Over the last decade, electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) have emerged as novel and popular nicotine delivery devices. Although many smokers use e-cigarettes, evidence suggests these products are also growing in popularity among young adult non-smokers. It is therefore important to examine factors that may contribute to onset of electronic cigarette use among young adult non-smokers. Critics and supporters of electronic cigarettes have been disseminating anti and pro e-cigarette messages (respectively) and it is currently unclear what effect, if any, these messages exert on young adult non-smokers. Critics of electronic cigarettes advocate caution towards these products, while supporters of electronic cigarettes argue these products can serve as healthier replacements for conventional cigarettes. The present study sought to investigate the influence of caution and replacement messages on young adult non-smokers’ dispositions towards future e-cigarette use. Two hundred and four young-adult non-smokers participated in a between subjects single session design where they viewed one of three possible audiovisual presentations (a caution message, replacement message or control message). After viewing the presentation, participants completed measures and tasks assessing their likelihood of future e-cigarette use, including willingness and intention to try e-cigarettes, as well as a measure of e-cigarette outcome expectancies. Results indicated the caution message decreased self-reported willingness to use e-cigarettes and was associated with higher negative and lower positive e-cigarette expectancies. The replacement message did not influence self-reported willingness and intention to use e-cigarettes but was associated with decreases in negative e-cigarette expectancies. These findings suggest that public health e-cigarette messages could be developed to simultaneously advocate using e-cigarettes as a smoking alternative and caution against e-cigarette use for individuals not already dependent on nicotine.

Background: According to Stockholm’s Public Health report refugees have lowest selfreported health and there are indicators of inadequate access to health care. All asylum seekers are offered a health assessment opportunity which less than half of them utilize. To address health problems within the group Stockholm County decided to extend an educational program for those who receive residence permit, with 12 hours health communication. Uppsala University was given the responsibility to evaluation the initiative.   Purpose: The purpose of this study was to illustrate the experiences of the involved officials of the initiative, the pros and cons of the initiative and areas of improvement.   Method: The data for this study was collect through semi-structured interviews with three different categories of officials. The collected data was analyzed using content analysis.   Results: One of the key benefits of the initiative was that it helped participants use health care. The partnership was perceived as successful because of the good communication. The officials expressed challenges regarding the length of the health communication and the struggle to meet the participant’s needs.    Conclusion: This study shows that the initiative addressed some of the barriers migrants face regarding utilizing health care. The partnership was success due to factors similar to those for other successful health promotion projects and partnerships. The challenges related to the length of the programme, which can be attributed to poor initial analysis of the problem, is together with linkage of the initiative areas of improvement. / Bakgrund: Enligt folkhälsorapporten Stockholm lider gruppen flyktingar av ohälsa och det finns indikatorer för bristande tillgång till vården. Hälsoundersökningar erbjuds till alla asylsökande men mindre än hälften av dem utnyttjar det. I Stockholms län har man beslutat att utöka samhällsorinteringen, som är obligatoriskt för de som har fått upphållstillstånd, med 12 timmar hälsokommunikation för att behandla ohälsa. Uppsala Universitet har fått ansvar för utvärderingen.  Syfte: Syftet med studien är att belysa genomförandet av den utökade samhällsorienteringeni Stockholms län, för- och nackdelar samt förbättringsområden ur tjänstemännens perspektiv.   Metod: Studien har en kvalitativ design där semi-strukturerade intervjuer med tre olika grupper av tjänstemän i samverkansprojektet användes för att samla in data. Den insamlade data analyserades med hjälp av innehållsanalys.  Resultat: En av de upplevda fördelarna med insatsen är att man har lyckats hjälpa deltagarna att använda sig av hälso- och sjukvården. Samverkan upplevs ha varit framgångsrikt tack vara bland annat bra kommunikation. Hälsokommunikationens längd är en av utmaningarna man har haft i projektet, där man har haft svårigheter att tillgodose deltagarnas behov inom tidsramen.    Slutsats: Enligt studien upplever tjänstemännen att man med insatsen behandlat en del barriärer som nyanlända möter. Samverkan upplevs ha varit framgångsrik tack vare faktorer så som bra kommunikation som även varit framgångsfaktorer för likande samverkan. Problemet med hälsokommunikationens längd kan bero på en bristfällig initial analys vilket är tillsammans med förankringsarbetet förbättringsområden för samverkan.

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This study examines the depth of audience engagement with six dimensions of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) via the Instagram platforms of pharmaceutical companies. Recent research on the relationship between CSR and health communication has established a robust link between both variables but created a gap on the level of audience engagement. Drawing on Voluntary Disclosure, Agenda Setting and Media System Dependency theories, this study finds that voluntary communication of CSR strategies has the maximum potential to set the agenda for audience engagement on social media. The remodeled digitization of the media has increased the level of media dependency making social media a tool to be leveraged for effective health communication. The results revealed that Community Volunteering had the strongest impact on total audience engagement and revealed that engagement is higher with image posts than video posts. This study is important for the burgeoning field of CSR in the healthcare industry.

