1
Summary: Risk and Health Communication
PART I: PREDICTORS OF RISK AND HEALTH BEHAVIOR
Lecture 1: Introduction
Risk and health communication…
- to inform about (health) risks
- to motivate to adopt “recommended behavior”/ "healthy behavior”
In order to develop effective health campaigns and interventions...
- factors that predict risk and health behavior
- how to influence these factors through communication
- how to overcome potential obstacles you can encounter while persuading your audience
In this course...
- theory and research about predicting and changing risk and health behavior
- the role of (social) media and technology in this context
- how campaign and intervention effects can be measured in practice
Communicating about risks:
- Difficult → subjective
- Short-term VS Long-term effects; costs VS gains
- Bring the message: importance of effective health communication
- Political leaders and health authorities
- Tone changes → direct tone, specific tone-of-voice
- Need for persuasion, educational material and further information
- Different languages
- Target various segments
Article: Effective health communication – a key factor in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic
1. (Unprescedented) Mass information flow
- In media
- Need for “concise, accurate, and valid info” … “to public all over the world” … “in
different contexts”
- RHC: how to get the message across? Develop an effective health message? Reach
different target groups?
2. Dealing with insecurity and fear
- Panic: COVID-19 is “contagious and deadly”
- “Invisible enemy”
- Feeling of loss of control over life
- RHC: how to communicate about risks (in light of insecurities)?
, 2
4 important elements for communication from the article:
● Open and honest about what is (un)known: talk from facts and recognize the temporality
● Consistent and specific information: clear, specific, non-ambiguous “Layman’s language”
● Decision-making skills: leadership, reliable and honest, acknowledge the (visible) experts
● Acknowledge emotions: emphatic information, expressing concern, acknowledging impact
3. Promote behavioral change
- Behavioral measures: individual & community level
- Changing routines: convert it into conscious actions
- Intention-behavior gap: “knowing” is not the same as “doing”
- RHC: how to achieve this?
ARTICLE: 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”; leaders/role models on all levels
● Maintain behavioral change:
○ Requires change in self-regulation → conscious planning in the beginning: action
self-efficacy
○ Preservation by habit → maintenance self-efficacy
RISK
● Likelihood that a specific event occurs
● Chance that something happens - the severity thereof
● Risk perception: different for everybody…
● Subjective! Difficult to estimate
HEALTH
WHO (1946): “It is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence
of disease or imfirmity” → 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”
● Objective: health at the organic level, determined by an expert
● Subjective: health on the individual level, determined by the individual, perceived health
● Social: health on the social level, determined by the social environment, society
Prevention levels
Prevention → RHC is often about “prevention” / “avoid from happening”
Level determines the marketing strategy: communication message is different
, 3
3 levels:
PRIMARY PREVENTION SECONDARY PREVENTION TERTIARY PREVENTION
- Preventing (the - Early detection of a - Limiting the
development of) illness disease/issue/problem severity/consequences of
- “Prevention is better Ex: STD tests, dentist visit, the
than cure” COVID tests disease/issue/problem
Ex: seatbelts, smoking signs Ex: obesity
(with non-smokers!!), washing - Promote adherence to
hands (COVID-19) treatment program
- Development of exercise
programs for obese
people
- Councelling to increase
effectiveness of coping
strategies
Social marketing & Persuasive communication
Social marketing
(RHC has a lot in common with “marketing”)
- “Marketing behavior”
- Target group specification
- Connecting to behavior (determinants)
- Message factors
- Ex: how do you sell a watch? Smoking cessation? → branding of behavior!
PRODUCT
Actual product: the desired/recommended 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/behavior takes place)
PROMOTION
Most visible part of (social) marketing, persuasive comm strategies, develop effective messages
Ex: from persuasive communication
“Lifestyle diseases” as a major cause of death
Why do people behave so risky/unhealthy? Don’t they know it’s unhealthy? Are they just stupid?
, 4
● Sometimes people don’t know…
○ In this case: important to inform!
● Often people know… but do it anyway
○ In this case: find out WHY
○ Unrealistic optimism: knowing the facts and trying to ignore/downplay them
RHC: relation between predicting AND changing risk/health behavior
Lecture 2: Determinants of health behavior; socio-cognitive models
Beliefs → Health campaigns → Health-related variables
● Socio-cognitive predictors health behavior
○ Focus on thoughts and feelings that determine health behavior
○ Modifiable
○ Many models, but a couple of key variables
● Why are we interested in thoughts and feelings?
○ Other (important) predictors of health behavior difficult to change
■ Socio-demographic factors (ex: income)
■ Biological factors/genes
○ Models are “tools” to identify crucial determinants of health behavior
■ To develop a message strategy
■ What to target in a health campaign?
● Motivational models
○ TPB, PMT, EPPM, HBM
○ Influence cognitive variables on intention formation
○ Motivational phase of self-regulation: setting a goal, form intention to pursue a goal
● Behavioral enhancement and multy-stage models
○ Implementation intentions, TTM
○ Voitional phase of self-regulation: planning&action directed toward achieving the set
goal
Summary: Risk and Health Communication
PART I: PREDICTORS OF RISK AND HEALTH BEHAVIOR
Lecture 1: Introduction
Risk and health communication…
- to inform about (health) risks
- to motivate to adopt “recommended behavior”/ "healthy behavior”
In order to develop effective health campaigns and interventions...
