<p> This study examined the communicative construction of mental health in correctional work. Using narrative interviews with 25 current and former correctional officers, I explore how macro, meso, and micro D/discourses both enable and constrain communication and action around mental health for correctional employees. The findings suggest that larger cultural Discourses related to masculinity, bounded rationality, and personal responsibility, meso discourses related to organizational expectations, and daily micro-talk about mental health and resources such as the Employee Assistance Program, primarily create and sustain communication barriers that limit correctional workers from communicating about or seeking help for mental health challenges. From a critical perspective, D/discourses related to power and control privileged the rational experiences of workers and marginalized the emotional/physical experiences, a practice I argue has significant implications for the health and well-being of workers. </p><p>

The purpose of this study was to delve into the factors that might influence someone to adopt a health app and to ultimately adopt a healthy behavior. This research extended the use of diffusion of innovations theory to health-related mobile apps. In knowing more about the way that innovation attributes are used in real-world health app descriptions and in how those descriptions might influence the adoption decisions, not just of the health app but of the related health behavior, we might be able to impact the way that professionals communicate the need for healthy behaviors to people. This study used a content analysis of the top-rated mobile health app product descriptions and user reviews to design experimental stimuli that mirrored real-world app description pages. The experiment manipulated the use of statements of innovation attributes and examined the way participants described their likelihood to adopt an app and the associated healthy behaviors. The study found that diffusion of innovation attributes did not influence participants’ likelihood to adopt a health app or healthy behaviors, but those participants who reported tracking their own health, physical activity, and diet were more likely to download a health app and to perform the associated healthy behaviors. The study has implications for the qualities health educators or healthcare professionals attempt to educate and persuade people about their health.

The main idea of Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) is to combine with multimedia and all interesting shareholders, and concentrate on the major audiences. It has been used in several fields because of its integrated characteristic. In the past, the field of health communication only focused on the dimension of public health, but now both of the smoke industry and drug industry use the varieties of promotion skills to persuade people to buy tobacco and patent medicine. Therefore, the field of health communication should try to use integrated conception to promote correct ideas and then measure the effect of promotion and revise the strategy. The research studies the effect of using IMC strategy in popularizing smoke-free restaurant. The author uses the secondhand data of the popularization program of smoke-free restaurant and then uses questionnaire to try to understand the cognition¡Battitude and behavior of people who eat in the smoke-free restaurant in Kaohsiung city. The research also wants to measure whether or not the program sends ¡§one voice¡¨ to the consumers. The results of the empirical research find out the popularization program of smoke-free restaurant sends ¡§one voice¡¨ to the consumers so that the consumers can easily understand what smoke-free restaurant is. Besides, the cognition of the consumers is relevant with the attitude of the consumers and then the attitude of the consumers is relevant with the behavior of the consumers. Therefore, besides delivering the coherent message with IMC for promotion of Smoke-free restaurant, IMC also does achieve the best effect as a tool for promotion of health communication.

