paternalism and that it is problematic for two reasons. First, the patient's preferences are dismissed as unimportant. Second, the patient might wind up undergoing treatment against his preferences. This does not mean that persuasion always should be avoided, but it should not be undertaken lightly, and doctors should be aware of the fine line between non-paternalism and paternalism. The fact that my analysis of paternalism differs from traditional accounts does not imply that I deem these to be wrong, but rather that paternalism should be considered as a more multi-faceted concept than previous accounts allow for.
Topics: Male; Female; Humans; Persuasive Communication; Physician-Patient Relations; Paternalism; Physicians; Personal Autonomy
PubMed: 36859745
DOI: 10.1007/s11019-023-10142-2 -
Journal of Psycholinguistic Research Aug 2023In line with the concept of mobile learning in English Language Teaching (ELT), the aim of this research is to explore how Iranian ELT practitioners take advantage of...
In line with the concept of mobile learning in English Language Teaching (ELT), the aim of this research is to explore how Iranian ELT practitioners take advantage of social media to propose supportive and impactful language learning programs by adhering to persuasive linguistic devices. The research design is nonexperimental and explorative. ELT-related commercial videos and pictures were identified on social media platforms, including Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and YouTube. We delved into the syntactic and pragmatic features of the data on ELT-related ads to identify the persuasive techniques and strategies these ads resort to for attracting language learners to online classes and services. To analyze the data, the widely-used and acknowledged Cialdini's (The psychology of persuasion, Quill William Morrow, 1984) principles of persuasion are employed. The results manifested that 'reciprocity' and 'scarcity' were the most used persuasive strategies, while 'commitment and consistency' and 'consensus' were the least favorable persuasion principles in these ads. The analysis of the Iranian ELT-related ads indicated that the language used within this context is purposeful and strategic. A contextual investigation of the ELT-related ads on social media can meaningfully contribute to social practices underlying English language pedagogy and digital literacy.
Topics: Humans; Persuasive Communication; Social Media; Advertising; Iran; Language
PubMed: 36853477
DOI: 10.1007/s10936-023-09942-7 -
International Journal of Environmental... Feb 2023Artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled text-to-speech transformation has been widely employed to deliver online information in various fields. However, few studies have...
Artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled text-to-speech transformation has been widely employed to deliver online information in various fields. However, few studies have investigated the effect of the AI voice in environmental risk communication, especially in the field of climate change, an issue that poses a severe threat to global public health. To address this gap, the current study examines how the AI voice impacts the persuasive outcome of climate-related information and the potential mechanism that underlies this process. Based on the social and affect heuristics of voice, we propose a serial mediation model to test the effect of climate-related information delivered by different voice types (AI voice vs. human voice) in eliciting risk perception and motivating pro-environmental behavioral intention. Through an online auditory experiment (N = 397), we found the following. First, the AI voice was as effective as the human voice in eliciting risk perception and motivating pro-environmental behavioral intention. Second, compared with human voice, the AI voice yielded a listener's lower level of perceived identity oneness with the speaker, which decreased risk perception and subsequently inhibited pro-environmental behavioral intention. Third, compared with human voice, the AI voice produced a higher level of auditory fear, which increased risk perception and thereby led to stronger pro-environmental behavioral intention. The paradoxical role of the AI voice and its wise use in environmental risk communication for promoting global public health are discussed.
Topics: Humans; Intention; Artificial Intelligence; Voice; Speech; Speech Perception
PubMed: 36834467
DOI: 10.3390/ijerph20043772