Health communication
LECTURE 1
Health communication
A field of study that involves, briefly, the exchange of health-related information with different populations, with
the aim to change or sustain a health behavior or practice that can improve public health outcomes (Schiavo, 2013)
From old media to new media (Ho & Yu, 2023)
There is a shift of the focus over time
Before more focused on the treatments and managing health issues after they emerged
Now more focused on the preventions of these issues
Evolution of health consciousness in health communication
Health unconsciousness health consciousness (shift in awareness)
Initially people were less aware or concerned about their health (health unconsciousness) over time there have
been a shift toward greater awareness and concern for personal health (health consciousness)
The concept of health consciousness has developed and can be understood in various ways:
90s (e.g., Krafft & Goodell 1993)
- Voluntary participation in health promotion activities actively engaging in programs or activities that promote
health, such as community fitness programs, health education classes, and other voluntary health initiatives
- Compliance with health clinicians following the advice and recommendations of healthcare providers,
2010s (e.g., Hong, 2011)
- Engagement in health behaviors actively participating in daily behaviors that promote health
- Physiological attention to one’s health attentive to one’s physical health indicators
- Information seeking and usage seeking out health-related information through various sources, such as the
internet, health apps, and medical literature
- Personal responsibility taking charge of one’s own health by making informed decisions, taking preventive
measures, and actively managing health conditions.
- Health motivation to having the intrinsic drive or motivation to maintain or improve health, which might
involve setting health goals, pursuing wellness, and engaging in behaviors that support long-term health.
Health consciousness (The degree to which u care about your health)
- Psychological aspect (thinking about it, attention to new information, motivation)
- Behavioral aspect (engagement in health behaviors, seeking health information)
Create an upward spiral if u become more conscious u engage in more health activities and change behavior
However:
- health communication should be careful to prevent boomerang effects for example by choosing words carefully
- Individuals vale freedom, if this freedom is threatened reactance occurs and try to regain freedom (es do other thing)
- As a result, they mean regain freedom by exhibiting the constrained behavior (Sprenghotz et al., 2023)
Lifestyle diseases
Illnesses that are primarily caused by individuals’ habits and behaviors, such as diet, physical activity, and
substance use
The more conscious u are the more the less lifestyle diseases
Health communication study
Send 2 messages one emotional and one informational
Measure reactance (something that happens inside of you whenever u feel like your freedom to choose is restricted
Find words in a puzzle
difference between mass mediated communication vs tailored interventions
,LECTURE 2 Changing behavior through health communication
What we try to do with health communication advance public health:
Public health impact Effect * Reach
Mass media communication (newspaper, build boards...) low effect * high reach (reach a lot of people)
Health counselling (individual, go to the doctor) high effect * low reach
We use campaigns and interventions to promote behaviors we discussed in the last lecture mass-mediated health
campaigns (from text Anker et al., 2016)
Mass-mediated health campaigns
Television, billboards, cinema’s
Community-based participatory research
Use of theory:
- Providing insight predictors (es TPB, I-change) (what cause us to behave in a certain way)
- Outlining methods (modelling to increase self-efficacy) (how can we use insight to change people’s behaviors)
High reach, however, not very specific
Overall, around a 5% behavior change
Mass-mediated health campaigns often use:
Fear appeals are often used (EPPM) (es not giving solutions tho)
Some concepts better to target than others
Some behaviors easier to change (es simplistic behavior are easier to change)
Limited sample size for subgroups
What if we can use the high reach of mass media communication with the high effect of health counselling? (Kohl
et al., 2013)
Online Interventions:
Accessible 24/7
Anonymously
At any pace
Hard to reach populations
Maintenance and updating
Adjustable
What did they find?
- Small – moderate positive effect
- Tailored feedback, interactivity, offline component, not fully online tend to increase the effectiveness of these
interventions
- Reach female, young, white, high-income countries (the most reached)
they concluded
- no significant difference between interventions that use theory compared to interventions that did not
- More adherend participants greater effects
- Use of these interventions low use, high drop-out
Why is theory useful?
Systematic way to tackle a (health) problem
But beware a model is just a model!
- Simplification of reality
- Reality is messy
, Health behavior models
Evolution of TRA (theory of reasoned action) RAA (reasoned action approach)
I-Change model
Evolution of TRA/TPB/TAA Adds compared to previous versions:
Theory of reasoned action
Theory of planned behavior added control beliefs / power (PBC)
Integrative model of behavior prediction added perceived norm (subitems)/ actual control
Reasoned action approach attitude/ (subitems) PBC (subitems)
All used to explain changing behavior
From believes to behavior
Theory of reasoned action
Beliefs are the one we try to target
- Behavioral beliefs es do u think is good, bad…
- Evaluation If u think the belief is good how important do u think it is for u
Theory of planned behavior
not as simple as what other people want and what u want and people are going to do it how much control do u
have? Are u able to have the power to do what u want to do and do u control how u behave?