Stories can play a crucial role in conveying health information to audiences. Several theories have been used to describe cognitive processing of narratives and subsequent belief change; yet there have been no comparative studies to date examining these theories.A primary objective was to compare transportation, flow, and AIME. A secondary objective of this study was to examine previous experience with a health issue as a possible moderator between exposure to entertainment television narratives and subsequent belief change. This is important to examine because previous experience may predispose audience members to have more durable attitudes.A pre-test/post-test experimental design was used to test theories of cognitive processing of narrative entertainment television programs with three different health topics: binge drinking, problem-eating behavior, and unprotected sexual intercourse. Stimuli were drawn from one-hour, broadcast television programming. Measures of the theories, health related beliefs, and previous experience with the three health issues were assessed.Findings revealed that different constructs represented in the three theories were significant predictors of belief change. Results showed that while most individual constructs of theories predicted belief change, the theories were not interchangeable. An analysis of the extent to which participants reported cognitive processing according to each theory revealed more flow and AIME experienced in comparison to transportation. Reports of flow and AIME were equal in a third condition. More globally, all three theories accounted for a significant portion of belief change, but no differentiation was evidenced between the theories in their ability to predict belief change.In analyses of the effects of exposure to television narratives, belief change was significant in all three treatment conditions. Previous experience with a health issue did not impede belief change following exposure to television narratives. This lends support to theorizing about cognitive processing of narratives in that previous experience with an issue may enhance story-consistent beliefs.Overall, findings demonstrate that a more fruitful endeavor in future research on the persuasive impact of narratives is to devote attention to the underlying constructs of theories, rather than assuming cognitive processes are the same among theories.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / This qualitative study explored the communication experiences of clinical educators who provide patient education on behalf of pharmaceutical company sponsors. It investigated how these educators navigate a medical encounter within the domain of three regulatory drivers—on-label compliance, fair-balance presentation, and adverse event reporting. The study used the ecological model of communication in medical encounters and the theory of Communication Privacy Management (CPM) as the lenses for interpreting the data. The main data were telephonic interviews with twenty-six clinical educators who delivered education services for pharmaceutical companies. Member checking, in the form of three post-interview focus groups, was also used. Seven themes emerged: (a) political/legal contexts factors greatly influenced clinical educators’ communication with patients; (b) the influence of factors within this contexts would frequently force educators to experience ethical dilemmas; (c) a new context, the disease and treatment context, emerged from the interviews as having significant influence in the conversation dynamics; (d) educators employed communication strategies to better navigate within the political/legal and disease and treatment context ecological factors; (e) educators believed they needed to establish and maintain trust throughout the engagement process for them to successfully solicit meaningful patient disclosures; (f) educators managed the information disclosed to them by patients using routinized rules as well as changing rules; and (g) educators managed multiple types of confidant roles with patients including stakeholder, deliberate, and reluctant. A main implication for this study is that educators feel ethically and morally bound to do whatever was necessary to avoid breaching the trust they established with patients. For some, this attitude prevailed over their obligation to deliver a compliant educational engagement. Hence, pharmaceutical companies need to recognize that for many of their clinical educators, the question of whether to be compliant is not a legal or policy matter. It is a moral and ethical issue. That being said, educators were also skilled at using communication strategies to navigate through the compliance and disease and treatment barriers that functioned as self-management barriers. Many of those skills often served to influence the way educators created privacy rules and managed privacy decisions related to their patient engagements.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Metaphors are used to conceptualize one thing in terms of another that is more familiar or concrete. The use of metaphors in patient-provider communication has helped providers generate empathy and explain concepts effectively, improving patient satisfaction and understanding of health-related concepts. With advances in technology, concepts related to health monitoring have become increasingly complex, making the potential for using metaphors in health communication at its highest relevancy. With the increase in health data there is a need to improve tools to help people understand complex information. Ethical considerations, such as possible misinterpretation of health data, as well as the potential to widen disparities because of factors such as health literacy, must be addressed. Metaphors are powerful tools that can make explanation of information accessible, accurate, and effective for people who are monitoring their data. The current research aims to contribute design recommendations for using metaphors in communication between clinicians and patients for monitoring biventricular (BiV) pacing, a complex device data element used in the monitoring of patients with heart failure (HF) who have cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) devices. The overarching goal is to understand this process such that it can be applied to broader communication needs in health informatics. The study addresses the following aims: Aim 1: Identify metaphors clinicians use to conceptualize BiV pacing for CRT devices using semi-structured interviews with clinician experts. Aim 2: Identify metaphors that help patients conceptualize BiV pacing for CRT devices using semi-structured interviews with patients, and exploring the metaphors identified in Aim 1. Aim 3: Develop design recommendations for health informatics interventions using an understanding of metaphors that help patients understand BiV pacing for CRT devices. Themes from analysis of Aims 1 and 2 contribute to recommendations for the use of metaphors in health informatics interventions. The purpose of this work is to contribute to an in-depth understanding of metaphors in a specific health informatics context. Importantly, this research applies methods and principles from the field of health communication to address a communication-related issue in health informatics. / 2022-12-28

No description available.

