Risk and health communication lectures
Lecture 1
4 important elements for communication:
- Open and honest about what is (un)known: talk from facts are recognize the temporality
thereof
- Consistent and specific information: clear, specific, non-ambiguous ‘layman’s language’
- Decision making skills: leadership, reliable and honest, acknowledge the experts
- Acknowledge emotions: through emphatic information, expressing concern, and
acknowledging impact
4 important recommendations:
- ‘mental model’: overview picture of how COVID-19 works
- Interventions in the environment and through regulations: facilities
- Appeal to collective action: ‘we are in this together’
- Maintain behavioral change: requires change in self-regulation
What is risk?
- The likelihood that a specific event occurs
- Chance that something happens * the severity thereof
- Risk perception: different for everybody
- Subjective! And that is difficult to estimate
What is health:
- Who (1946): it is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely
the absence of disease or infirmity -> refers to a ‘state’
- Recently: the capacity of people to adapt to, respond to, or control life’s challenges and
changes’ -> refers to a ‘dynamic process’
Health at different levels:
- Objective: health at the organic level, determined by an expert
- Subjective: health at the individual level, determined by the individual, perceived health
- Social: health at the social level, determined by the social environment, society
Prevention:
- Risk- and health communication is often about ‘prevention’
- ‘Avoid from happening’
- Three levels:
o Primary prevention: preventing (the development of) illness, ‘prevention is better
than cure’ (vaccines)
o Secondary prevention: early detection of a disease/issue/problem (obesity, Covid-
19)
, o Tertiary prevention: limiting the severity or consequences of the
disease/issue/problem. (development of exercise programs for obese people)
- Communication message is different: level determines the message strategy/social marketing
approach
Risk- and health communication has a lot in common with marketing
- Social marketing:
o Marketing behavior
o Target group specification
o Connecting to behavior
o Message factors
Product:
- Actual product: the desired/recommend behavior
- Core product: profit from that behavior
Price:
- Literally: the price of the product
- Figuratively: loss (of the behavior) compared to the promised benefits
Place:
- ‘Action outlets’
- Where the intervention takes place or where the behavior takes place
Promotion:
- The most visible part of (social) marketing
- Persuasive communication strategies
- Develop effective messages
Every year, millions of people die or are harmed by preventable causes
Illnesses today often stem from unhealthy behaviors, such as smoking, unsafe sex, poor eating habits,
insufficient exercise, excessive sedentary time, and social media usage
‘Lifestyle diseases’ are a significant cause of death
An unhealthy lifestyle…
- Why do people behave so risky/unhealthy?
- Don’t people know that their behavior is unhealthy?
- Or are unhealthy people just stupid?
- Why don’t they just change?
An unhealthy lifestyle…
- Sometimes people don’t know. In that case, it is important to inform people, for example in
the early days of AIDS, or give new knowledge about an unhealthy diet
, - Often people know… but they do it anyway… In that case it is important to find out why.
People often know the facts and try to ignore or downplay them (unrealistic optimism)
o ‘Smoking relaxes me’
o ‘My 96-year-old grandpa also smokes and he is very healthy’
o ‘I’m not going to get cancer anyway’
o ‘You can also have a car accident’
Predicting risk/health behavior:
- What are the factors that make someone behave unhealthily?
Changing risk/health behavior:
- What should we say and how, to motivate someone to actually change unhealthy behavior
and move into the desired direction? (= persuasive communication)
The relation between the two
Lecture 2 determinants of health behavior – socio-cognitive models
Socio-cognitive models: why important?
- Socio-cognitive predictors health behavior
o Focus on thoughts and feelings that determine health behavior
o Modifiable
o Many models, but couple of key variables
- Why are we interested in thoughts and feelings?
o Other (important) predictors of health behavior difficult to change
Socio-demographic factors (income)
Biological factors/genes
o Models are a ‘tool’ to identify crucial determinants of health behavior
To determine message content
What to target in a health campaign
- Motivational models
o HBM, PMT, TPB, SCT, RAA
o Influence cognitive variables on intention formation
o Motivational phase of self-regulation: setting a goal, form intention to pursue a goal
- Behavioral enactment and multi-stage models
o Implementation intentions, TTM
o Volitional phase of self regulation: planning & action directed toward achieving the
set goal
, Socio-cognitive models (Conner, 2010)
Overview models, focus on
- Motivational models
- HBM, PMT, TBP, SCT, TTM
- Towards the RAA (improved version of the TBP)
Health Belief Model (HBM)
Protection Motivation Theory (PMT)
Threat appraisal (how threatening is this?)
- Perceived vulnerability: do I feel personally vulnerable to this health risk?
