Masculine culture is known for teaching men to be strong, independent, and in control; however, the presence of chronic illness creates challenges for men when attempting to uphold a dominant masculine identity and make disclosure decisions about sharing illness information. This study explores the intersection between illness related self-disclosure and masculine culture. Utilizing qualitative methods, it examines the challenges chronically ill men face when making decisions about self-disclosure. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with five men (N=5) who have one or more chronic illnesses. Transcripts were analyzed and coded using grounded theory to identify emergent themes. The analysis revealed three primary themes and several secondary and tertiary themes. The three primary themes are: 1) participant expression of masculine culture; 2) communication challenges; and 3) disclosure strategies. Participants’ accounts of their experiences with living with chronic illness are positioned within literature on chronic illnesses, self-disclosure, and masculine culture.

The current study empirically tested four models of type II diabetic patient adherence, including wellness, screening, medication, and treatment adherence. Four mediators were proposed patient understanding, agreement, trust, and motivation were tested for each model. The current study is grounded in patient-centered communication, responding to Street’s (2013) call to model pathways between communication and patient health outcomes. Moreover, the study argues that adherence, for type II diabetic patients should be conceptualized as four distinct clusters of behavior (wellness, screening, medication, and treatment). A sample of (n=817) type II diabetes patients from the U.S. under the care of a medical provider and taking medication for their type II diabetes were surveyed. Findings from the present study indicate that the relationship between patient-centered communication and patient-health outcomes is mediated by proximal outcomes. The results contribute to our understanding or patient-centered communication, patient understanding, agreement, trust, and motivation, and adherence behaviors. Resulted indicated that while three of the four proposed hypotheses were supported, the most commonly studied type of adherence (medication), the relationship between patient-centered communication and medication adherence was not mediated. The current study ends with a discussion and implication of the findings as well as directions for future research

The Live Well Springfield (LWS) movement is a collaborative effort of partner organizations in Springfield, Massachusetts. The project promotes healthy living by increasing knowledge and awareness of food and physical activity. A key LWS strategy was the creation of a website to function as an information hub. In addition to local event and health information, the website features 16 narratives depicting residents practicing healthy lifestyle choices, designed to encourage community engagement. To date, there has been no evaluation of the website’s reach and effect. A mixed methods approach, surveys and focus group discussions, was designed to collect data from people who live, work, or attend school in Springfield. Focus group participants were recruited in person at Springfield Community College, via recruitment posters (distributed at STCC), and through email requests from a previously compiled list of residents willing to be contacted. A website evaluation survey was developed using eHealth research constructs and the Expectation-Confirmation Model (ECM). This survey measured users’ perceived quality and satisfaction with the website. The survey was accessible via the livewellspringfield.org homepage, the LWS Facebook page, and emailed directly to potential respondents. The validated eHealth Literacy Scale (eHEALS) was incorporated into the survey and focus group sessions to assess self-reported skills for using eHealth resources. Each hour-long focus group (n=5 and n=6, respectively) was video/audio recorded and fully transcribed. Focus group transcripts were analyzed to thematically organize responses to narratives and fact-based health messages and assess the appeal, relevance, effectiveness, perceived purpose, and appropriateness. Survey data was analyzed to produce frequencies, descriptive statistics, and correlations. A mean eHEALS score of 4.22 of 5.00 (SD=0.83) was calculated from 36 responses, suggesting this sample felt very knowledgeable and confident using eHealth resources. Health Literacy Advisor (HLA) software was used to analyze an aggregate of all narratives, resulting in a Fry-based reading grade level of 8.4. On a five-point Likert scale, mean satisfaction with the website was 4.71 (SD=0.53), and mean likelihood to return was 4.76 (SD=0.51). Content analysis of focus group transcripts resulted in 184 responses coded for one or more themes. The largest proportion of responses (40.2%) related to effectiveness. One third of these effectiveness-related responses were negative toward the fact-based examples. Although the narratives were greatly preferred in both groups, all respondents made comments or agreed with suggestions to have both affective narratives and strictly fact-based health messages accessible, regardless of initial preferences. Results and interpretations will be reported to LWS partners to inform potential revisions of the website revisions and contribute to ongoing activities of the LWS initiative.