Endometriosis is a gynaecological disorder that affects an estimated 176 million women worldwide. Endometriosis causes serious societal impacts, such as loss of work productivity and effectiveness of non-work-related activities. Regardless that a significant number of women are impacted, many clinical questions remain unanswered, treatment failures are common, diagnosis takes an average of seven and a half years, and there is little investment in investigating disease mechanisms. At the same time, in the last few decades, endometriosis has been repeatedly mislabelled, which still presents indications on the current endometriosis care. Furthermore, there is still a tendency to exclude women's experiential knowledge, which presents one of the biggest burdens of endometriosis. The Degree Project demonstrates communication barriers to early diagnosis from 262 women using survey data and aims to understand women and medicine's power relations. Through this analysis, women's perspective is presented and discussed. The analytical discussion is divided into four chapters: medical knowledge, pain communication, desired communication support and experiential support. The study identifies how the relationship of knowledge and power impact pain communication and consequently the diagnosis of endometriosis. This study contributes to endometriosis, gender and communication for development studies by suggesting the incorporation of women’s experiential knowledge to address the challenges of pain communication and the diagnostic delay.

This study explored Facebook™ to capture the prevalence of driving safety promotion user groups, obtain user demographic information, to understand if Facebook™ user groups influence reported driving behaviors, and to gather a sense of perceived effectiveness of Facebook™ for driving safety promotion targeted to young adults. In total, 96 driving safety Facebook™ groups (DSFGs) were identified with a total of 33,368 members, 168 administrators, 156 officers, 1,598 wall posts representing 12 countries. A total of 85 individuals participated in the survey. Demographic findings of this study suggest that driving safety promotion can be targeted to young and older adults. Respondents' ages ranged from 18 to 66 years. A total of 62% of respondents aged ≤24 years and 57.8% of respondents aged ≥25 years reported changing their driving-related behaviors as a result of reading information on the DSFGs to which they belonged. A higher proportion of respondents ≥25 years were significantly more likely to report Facebook™ and YouTube™ as an effective technology for driving safety promotion. This preliminary study indicates that DSFGs may be effective tools for driving safety promotion among young adults. More research is needed to understand the cognition of Facebook™ users as it relates to adopting safe driving behavior. The findings from this study present descriptive data to guide public health practitioners for future health promotion activities on Facebook™.

This study explored Facebook™ to capture the prevalence of driving safety promotion user groups, obtain user demographic information, to understand if Facebook™ user groups influence reported driving behaviors, and to gather a sense of perceived effectiveness of Facebook™ for driving safety promotion targeted to young adults. In total, 96 driving safety Facebook™ groups (DSFGs) were identified with a total of 33,368 members, 168 administrators, 156 officers, 1,598 wall posts representing 12 countries. A total of 85 individuals participated in the survey. Demographic findings of this study suggest that driving safety promotion can be targeted to young and older adults. Respondents' ages ranged from 18 to 66 years. A total of 62% of respondents aged ≤24 years and 57.8% of respondents aged ≥25 years reported changing their driving-related behaviors as a result of reading information on the DSFGs to which they belonged. A higher proportion of respondents ≥25 years were significantly more likely to report Facebook™ and YouTube™ as an effective technology for driving safety promotion. This preliminary study indicates that DSFGs may be effective tools for driving safety promotion among young adults. More research is needed to understand the cognition of Facebook™ users as it relates to adopting safe driving behavior. The findings from this study present descriptive data to guide public health practitioners for future health promotion activities on Facebook™.

The purpose of this study was to explore the needs of women experiencing menopause. Since women at this time experience physical, social and emotional changes, they may have a special need for services. Doctors were selected as the population for study because they treat so many women at this age and because they are powerful transmitters of our culture. This exploratory study was designed to provide descriptive information about the doctors' perceptions. Results are reported from interviews with seventeen gynecologists from the Portland metropolitan area in Oregon. Attempts were made to interview all female gynecologists in the area. Male gynecologists were randomly sampled and the sample was stratified to ensure representation of doctors from a pre-paid medical plan. Doctors were questioned about definitions of menopause, treatment, and use of community resources. Overall, it was found that doctors hesitated to make generalizations about patients. This seemed especially true in regard to questions about the effects of menopause or the problems women experience. When speaking about both their definition of menopause and the types of problems associated with it, female physicians tended to limit responses to the biological aspects of menopause. Generally, it was the male doctors who stressed the social or emotional aspects. The major forms of primary treatment used by doctors were: hormone replacement therapy; talking to the patient (i.e. providing education or reassurance about menopause); or some combination of the two depending upon the individual patient's problem. Degree of hormone use varied among doctors. Yet, at some time, with some patients - all doctors used some form of hormone treatment. Generally, Kaiser doctors appeared to use a lower rate of hormone therapy than doctors in private practice. Most doctors were aware of the existence of community resources. Kaiser doctors tend to most frequently use their own social service department or mental health clinic to handle the other-than-medical problems patients might experience. The community resources which received the highest mention overall were mental health clinics and members of the clergy. The next most frequent category was other mental health professionals. Six of the seventeen doctors interviewed named services, not now in existence, which they would use if available. Those most frequently mentioned were groups and information & referral services. Most doctors believed that the needs of women at the time of menopause were different from the needs of other women. Most frequently mentioned were changes in the women's family structure, changes in her activities, and feelings of being no longer needed. Several doctors who were interviewed echoed researchers such as Bernice Neugarten and Pauline Bart in stressing the negative attitudes which our society has towards women at the age of menopause. In addition, many of the gynecologists expressed awareness of social needs. The results of the study indicate that doctors' services are primarily involved with treatment of medical or biological concerns, and referrals are generally to mental health resources. Several doctors mentioned social needs of the women; and as has been noted, the need for attitudinal change. Social workers can play important roles to bring about these changes. Two possible approaches are suggested: education to increase awareness of medical and social work professionals and the establishment of new resources to advocate for women at the time of menopause. Suggestions for further research are also given.