Lecture 1
4 important elements for communication:
- Open and honest about what is (un)known: talk from facts are recognize the temporality
thereof
- Consistent and specific information: clear, specific, non-ambiguous ‘layman’s language’
- Decision making skills: leadership, reliable and honest, acknowledge the experts
- Acknowledge emotions: through emphatic information, expressing concern, and
acknowledging impact
4 important recommendations:
- ‘mental model’: overview picture of how COVID-19 works
- Interventions in the environment and through regulations: facilities
- Appeal to collective action: ‘we are in this together’
- Maintain behavioral change: requires change in self-regulation
What is risk?
- The likelihood that a specific event occurs
- Chance that something happens * the severity thereof
- Risk perception: different for everybody
- Subjective! And that is difficult to estimate
What is health:
- Who (1946): it is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely
the absence of disease or infirmity -> refers to a ‘state’
- Recently: the capacity of people to adapt to, respond to, or control life’s challenges and
changes’ -> refers to a ‘dynamic process’
Health at different levels:
- Objective: health at the organic level, determined by an expert
- Subjective: health at the individual level, determined by the individual, perceived health
- Social: health at the social level, determined by the social environment, society
Prevention:
- Risk- and health communication is often about ‘prevention’
- ‘Avoid from happening’
- Three levels:
o Primary prevention: preventing (the development of) illness, ‘prevention is better
than cure’ (vaccines)
o Secondary prevention: early detection of a disease/issue/problem (obesity, Covid-
19)
, o Tertiary prevention: limiting the severity or consequences of the
disease/issue/problem. (development of exercise programs for obese people)
- Communication message is different: level determines the message strategy/social marketing
approach
Risk- and health communication has a lot in common with marketing
- Social marketing:
o Marketing behavior
o Target group specification
o Connecting to behavior
o Message factors
Product:
- Actual product: the desired/recommend behavior
- Core product: profit from that behavior
Price:
- Literally: the price of the product
- Figuratively: loss (of the behavior) compared to the promised benefits
Place:
- ‘Action outlets’
- Where the intervention takes place or where the behavior takes place
Promotion:
- The most visible part of (social) marketing
- Persuasive communication strategies
- Develop effective messages
Every year, millions of people die or are harmed by preventable causes
Illnesses today often stem from unhealthy behaviors, such as smoking, unsafe sex, poor eating habits,
insufficient exercise, excessive sedentary time, and social media usage
‘Lifestyle diseases’ are a significant cause of death
An unhealthy lifestyle…
- Why do people behave so risky/unhealthy?
- Don’t people know that their behavior is unhealthy?
- Or are unhealthy people just stupid?
- Why don’t they just change?
An unhealthy lifestyle…
- Sometimes people don’t know. In that case, it is important to inform people, for example in
the early days of AIDS, or give new knowledge about an unhealthy diet
, - Often people know… but they do it anyway… In that case it is important to find out why.
People often know the facts and try to ignore or downplay them (unrealistic optimism)
o ‘Smoking relaxes me’
o ‘My 96-year-old grandpa also smokes and he is very healthy’
o ‘I’m not going to get cancer anyway’
o ‘You can also have a car accident’
Predicting risk/health behavior:
- What are the factors that make someone behave unhealthily?
Changing risk/health behavior:
- What should we say and how, to motivate someone to actually change unhealthy behavior
and move into the desired direction? (= persuasive communication)
The relation between the two
Lecture 2 determinants of health behavior – socio-cognitive models
Socio-cognitive models: why important?
- Socio-cognitive predictors health behavior
o Focus on thoughts and feelings that determine health behavior
o Modifiable
o Many models, but couple of key variables
- Why are we interested in thoughts and feelings?
o Other (important) predictors of health behavior difficult to change
Socio-demographic factors (income)
Biological factors/genes
o Models are a ‘tool’ to identify crucial determinants of health behavior
To determine message content
What to target in a health campaign
- Motivational models
o HBM, PMT, TPB, SCT, RAA
o Influence cognitive variables on intention formation
o Motivational phase of self-regulation: setting a goal, form intention to pursue a goal
- Behavioral enactment and multi-stage models
o Implementation intentions, TTM
o Volitional phase of self regulation: planning & action directed toward achieving the
set goal
, Socio-cognitive models (Conner, 2010)
Overview models, focus on
- Motivational models
- HBM, PMT, TBP, SCT, TTM
- Towards the RAA (improved version of the TBP)
Health Belief Model (HBM)
Protection Motivation Theory (PMT)
Threat appraisal (how threatening is this?)
- Perceived vulnerability: do I feel personally vulnerable to this health risk?
