Communicating to model health seeking practices, break the cycle of risks and their outcomes

There are factors that may be enablers or barriers of effective risk messaging. Such messaging should be mediated through facilitated communicating set-ups, budgets dedicated to communication, stakeholder and audience engagement in the designs and should be informed more by theory or best practice models otherwise it may turn out to be ineffective and redundant.

Communicating risk and prevention have foundational elements that make the message relatable. These include the instructional component, brand awareness, ease of consumption, relevancy, translatability enabling one to perceive personal relevance which promotes integration into local messages,?internalization, explanation, stimulation of action, diffusion of message and dissemination modes.

Institutionalising the communication strategy; defining the problem that needs to be faced; developing an effective communication strategy; targeting community preventive and protective behaviors to foster containment and control of infection contribute to effective risk communication. This in turn improves risk perception (RP) which leverages protective and preventive behaviors (PPB).

Risk communication during a health crisis requires preparation of governments and of health teams in order to produce and deliver effective messages as well as to help communities to make informed and healthy decisions. In the case of longitudinal interventions, the strategy must innovate to avoid information fatigue of the audience.

Messaging that has effective moderating effect depends on its content context or type in form of rational, emotional, and transactional content. Effective Risk Communication (RC) should embed these content types in the messaging ?(Elrod, et al., 2017, 2020; Heydari, et al., 2021; Nova, et al., 2022; Schwarz, et al., 2024;& Shahbaznezhad, et al. 2022).

References:

Bravo, P., Martinez-Pereira, A., Fernández-González, L., & Dois, A. (2023). What is needed to effectively communicate risk during a health crisis? A qualitative study with international experts based on the COVID-19 pandemic.?BMJ open,?13(5), e067531. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-067531

Elrod, J. K., & Fortenberry, J. L., Jr (2020). Advertising in health and medicine: using mass media to communicate with patients.?BMC health services research,?20(Suppl 1), 818. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-020-05599-3

Elrod, J. K., & Fortenberry, J. L., Jr (2017). Billboard advertising: an avenue for communicating healthcare information and opportunities to disadvantaged populations.?BMC health services research,?17(Suppl 4), 787. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-017-2754-6

Heydari, S.T., Zarei, L., Sadati, A.K.?Najmeh, M., ?Akbari, M., Mehralian, G., ?&? Lankarani?, K.B. (2021). The effect of risk communication on preventive and protective Behaviours during the COVID-19 outbreak: mediating role of risk perception.?BMC Public Health?21, 54 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-020-10125-5

Nova, A., Rony, R.J., Sinhad, A., ?Sabbir, A., Saha,A., Khan, S.S., ?Abeer, I.A., Shajnush, A, Fuad, T.H. (2022).Risk Communication During COVID-19 Pandemic: Impacting Women in Bangladesh. Frontiers. Retrieved from https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/communication/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2022.878050/full

Schwarz A., Sellnow, D.D., Sellnow, T.D., & Taylor, L.E. (2024). Instructional Risk and Crisis Communication at Higher Education Institutions during COVID-19: Insights from Practitioners in the Global South and North. Journal of International Crisis and Risk Communication Research?,?7(1), 1–47. Retrieved from https://jicrcr.com/index.php/jicrcr/article/view/173

Shahbaznezhad, H., Dolan, R., & ?Rashidirad, M. (2022). The Role of Social Media Content Format and Platform in Users’ Engagement Behavior. American Marketing Association. 53 (1). Retrieved from https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1016/j.intmar.2020.05.001

Tyler Evans, Jasmine Molly, Serenity O. Eva and Aidan Miles. (2020). The Importance of Billboard Advertising. IDOSR JOURNAL OF COMMUNICATION AND ENGLISH 5(1) Retrieved from https://www.idosr.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/IDOSR-JCE-51-59-65-2020.-P5.pdf

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