- factors that predict risk and health behavior
- how to influence these factors through communication
- how to overcome potential obstacles you can encounter while persuading your audience
In this course...
- theory and research about predicting and changing risk and health behavior
- the role of (social) media and technology in this context
- how campaign and intervention effects can be measured in practice
Communicating about risks:
- Difficult → subjective
- Short-term VS Long-term effects; costs VS gains
- Bring the message: importance of effective health communication
- Political leaders and health authorities
- Tone changes → direct tone, specific tone-of-voice
- Need for persuasion, educational material and further information
- Different languages
- Target various segments
Article: Effective health communication – a key factor in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic
1. (Unprescedented) Mass information flow
- In media
- Need for “concise, accurate, and valid info” … “to public all over the world” … “in
different contexts”
- RHC: how to get the message across? Develop an effective health message? Reach
different target groups?
2. Dealing with insecurity and fear
- Panic: COVID-19 is “contagious and deadly”
- “Invisible enemy”
- Feeling of loss of control over life
- RHC: how to communicate about risks (in light of insecurities)?
, 2
4 important elements for communication from the article:
● Open and honest about what is (un)known: talk from facts and recognize the temporality
● Consistent and specific information: clear, specific, non-ambiguous “Layman’s language”
● Decision-making skills: leadership, reliable and honest, acknowledge the (visible) experts
● Acknowledge emotions: emphatic information, expressing concern, acknowledging impact
3. Promote behavioral change
- Behavioral measures: individual & community level
- Changing routines: convert it into conscious actions
- Intention-behavior gap: “knowing” is not the same as “doing”
- RHC: how to achieve this?
ARTICLE: 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”; leaders/role models on all levels
● Maintain behavioral change:
○ Requires change in self-regulation → conscious planning in the beginning: action
self-efficacy
○ Preservation by habit → maintenance self-efficacy
RISK
● Likelihood that a specific event occurs
● Chance that something happens - the severity thereof
● Risk perception: different for everybody…
● Subjective! Difficult to estimate
HEALTH
WHO (1946): “It is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence
of disease or imfirmity” → 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”
● Objective: health at the organic level, determined by an expert
● Subjective: health on the individual level, determined by the individual, perceived health
● Social: health on the social level, determined by the social environment, society
Prevention levels
Prevention → RHC is often about “prevention” / “avoid from happening”
Level determines the marketing strategy: communication message is different
, 3
3 levels:
PRIMARY PREVENTION SECONDARY PREVENTION TERTIARY PREVENTION
- Preventing (the - Early detection of a - Limiting the
development of) illness disease/issue/problem severity/consequences of
- “Prevention is better Ex: STD tests, dentist visit, the
than cure” COVID tests disease/issue/problem
Ex: seatbelts, smoking signs Ex: obesity
(with non-smokers!!), washing - Promote adherence to
hands (COVID-19) treatment program
- Development of exercise
programs for obese
people
- Councelling to increase
effectiveness of coping
strategies
Social marketing & Persuasive communication
Social marketing
(RHC has a lot in common with “marketing”)
- “Marketing behavior”
- Target group specification
- Connecting to behavior (determinants)
- Message factors
- Ex: how do you sell a watch? Smoking cessation? → branding of behavior!
PRODUCT
Actual product: the desired/recommended 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/behavior takes place)
PROMOTION
Most visible part of (social) marketing, persuasive comm strategies, develop effective messages
Ex: from persuasive communication
“Lifestyle diseases” as a major cause of death
Why do people behave so risky/unhealthy? Don’t they know it’s unhealthy? Are they just stupid?
, 4
● Sometimes people don’t know…
○ In this case: important to inform!
● Often people know… but do it anyway
○ In this case: find out WHY
○ Unrealistic optimism: knowing the facts and trying to ignore/downplay them
RHC: relation between predicting AND changing risk/health behavior
Lecture 2: Determinants of health behavior; socio-cognitive models
Beliefs → Health campaigns → Health-related variables
● Socio-cognitive predictors health behavior
○ Focus on thoughts and feelings that determine health behavior
○ Modifiable
○ Many models, but a couple of key variables
● Why are we interested in thoughts and feelings?
○ Other (important) predictors of health behavior difficult to change
■ Socio-demographic factors (ex: income)
■ Biological factors/genes
○ Models are “tools” to identify crucial determinants of health behavior
■ To develop a message strategy
■ What to target in a health campaign?
● Motivational models
○ TPB, PMT, EPPM, HBM
○ Influence cognitive variables on intention formation
○ Motivational phase of self-regulation: setting a goal, form intention to pursue a goal
● Behavioral enhancement and multy-stage models
○ Implementation intentions, TTM
○ Voitional phase of self-regulation: planning&action directed toward achieving the set
goal
