Has public health messaging during the COVID-19 pandemic reflected local risks to health?: A content analysis of tweeting practices across Canadian geographies

Slavik, Catherine E.; Darlington, John; Buttle, Charlotte; Sturrock, Shelby L.; Yiannakoulias, Niko

doi:10.1016/j.healthplace.2021.102568

Cited by 18 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…Social media platforms, such as Twitter, provide channels that help move actors away from one-way or top-down communication towards interactive communication with the public. Twitter reported its largest gain in daily users globally during COVID-19 [ 29 ], making it an important platform by which to evaluate official crisis communication.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Timely and interactive crisis communication is a key aspect of building and maintaining trust in crisis actors [ 33 ]. The strategic use of guiding principles has been previously associated with higher engagement during the Ebola [ 33 ] and COVID-19 [ 29 ] crises. Recent research indicates that a lack of engagement in COVID-19 tweets was associated with actors providing general information that was aimed at the community-level rather than being targeted towards various subpopulations [ 29 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Our study revealed low and inconsistent use of guiding principles for crisis communication from government, politicians, and public health during COVID-19. A recent study examining COVID-19 tweets also found low use of risk communication strategies across similar account types [ 29 ]. Of the 10 accounts we examined, low use of clarity, compassion and empathy, correction of misinformation, and transparency was found.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Research examining tweets by federal actors during COVID-19 in Canada have focused on message function such as use of hashtags and the relationship to engagement [ 28 ], and message form such as providing information about COVID-19 risk [ 29 ]. No research has focused on the guiding principles for effective crisis communication using Twitter in Canada.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Canadian COVID-19 Crisis Communication on Twitter: Mixed Methods Research Examining Tweets from Government, Politicians, and Public Health for Crisis Communication Guiding Principles and Tweet Engagement

MacKay

Cimino

Yousefinaghani

et al. 2022

IJERPH

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To foster trust on social media during a crisis, messages should implement key guiding principles, including call to action, clarity, conversational tone, compassion and empathy, correction of misinformation, and transparency. This study describes how crisis actors used guiding principles in COVID-19 tweets, and how the use of these guiding principles relates to tweet engagement. Original, English language tweets from 10 federal level government, politician, and public health Twitter accounts were collected between 11 March 2020 and 25 January 2021 (n = 6053). A 60% random sample was taken (n = 3633), and the tweets were analyzed for guiding principles. A tweet engagement score was calculated for each tweet and logistic regression analyses were conducted to model the relationship between guiding principles and tweet engagement. Overall, the use of guiding principles was low and inconsistent. Tweets that were written with compassion and empathy, or conversational tone were associated with greater odds of having higher tweet engagement. Across all guiding principles, tweets from politicians and public health were associated with greater odds of having higher tweet engagement. Using a combination of guiding principles was associated with greater odds of having higher tweet engagement. Crisis actors should consistently use relevant guiding principles in crisis communication messages to improve message engagement.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Canadian COVID-19 Crisis Communication on Twitter: Mixed Methods Research Examining Tweets from Government, Politicians, and Public Health for Crisis Communication Guiding Principles and Tweet Engagement

MacKay

Cimino

Yousefinaghani

et al. 2022

IJERPH

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Our analysis provides a unique perspective on socioeconomic, racial/ethnic, and spatial disparities during the pandemic in the USA. Numerous studies have focused on geographic dimensions of COVID-19-related inequality, [90,91,92,93,94,95,96,97] but few have examined spatial differences in vaccination below the state level. [59,98,99,100] The temporal persistence of geographical vaccination disparities is particularly underexplored.…”

Section: Overviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

COVID-19 Vaccine Rollouts and the Reproduction of Urban Spatial Inequality: Disparities Within Large US Cities in March and April 2021 by Racial/Ethnic and Socioeconomic Composition

