Effects of a Televised Two-City Safer Sex Mass Media Campaign Targeting High-Sensation-Seeking and Impulsive-Decision-Making Young Adults

Abstract

This study evaluates the ability of a safer sex televised public service announcement (PSA) campaign to increase safer sexual behavior among at-risk young adults. Independent, monthly random samples of 100 individuals were surveyed in each city for 21 months as part of an interrupted-time-series design with a control community. The 3-month high-audience-saturation campaign took place in Lexington, KY, with Knoxville, TN, as a comparison city. Messages were especially designed and selected for the target audience (those above the median on a composite sensation-seeking/impulsive-decision-making scale). Data indicate high campaign exposure among the target audience, with 85%-96% reporting viewing one or more PSAs. Analyses indicate significant 5-month increases in condom use, condom-use self-efficacy, and behavioral intentions among the target group in the campaign city with no changes in the comparison city. The results suggest that a carefully targeted, intensive mass media campaign using televised PSAs can change safer sexual behaviors. Keywords mass media campaign; public service announcement; safer sex HIV prevention intervention research over the past 15 years has begun to show impressive results. A number of studies have shown delay of onset of sexual initiation (e.g., Coyle, Kirby, Marin, Gómez, & Gregorish, 2004), whereas other programs have led to significant increases in condom use in populations including heterosexually active individuals (see Johnson, Carey, Marsh, Levin, & Scott-Sheldon, 2003;Neumann et al., 2002, for reviews). However, most of these interventions have been implemented in small-group (e.g., Belza et al., 2001), school (e.g., Blake et al., 2003;Gallant & Maticka-Tyndale, 2004), or individuallevel clinical settings (e.g., Morrison-Beedy & Lewis, 2001). Mass media campaigns, such as televised public service announcement (PSA) campaigns, have recently been shown to be highly effective in changing a variety of behaviors (Hornik, 2002;Noar, 2006) 2001). For a number of reasons, however, the full potential of these types of media campaigns in the HIV prevention area has not yet been realized (Dejong, Wolf, & Austin, 2001;Myhre & Flora, 2000). In fact, campaigns focused on safer sexual behavior to date have tended to yield modest campaign effects (Snyder & Hamilton, 2002). Thus, we raise the following question: Can a televised PSA campaign based on formative research and sophisticated targeting principles change safer sexual beliefs and behaviors in at-risk young adults? The current study is a rigorous evaluation of a two-city, televised safer sex mass media campaign targeted toward increasing safer sex in young adults who are high sensation seekers and impulsive decision makers. HHS Public Access MASS MEDIA CAMPAIGNSAs noted by Randolph and Viswanath (2004), "Mass media campaigns to promote healthy behaviors and discourage unhealthy behaviors have become a major tool of public health practitioners in their efforts to improve the health of the public" (p. 419). Although the early h...

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