In the United States, stigma surrounding mental illness is ever present. With a large misrepresentation from the media, those suffering with mental illnesses, like eating disorders, often face different types of social rejection. Due to the stigma surrounding mental illness, and eating disorders, the disclosure of such an illness to another person can result in a negative impression of the sender. There is little research looking at how mental illness disclosures can affect the formation of a romantic relationship, specifically from the perspective of the receiver of a disclosure. Looking specifically at the format of mobile dating apps, this study looks at how a receiver’s initial attraction to a person changes, based on the presence of an eating disorder disclosure. Results found a correlation between stigma and attraction, however, disclosure type had no effect on attraction, or stigma.

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Health is one of the most important issues in the lives of human beings and has a direct effect on the well-being of a country’s citizens and its economy. Researchers emphasise the role of communication in maintaining health and well-being, and in preventingdisease by changing behaviour. In a multilingual society such as South Africa, health communication documents are often translated for distribution to different language groups. However, the translation of health-related communication documents, specifically for use by low-literate target audiences, poses many challenges, especially in cases where there is a considerable distance between the source text and the target cultures. Translators who work in the field of health communication require specific strategies that will enable them to effectively transfer health-related information that is steeped in cultural meaning while taking into consideration aspects such as stigma and taboo. This study explores the challenges faced during the translation from English into isiZulu of a photonovel called An ounce of prevention, a health document about cervical cancer originally developed for a Latin American audience. This text relies heavily on cultural elements to convey messages. Through an overview of Christiane Nord’s model of Functionality +Loyalty (2005), as well as Larkey and Hecht’s (2010) model of Effects of Narratives as Culture-Centric Health Promotion, a set of analytic heuristics was distilled and applied as a tool to systematically identify cultural elements in the photonovel to ensure that a translation into isiZulu would be culturally acceptable to a Zulu target audience. The purpose of analytic heuristics is to assist translators’ understanding of the communicative situation in which the source text was produced. Once they have been equipped with necessary knowledge of the communication situation and have a sound understanding of the photonovel as a text, translators should be able to systematically identify culture-specific elements in the source text. Thereafter they can establish the cultural distance between the source text culture and the target text communication situation to ensure that all narrative characteristics from both the personal and socio-cultural levels of the narrative inform the concepts of transportation, identification and social profiling. Translators are thus equipped to make informed decisions regarding the translation of specific challenges identified in the source text that would make the target text culturally unacceptable to the target culture. Once the heuristics have been applied to excerpts from the photonovel that pose intercultural challenges, it is concluded that cultural elements and linguistic norms have been successfully identified in the source text and have been appropriately re-contextualised in the target text to ensure that the original message is conveyed. It is assumed that the analytic heuristics will also be useful in ensuring the effective translation of other culture-centric texts without changing the original message. / Mini Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2018. / African Languages / MA / Unrestricted

Background: To be able to live independently, older persons can use technology-based health communication (HC) for support, guidance, and contact with health care professionals within their home environment. Informal caregivers who assist in different situations can also find support in their caring role using technology. The study of mobile technologies is an important research area in gerontechnology. Nevertheless, there is a gap of research in technology-based HC utilized by older persons, including preferences related to cognitive impairment (CI) in a home environment. Aim: The overall aim of the thesis was to define the concept and describe experiences of HC within the home environment from a gerontechnological perspective. The aim of Study I was to identify and construct the meaning of HC from the perspective of older persons in need of care in the home environment and their informal caregivers. The aim of Study II was to describe how older persons with CI experienced technology-based HC through the use of a mobile application in order to facilitate a sense of coherence. Method: This thesis has a naturalistic approach. In Study I, the evolutionary model of concept analysis was used, based on a systematic literature review including 29 studies. In Study II, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 16 older persons with CI. The transcripts were analyzed with a deductive thematic analysis. Findings: The defining attributes of the concept HC identified in Study I were: Resources of the recipient, Influence on decisions, and Advantages of tailored information. These attributes led to the following descriptive definition of HC: Tailored information, based on needs and resources of the recipient influence care decisions. The findings of Study II resulted in an overall theme: A technology that supports but creates challenges. Further, the analysis yielded the following three themes, with associated subthemes: Making sense of mobile technologies, Mastering mobile technologies, and Added value to use mobile technologies. Conclusion: Technology-based HC utilized by older persons and their informal caregivers within the home environment emphasizes suiting needs, capacity and preferences to be considered useful. Influences of the context, the home environment also needs to be taken into account when developing technology-based HC and mobile technologies for this purpose.