- The easier is for u to do it the more likely for u to do it
What about the intention behavior gap?
es people who want to stop smoking, the intention behavior is not easy to actually stop
What about personal characteristics?
es high/low country.. the way u are influence the way the message effects of one of the beliefs
LECTURE 1
Health communication
A field of study that involves, briefly, the exchange of health-related information with different populations, with
the aim to change or sustain a health behavior or practice that can improve public health outcomes (Schiavo, 2013)
From old media to new media (Ho & Yu, 2023)
There is a shift of the focus over time
Before more focused on the treatments and managing health issues after they emerged
Now more focused on the preventions of these issues
Evolution of health consciousness in health communication
Health unconsciousness health consciousness (shift in awareness)
Initially people were less aware or concerned about their health (health unconsciousness) over time there have
been a shift toward greater awareness and concern for personal health (health consciousness)
The concept of health consciousness has developed and can be understood in various ways:
90s (e.g., Krafft & Goodell 1993)
- Voluntary participation in health promotion activities actively engaging in programs or activities that promote
health, such as community fitness programs, health education classes, and other voluntary health initiatives
- Compliance with health clinicians following the advice and recommendations of healthcare providers,
2010s (e.g., Hong, 2011)
- Engagement in health behaviors actively participating in daily behaviors that promote health
- Physiological attention to one’s health attentive to one’s physical health indicators
- Information seeking and usage seeking out health-related information through various sources, such as the
internet, health apps, and medical literature
- Personal responsibility taking charge of one’s own health by making informed decisions, taking preventive
measures, and actively managing health conditions.
- Health motivation to having the intrinsic drive or motivation to maintain or improve health, which might
involve setting health goals, pursuing wellness, and engaging in behaviors that support long-term health.
Health consciousness (The degree to which u care about your health)
- Psychological aspect (thinking about it, attention to new information, motivation)
- Behavioral aspect (engagement in health behaviors, seeking health information)
Create an upward spiral if u become more conscious u engage in more health activities and change behavior
However:
- health communication should be careful to prevent boomerang effects for example by choosing words carefully
- Individuals vale freedom, if this freedom is threatened reactance occurs and try to regain freedom (es do other thing)
- As a result, they mean regain freedom by exhibiting the constrained behavior (Sprenghotz et al., 2023)
Lifestyle diseases
Illnesses that are primarily caused by individuals’ habits and behaviors, such as diet, physical activity, and
substance use
The more conscious u are the more the less lifestyle diseases
Health communication study
Send 2 messages one emotional and one informational
Measure reactance (something that happens inside of you whenever u feel like your freedom to choose is restricted
Find words in a puzzle
difference between mass mediated communication vs tailored interventions
,LECTURE 2 Changing behavior through health communication
What we try to do with health communication advance public health:
Public health impact Effect * Reach
Mass media communication (newspaper, build boards...) low effect * high reach (reach a lot of people)
Health counselling (individual, go to the doctor) high effect * low reach
We use campaigns and interventions to promote behaviors we discussed in the last lecture mass-mediated health
campaigns (from text Anker et al., 2016)
Mass-mediated health campaigns
Television, billboards, cinema’s
Community-based participatory research
Use of theory:
- Providing insight predictors (es TPB, I-change) (what cause us to behave in a certain way)
- Outlining methods (modelling to increase self-efficacy) (how can we use insight to change people’s behaviors)
High reach, however, not very specific
Overall, around a 5% behavior change
Mass-mediated health campaigns often use:
Fear appeals are often used (EPPM) (es not giving solutions tho)
Some concepts better to target than others
Some behaviors easier to change (es simplistic behavior are easier to change)
Limited sample size for subgroups
What if we can use the high reach of mass media communication with the high effect of health counselling? (Kohl
et al., 2013)
Online Interventions:
Accessible 24/7
Anonymously
At any pace
Hard to reach populations
Maintenance and updating
Adjustable
What did they find?
- Small – moderate positive effect
- Tailored feedback, interactivity, offline component, not fully online tend to increase the effectiveness of these
interventions
- Reach female, young, white, high-income countries (the most reached)
they concluded
- no significant difference between interventions that use theory compared to interventions that did not
- More adherend participants greater effects
- Use of these interventions low use, high drop-out
Why is theory useful?
Systematic way to tackle a (health) problem
But beware a model is just a model!
- Simplification of reality
- Reality is messy
, Health behavior models
Evolution of TRA (theory of reasoned action) RAA (reasoned action approach)
I-Change model
Evolution of TRA/TPB/TAA Adds compared to previous versions:
Theory of reasoned action
Theory of planned behavior added control beliefs / power (PBC)
Integrative model of behavior prediction added perceived norm (subitems)/ actual control
Reasoned action approach attitude/ (subitems) PBC (subitems)
All used to explain changing behavior
From believes to behavior
Theory of reasoned action
Beliefs are the one we try to target
- Behavioral beliefs es do u think is good, bad…
- Evaluation If u think the belief is good how important do u think it is for u
Theory of planned behavior
not as simple as what other people want and what u want and people are going to do it how much control do u
have? Are u able to have the power to do what u want to do and do u control how u behave?
- The easier is for u to do it the more likely for u to do it
What about the intention behavior gap?
es people who want to stop smoking, the intention behavior is not easy to actually stop
What about personal characteristics?
es high/low country.. the way u are influence the way the message effects of one of the beliefs
