Once promised to revolutionize health care, patient portals have yet to fully achieve their potential of improving communication between patients and clinicians. In fact, their use can be detrimental to many consumers due to their limited literacy and numeracy skills. This study demonstrates how applying the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Clear Communication Index to a patient portal can be used to identify opportunities for better patient communication and engagement. The Clear Communication Index contains 20 scored items grounded in communication science to enhance patients’ understanding of health information. The Index was applied to one portal used by over 80,000 patients in 12 primary care practices: MyPreventiveCare. This portal was selected because of its ability to personalize preventive and chronic care information by internally using content featuring health literacy principles and linking patients’ externally to trusted materials. Thirty-seven frequently visited portal pages (17 internal and 20 external) were evaluated based on the Index’s four main variables. The overall score for the portal was 72%, which falls below the 90% threshold to be considered clear communication. Internal content scored higher than external (75% vs. 69%). Specific changes to improve the score include simpler language, more specific examples, and clearer numerical explanations.
Health mis/disinformation can negatively impact health decisions and ultimately, health outcomes. Mis/disinformation related to COVID-19 vaccines has influenced vaccine hesitancy during a very critical time during the pandemic when globally, the vaccine was needed to attenuate the spread of the COVID-19 virus. This paper examines persuasive strategies used in Twitter posts, particular those with antivaccine sentiment. The authors developed a predictive model using variables based on the Elaboration Likelihood Model, Social Judgement Theory and the Extended Parallel Process Model to determine which persuasive tactics resulted in antivaccine, provaccine and neutral sentiment. The study also used machine learning to validate the persuasion variable algorithm to detect persuasion tactics in COVID-19 vaccine online discourse on Twitter. Understanding persuasive tactics used in antivaccine messaging can inform the development of a data-driven counter-response strategy.
Military deployments can place stress on family members that can affect their physiological and psychological health. Although there has been much research on online social support in healthrelated groups, there is limited research on online social support in a deployment context. The researchers of this study conducted a content analysis of 151 discussion threads related to military deployments in an online forum for the significant others (SOs) of service members to examine the types of social support messages enacted between SOs. These enacted social support messages were further analyzed for each phase of the deployment cycle. Results showed that information and emotional support were the most frequent types of social support enacted by SOs during a deployment cycle. Information support was the most commonly requested type of social support during the pre-deployment and post-deployment phases, while emotional support was requested most often during the deployment phase. In response to the requests for social support, information support was the most commonly provided type of social support during the pre-deployment phase, while emotional support was the most commonly provided type of social support during the deployment and post-deployment phases.
The Sesame Street Talk, Listen, Connect (TLC) initiative is a multimedia example of Entertainment-Education that leveraged the popular Sesame Street platform to deliver key information to military families about how to communicate with children about feelings related to deployment and homecomings, and other tough issues related to military life. This paper is organized as an in-depth case study of the TLC initiative, including interviews with key program developers. The research analyzes the TLC initiative as an exemplar of Entertainment-Education, and compares this example of Entertainment-Education to a strategic communication model. Known and accepted models of strategic communication that appear widely in the literature were referenced. To develop an Entertainment-Education model, a review of the relevant literature was conducted and social cognitive theory, elaboration likelihood model and diffusion of innovation theory were employed as foundational theoretical frameworks. Recommendations for future research on Entertainment-Education as a type of strategic communication are included.
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