Thesis (M. A. (Communication Studies)) -- University of Limpopo, 2019 / Globally, over the years, health promotion organisations have developed communication campaigns geared towards addressing most major public health issues with the intention of preventing risky sexual behaviour. Teenage pregnancy is a major health, social, systemic and economic challenge, not only for the basic education sector but also, crucially for national development in general. The use of modern contraceptives, specifically implant contraceptives, has the potential to alleviate unintended teenage pregnancies. Modern contraceptives such as implant contraceptives have proven to be highly effective from 24 hours after insertion up to three years. Theoretically, the Health Belief Model and the Theory of Planned Behaviour have been applied to guide the study. A quantitative, descriptive survey was used in this study, with data collected using questionnaires. Purposive sampling of six secondary schools under the Mankweng Circuit in the Limpopo province where 306 participants were randomly selected was employed. Data were analysed using the SPSS version 26. The study revealed that that 34% of the participants were willing to use the implant contraceptive method based on the benefits found to be associated with the method. However, 66% were not willing to use the method regardless of the benefits found in using the implant contraceptives. In addition, it was found that only 3.9% of the participants were using implant contraceptives as a tool to prevent unintended pregnancies. This study makes a contribution to existing literature on implant contraceptives uptake among young women in South Africa. It would be informative to organisations and the National Department of Health who propose the use of implant contraceptives to stem increasing teenage pregnancies.

The world is experiencing a rapid rise in chronic health problems, which places an enormous burden on health care services. Modifiable health behaviors such as physical inactivity are largely responsible for this high prevalence and incidence of chronic diseases. Message tailoring is a well-established approach for constructing health communication and has been shown to increase the persuasiveness of messages in the promotion of healthy behaviors. Message framing is an effective strategy that has been well-studied in psychology over the past 20-plus years across a breadth of health-related behaviors but has received little attention in the nursing research literature. Based on prospect theory, temporal construal theory, and motivational orientation theories, the present study examined how two individual differences factors - consideration of future consequences (CFC) and motivational orientation - combine to moderate temporal proximity and valence framing effects on intentions to increase physical activity. A mail survey was conducted using Dillman's Tailored Design Method. Two hundred and eighteen adults with type 2 diabetes were randomly assigned to receive one of four versions of a health message aimed to increase regular physical activity. Messages were framed using a 2 (immediate- vs. distal-framed) x 2 (gain- vs. loss-framed) design. After reading the message, participants rated their intention to increase physical activity. They also completed a measure of CFC and two measures of motivational orientation. Participants who read a message with a temporal proximity or valence frame congruent with their CFC or motivational orientation, respectively, did not show greater intentions to increase physical activity when compared to those who read a health message that was incongruent with these individual differences. Plausible explanations for these negative results are considered. Several interesting findings emerged from supplemental analyses. For instance, participants who perceived the health message as more believable tended to have greater intentions to increase physical activity. Suggestions for future research applying message congruence to promote complex health behaviors in at-risk populations are given. Implications of message framing and other message tailoring strategies for nursing research, education, and practice are discussed.

More celebrities have been opening up about the mental illness (MI) journey, despite its stigmatized status in society. This shift has become popular with some rap artists, including Kanye West, Logic, and NF. However, little research exists on mental health rhetoric in the rap industry. In this project, I contributed to filling this gap by looking at the lyrics of American rapper, NF. Because his music is rising popularity and heavily focused on MI experience, NF was a worthy rhetor to study. I used Fantasy Theme Analysis to discover the fantasy themes present in NF’s album The Search. These fantasy themes present bind together to create a rhetorical vision of how NF experiences an internal war because of his MI. NF’s experiences may be shared by his listeners that also deal with the complexities of MI and its associated stigma. By talking about his MI experiences openly and honestly, NF and other celebrities can use their public platform to increase feelings of belongingness and reduce feelings of self-stigma.