DiRago

Tom

et al. 2022

J Urban Health

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Rollouts of COVID-19 vaccines in the USA were opportunities to redress disparities that surfaced during the pandemic. Initial eligibility criteria, however, neglected geographic, racial/ethnic, and socioeconomic considerations. Marginalized populations may have faced barriers to then-scarce vaccines, reinforcing disparities. Inequalities may have subsided as eligibility expanded. Using spatial modeling, we investigate how strongly local vaccination levels were associated with socioeconomic and racial/ethnic composition as authorities first extended vaccine eligibility to all adults. We harmonize administrative, demographic, and geospatial data across postal codes in eight large US cities over 3 weeks in Spring 2021. We find that, although vaccines were free regardless of health insurance coverage, local vaccination levels in March and April were negatively associated with poverty, enrollment in means-tested public health insurance (e.g., Medicaid), and the uninsured population. By April, vaccination levels in Black and Hispanic communities were only beginning to reach those of Asian and White communities in March. Increases in vaccination were smaller in socioeconomically disadvantaged Black and Hispanic communities than in more affluent, Asian, and White communities. Our findings suggest vaccine rollouts contributed to cumulative disadvantage. Populations that were left most vulnerable to COVID-19 benefited least from early expansions in vaccine availability in large US cities.

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Cross fertilisation of Public Health and Translational Research

2022

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Public health is defined as the science of protecting the safety and improving the health of communities through education, policy-making and research for the prevention of disease (Gatseva and Argirova in J Public Health 19(3):205–6, 2011, 10.1007/s10389-011-0412-8; Winslow in Mod Med 2(1306):183–91, 1920. 10.1126/science.51.1306.23; What is public health. Centers for Disease Control Foundation. Centers for Disease Control, Atlanta, https://www.cdcfoundation.org/what-public-health ; What is the WHO definition of health? from the Preamble to the Constitution of WHO as adopted by the International Health Conference, New York, On 7 April 1948. The definition has not been amended since. 22 July 1946; signed by the representatives of 61 States (Official Records of WHO, no. 2, p. 100) and entered into force, 19 June;1948. https://web.archive.org/web/20190307113324/https:/www.who.int/about/who-we-are/frequently-asked-questions ). Translational research in healthcare is not only useful and satisfying for the researchers to bring their work to market but it would also support public health by bringing affordable, attainable and scalable solutions to the community at large. This is of high significance because instead of increasing the GDP spent in public health, we should focus on the increasing the translational research spending, as this would lead to improved solutions. Hence, the public health offering would reach a larger community at an improved cost. The COVID-19 pandemic and the huge number of lives it claimed exposes challenges in the public health. The pandemic has caused economic and social disruption to millions of people around the world, with many falling into extreme poverty. In early 2021, it was estimated nearly 690 million people are undernourished and by end of 2021 to increase further by 132 million (Joint statement by ILO, FAO, IFAD and WHO. Impact of COVID-19 on people's livelihoods, their health and our food systems https://www.who.int/news/item/13-10-2020-impact-of-covid-19-on-people's-livelihoods-their-health-and-our-food-systems ). The spending for public health has increased many folds during the pandemic and this is where translational research in healthcare can play a transformative role to reduce the burden on government healthcare budget (Covid-19 and its impact on Indian society. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/readersblog/covid-19-and-its-impact-on-india/covid-19-and-its-impact-on-indian-society-27565/ ). Over the past decade, public health research has started playing a major role in Indian academic settings. COVID-19 pandemic has further highlighted the role of public health. However, the potential of using technological advancement has not been fully utilised. This is where translational research and public health can play a role to tap the full potential of technology. This review paper explores the public health practices to understand the different practices to examine how both publ...

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Has public health messaging during the COVID-19 pandemic reflected local risks to health?: A content analysis of tweeting practices across Canadian geographies

Cited by 18 publications

References 36 publications

Canadian COVID-19 Crisis Communication on Twitter: Mixed Methods Research Examining Tweets from Government, Politicians, and Public Health for Crisis Communication Guiding Principles and Tweet Engagement

Canadian COVID-19 Crisis Communication on Twitter: Mixed Methods Research Examining Tweets from Government, Politicians, and Public Health for Crisis Communication Guiding Principles and Tweet Engagement

COVID-19 Vaccine Rollouts and the Reproduction of Urban Spatial Inequality: Disparities Within Large US Cities in March and April 2021 by Racial/Ethnic and Socioeconomic Composition

Cross fertilisation of Public Health and Translational Research

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