Patient education often aims to activate behaviours for health management. Assumptions of a fundamental desire for information and learning as a pre-requisite for self-management are countered by the fact that some patients refuse or selectively attend to health information. The complex and emotional context surrounding illness and disease may reduce the patient’s openness or willingness to engage with information. Perceptions of a non-compliant, resistant or difficult patient are accompanied with little understanding of the underlying factors. The goal of this research was to explore the cognitive and emotional factors underlying the patient’s readiness to learn or cognitively engage with information regarding diabetes management. This study was conducted using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, which draws from the educational experiences of patients with diabetes and interprets their narratives within the context of existing research and theory. A maximum variation sample of 19 adults with Type II diabetes from a primary care clinic and a tertiary care hemodialysis unit participated in an interview. Three main themes emerged: underlying incongruence in knowledge, thoughts and beliefs; relational talking; and negotiating control. Themes converged on the essence of ‘distance’ between the patient’s lifeworld and the disease and its management. When considered in relation to cognitive dissonance and psychological distance theories, psychological adjustment and relational challenges were revealed. Adjustment involved reconciling difference and dissonance at various points during diabetes management. Distance also threatened the adjustment process and in some cases generated defensive reactions. Adjustment and relational challenges have a bearing on the early stages of the learning process. Differentiating the message according to concrete and abstract information may be more conducive to a staged learning process and offer a more tangible understanding of ‘finding common ground’ within patient-centered communication. These factors underlying readiness to learn have been reported by patients with diabetes and require further consideration for tailoring communication and education to support person-centred care and self-management. / October 2016

The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and the Cooperative Extension System are organizations that serve the public and agricultural communities, respectively. Within these broad organizations are two groups of food systems professionals, registered dietitian nutritionists (RDNs) and Extension agents, who are utilizing communication as a critical point of access for health-related issues. Both groups of professionals negotiate organizational structure in order to construct their own health knowledge and, subsequently, communicate accurate information to their constituents. Understanding the ways that these professionals navigate their roles as health communicators are important for contributing to public discourse about how health knowledge is created and disseminated. Specifically, for the first article, I conducted semi-structured interviews with RDNs to analyze the ways in which they navigate both commercial and health messaging from industry groups at their largest organizational meeting. Industry affiliations have historically been a controversial aspect of Academy operations, yet little research has explored RDNs unique experiences with industry. Findings revealed RDNs have varied interpretations of industry messages and are utilizing strategies to negotiate interactions with industry. The spectrum of RDN interpretation suggests that formal dietetic training should address media literacy strategies in order to help RDNs navigate a complex message landscape. For the second article, through national focus groups with Extension professionals, I sought to understand how Extension is responding to healthcare reform changes and how this has translated into programming for their constituents. Extension participants reported a lack of available resources to improve their own health insurance knowledge, which has impacted their abilities to serve their constituents effectively. Findings emphasized a need for both collaborations both within Extension and across other agencies in order to improve health insurance access for agricultural communities. By researching these two organizations, I hope to contribute to new understandings about how professionals navigate and communicate knowledge related to public health. Both articles have practical implications for each group, and they also offer examples of opportunities to utilize leverage points for structural change within the food system.

Master of Science / Journalism and Mass Communications / Nancy W. Muturi / Kenyan society has seen problems with alcohol abuse and has seen many deaths related to illicitly brewed alcohol. A Kenyan government body, The National Authority for the Campaign Against Alcohol and Drug Abuse (NACADA), has done research about the problem, but very few outsiders have performed research in this area. This research seeks to study the problem from outside of the standard government framework while using a cultural approach. The purpose of this project is to document the alcohol abuse problem in Kenya, and what methods of mass communication, if any, could be used to help convey a solution to the problem. It is to provide a firsthand account of the alcohol abuse problem that plagues the East African nation in an effort to bring more and awareness to the situation. To document the situation, I interviewed several key cultural figures chosen based on their affiliation with the academic, religious, medial or cultural framework of Kenyan society. Each person was asked a serious of questions regarding the alcohol problem in Kenya, what could be done from their particular perspective, and how the media have and could influence the situation. The information gathered indicated that the alcohol problem is widespread in Kenya, that the people with alcohol problems tend to be men, and that the problem is multifaceted and very complex. Many factors contribute to the problem, such as idleness, poverty, unemployment, and more, and the problem affects many more people than just the people drinking the alcohol. The information gathered is meant to help provide suggestions to helping solve this problem in Kenya. Recommendations from this research will provide guidance for those who are trying to create media campaigns to combat alcohol abuse in Kenya.