A strategy for increasing news media coverage of tobacco and health in Australia.
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BACKGROUND: In many nations, government fiscal restraint is reducing the ability of public health authorities to mount mass-reach health information advertising campaigns. Strategies for increasing news coverage of health issues, and thereby contributing to policy advocacy, are well recognized, yet under-explored in health promotion research. OBJECTIVE: To increase news coverage of smoking and health issues by issuing media releases about research judged as newsworthy and important in contributing to tobacco control policy debates. METHOD: Research reports selected for their potential newsworthiness were promoted in news releases and their news 'hit rates' in New South Wales (Australia) metropolitan media over 5 weeks were compared with the background coverage of tobacco control issues over the same period. RESULTS: Fifty-eight of 283 (20.5%) news reports on tobacco in the study period were generated by the six media releases. CONCLUSIONS: News reportage of tobacco control and other public health issues can be increased significantly by the strategic use of news releases alerting journalists to research reports that embody recognizable news values. This is an inexpensive strategy with great potential to advance public health objectives. (+info)
Health literacy: communication for the public good.
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This article builds upon a presentation at the Fifth Global Health Conference on Health Promotion (Mexico City, 9 June 2000), seeking to advance the development of health literacy through effective communication. First, it offers a timely reflection for health promotion epistemology in particular, and the potential approach to framing health promotion activities in general, with health literacy as a bridging concept. The concept of health literacy is briefly explained and defined, followed by identification of some promising communication interventions to diffuse health literacy. Four predominant areas within the communication field are described that shed light on approaches for developing health literacy: integrated marketing communication, education, negotiation and social capital. Each component can contribute to strategic science-based communication. Finally, the article elucidates that communication and developing health literacy are not simple solutions. Communication is not simply message repetition, but includes the development of an environment for community involvement to espouse common values of humankind. With effective communication, worldwide health literacy can become a reality in the 21st century, embodying health as a central tenet of human life. (+info)
The promotion of condom use in non-regular sexual partnerships in urban Mozambique.
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This study uses data from a representative sample of sexually active adults in urban Mozambique to examine the effectiveness of the JeitO condom social marketing (CSM) project in increasing condom use among men and women at risk of contracting HIV. More specifically, this study tests the hypothesis that exposure to programme interventions (communications and access) increases condom use with non-regular partners. Exposure to the CSM programme is high, and multivariate analyses show that exposure to CSM advertising and communications and knowledge of a condom source are associated with higher reports of condom use with non-regular partners. Analyses of regional differences in condom use show that knowledge and use of condoms with non-regular partners are higher than the national average in all four provinces where the CSM project has been operating for longer (18 months vs. 6 months). Multivariate analyses show that the above-average level of condom use in the capital, Maputo, can be attributed to the higher socioeconomic status of this population, but the above-average level of condom use among men and women in Sofala and Manica provinces is due, in part, to their high level of exposure to the CSM programme. These findings indicate that the JeitO CSM project's behaviour-change communications and condom distribution are effective in encouraging safer sex practices among persons engaged in sex with non-regular partners. (+info)
Promoting breastfeeding in rural Gambia: combining traditional and modern knowledge.
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Sub-optimal breastfeeding practices still prevail in many countries, especially in traditional rural communities. Despite high breastfeeding initiation rates and long total duration of breastfeeding, exclusive breastfeeding is a rare practice. In the present study, quantitative methods were used to identify current infant feeding practices in 12 rural communities in The GAMBIA: Results indicated that delayed initiation of breastfeeding, prelacteal feeding and failure to practice exclusive breastfeeding were widespread. Qualitative data further indicated that current beliefs and practices were strongly influenced by traditional beliefs and practices. These were kept very much alive by elders, both women and men, including husbands. The results also showed an unexpected support for bottle-feeding from both male and female elders who considered it part of the modernization process. A strategy for promoting early initiation of breastfeeding, feeding of colostrum and exclusive breastfeeding for 6 months in rural communities should therefore incorporate traditional beliefs and practices into modern messages on optimal breastfeeding. Traditional beliefs and practices in the study setting that could be used in this way included knowledge from the population's acquaintance with the newborns of their livestock. It also included the traditional practice of mothers taking their very young children with them when going to work in the fields. The paper suggests such a strategy by developing a matrix to establish linkages between modern and traditional knowledge on a specific practice. Such linkages facilitate the acceptance of recommendations on infant feeding by mothers in these communities. The strategy recommends an expanded target group to include elders and husbands, as the data show that these groups are highly influential in matters regarding patterns of child feeding. (+info)
Can media advocacy influence newspaper coverage of tobacco: measuring the effectiveness of the American stop smoking intervention study's (ASSIST) media advocacy strategies.
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OBJECTIVE: To compare the rate and slant of local tobacco control print media coverage in ASSIST (American stop smoking intervention study) states as compared with non-ASSIST states. METHODS: Local tobacco control policy articles, editorials, and letters to the editors published from 1994 to 1998 clipped from all daily local newspapers in the USA were analysed (n = 95 911). The main hypothesis tested for the existence of an interaction between ASSIST intervention and time. This interaction would represent a change in the difference between ASSIST and non-ASSIST states over the course of the intervention. RESULTS: No evidence of an ASSIST-year interaction was found. However, a main effect for ASSIST was significant for the percentage of articles with the model predicting higher rates of articles for ASSIST states. Similarly the rate of letters to the editor expressing protobacco control views was higher in ASSIST states than non-ASSIST states. No main effects or interactions were found for analyses of percentage of protobacco control editorials. Models controlled for a measure of preintervention tobacco control conditions at baseline. CONCLUSIONS: The presence of an ASSIST main effect should be interpreted with caution because of the quasi-experimental design and the lack of information on article rates before the ASSIST intervention. Nonetheless, these preliminary findings suggest some possible effects of the media advocacy activities of ASSIST when controlling for differences in states' initial tobacco control conditions. (+info)
Population based intervention to change back pain beliefs and disability: three part evaluation.
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OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effectiveness of a population based, state-wide public health intervention designed to alter beliefs about back pain, influence medical management, and reduce disability and costs of compensation. DESIGN: Quasi-experimental, non-randomised, non-equivalent, before and after telephone surveys of the general population and postal surveys of general practitioners with an adjacent state as control group and descriptive analysis of claims database. SETTING: Two states in Australia. PARTICIPANTS: 4730 members of general population before and two and two and a half years after campaign started, in a ratio of 2:1:1; 2556 general practitioners before and two years after campaign onset. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Back beliefs questionnaire, knowledge and attitude statements about back pain, incidence of workers' financial compensation claims for back problems, rate of days compensated, and medical payments for claims related to back pain and other claims. RESULTS: In the intervention state beliefs about back pain became more positive between successive surveys (mean improvement in questionnaire score 1.9 (95% confidence interval 1.3 to 2.5), P<0.001 and 3.2 (2.6 to 3.9), P<0.001, between baseline and the second and third survey, respectively). Beliefs about back pain also improved among doctors. There was a clear decline in number of claims for back pain, rates of days compensated, and medical payments for claims for back pain over the duration of the campaign. CONCLUSIONS: A population based strategy of provision of positive messages about back pain improves population and general practitioner beliefs about back pain and seems to influence medical management and reduce disability and workers' compensation costs related to back pain. (+info)
Consent to autopsy for neonates.
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OBJECTIVES: To determine parents' views on autopsy after treatment withdrawal. DESIGN: Face to face interviews with 59 sets of bereaved parents (108 individual parents) for whose 62 babies there had been discussion of treatment withdrawal. RESULTS: All except one couple were asked for permission for postmortem examination; 38% refused. The main reasons for declining were concerns about disfigurement, a wish to have the child left in peace, and a feeling that an autopsy was unnecessary because the parents had no unanswered questions. The diagnosis, the age of the child, and the approach of the consultant appeared to influence consent rates. Of those who agreed to autopsies, 92% were given the results by the neonatologist concerned. Whether or not they had agreed to the procedure, at 13 months no parent expressed regrets about their decision. CONCLUSIONS: Autopsy rates in the East of Scotland stand at 62%. Parents' perceptions are an important element in consent to postmortem examination. (+info)
Promoting smoking abstinence in pregnant and postpartum patients: a comparison of 2 approaches.
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OBJECTIVE: To compare the implementation, delivery, and implications for dissemination of 2 different maternal smoking-cessation/relapse-prevention interventions in managed care environments. STUDY DESIGN: Healthy Options for Pregnancy and Parenting (HOPP) was a randomized, controlled efficacy trial of an intervention that bypassed the clinical setting. Stop Tobacco for OuR Kids (STORK) was a quasi-experimental effectiveness study of a point-of-service intervention. Both incorporated prenatal and postnatal components. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Subjects in both studies were pregnant women who either smoked currently or had quit recently. The major intervention in HOPP was telephone counseling delivered by trained counselors, whereas the STORK intervention was delivered by providers and staff during prepartum, inpatient postpartum, and well-baby visits. RESULTS: In HOPP, 97% of telephone intervention participants reported receiving 1 or more counselor calls. The intervention delayed but did not prevent postpartum relapse to smoking. Problems with intervention delivery related primarily to identification of the target population and acceptance of repeated calls. STORK delivered 1 or more cessation contacts to 91% of prenatal smokers in year 1, but the rate of intervention delivery declined in years 2 and 3. Modest differences were obtained in sustained abstinence between 6 and 12 months postpartum, but not in point prevalence abstinence at 12 months. CONCLUSIONS: The projects were compared using 4 of the 5 dimensions of the RE-AIM model including reach, adoption, implementation, and maintenance. It was difficult to apply the fifth dimension, efficacy, because of the differences in study design and purpose of the interventions. The strengths and limitations of each project were identified, and it was concluded that a combined intervention that incorporates elements of both HOPP and STORK would be optimal if it could be implemented at reasonable cost. (+info)