Risky Business: New York City’s Experience With Fear-Based Public Health Campaigns

Fairchild, Amy L.; Bayer, Ronald; Colgrove, James

doi:10.1377/hlthaff.2014.1236

Cited by 18 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…Fear arousal messaging, vividly showing people the negative health consequences of life-endangering behaviors, has been identified as a method to increase awareness of risk behaviors and to change them into health-promoting behaviors (Kok, Bartholomew, Parcel, Gottlieb, & Fernandez, 2014). For instance, the city of New York used a fear appeal public health media campaign that emphasized the lifelong suffering of those affected by effects of smoking-related illness by widely distributing imagery of the men with permanent tracheotomies (Fairchild, Bayer, & Colgrove, 2015). Similar fear-based approaches have been conducted to diminish obesity rates and HIV/AIDS incidence in the city of New York (Fairchild et al, 2015).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For instance, the city of New York used a fear appeal public health media campaign that emphasized the lifelong suffering of those affected by effects of smoking-related illness by widely distributing imagery of the men with permanent tracheotomies (Fairchild, Bayer, & Colgrove, 2015). Similar fear-based approaches have been conducted to diminish obesity rates and HIV/AIDS incidence in the city of New York (Fairchild et al, 2015). However, while an individuals’ subjective appraisal of personal susceptibility and severity may motivate them to take action, it has been suggested that self-efficacy and outcome expectations moderate this action (Champion & Skinner, 2008).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Hispanic Male’s Perspectives of Health Behaviors Related to Weight Management

2015

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Hispanic males have the highest prevalence of overweight and obesity among men in the United States; yet are significantly underrepresented in weight loss research. The purpose of the current study was to examine Hispanic male’s perspectives of health behaviors related to weight management to refine the methodologies to deliver a gender-sensitive and culturally sensitive weight loss intervention. From October 2014 to April 2015, semistructured interviews were conducted with 14 overweight Hispanic men of ages 18 to 64 years. The interviews lasted approximately 60 minutes. Participants also completed a brief questionnaire and body weight/height were measured. Grounded in a deductive process, a preliminary codebook was developed based on the topics included in the interview guides. A thematic analysis facilitated the identification of inductive themes and the finalization of the codebook used for transcript analysis. Four overarching themes were identified: (a) general health beliefs of how diet and physical activity behaviors affect health outcomes, (b) barriers to healthy eating and physical activity, (c) motivators for change, and (d) viable recruitment and intervention approaches. Future research should examine feasible and appropriate recruitment and intervention strategies identified by Hispanic males to improve weight management in this vulnerable group.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hispanic Male’s Perspectives of Health Behaviors Related to Weight Management

2015

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“…All concluded that fear work provided that individuals perceived that there were effective interventions and that the stronger the threat the better. It was over the course of the next decade that public health professionals proved increasingly receptive to the use of fear, extending it to obesity and, after a decades long grace period, to HIV 3. A 2012 meta-analysis, published in Health Psychology was, however, far more cautious in drawing conclusions about the use of fear.…”

Section: On Efficacymentioning

confidence: 99%

Means, ends and the ethics of fear-based public health campaigns

Bayer

Fairchild

2016

J Med Ethics

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Controversy has swirled over the past three decades about the ethics of fear-based public health campaigns. The HIV/AIDS epidemic provided a context in which advocacy groups were almost uniformly hostile to any use of fear, arguing that it was inherently stigmatising and always backfired. Although this argument was often accepted within public health circles, surprisingly, the bioethicists who first grappled with this issue in terms of autonomy and coercion in the 1980s were not single-minded: fear could be autonomy-enhancing. But by the turn of the 21st century, as opponents of fear-based appeals linked them to stigmatisation, ethicists typically rejected fear as inherently unethical. The evidence has increasingly suggested that fear-based campaigns 'work.' Emotionally charged public health messages have, as a consequence, become more commonplace. We conclude that an ethics of public health, which prioritises population well-being, as contrasted with the contemporary focus of bioethics on autonomy, provides a moral warrant for ensuring that populations understand health risk 'in their guts.' This, we argue, does not relieve public health authorities from considering the burdens their efforts may impose on vulnerable populations.

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“…Messages sometimes use negative emotion (e.g., fear, guilt) to communicate a health risk associated with a particular group or identity ( Coleman and Hatley Major, 2014 ; Fairchild et al, 2015 ). Examples include New York City’s fear-based tobacco, obesity, and HIV health communication campaigns ( Fairchild et al, 2015 ).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effectively Communicating About HIV and Other Health Disparities: Findings From a Literature Review and Future Directions

et al. 2020

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Despite significant progress in the prevention and treatment of HIV, disparities in rates of infection remain among key groups in the United States, including blacks and African Americans; Hispanics/Latinos; and men who have sex with men (MSM). The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' initiative, Ending the HIV Epidemic: A Plan for America, calls for addressing HIV-related disparities and reducing stigma and discrimination associated with HIV. The goal of this literature review was to identify approaches for effectively communicating about health disparities across the HIV care continuum. We reviewed the literature to investigate strategies used to communicate health disparities and to identify potential unintended adverse effects resulting from this messaging. Messages about health disparities often target subgroups at higher risk and can be framed in a variety of ways (e.g., social comparison, progress, impact, etiological). Studies have examined the effects of message framing on the risk perceptions, emotional reactions, and behaviors of individuals exposed to the messaging. The evidence points to several potential unintended adverse effects of using social comparison framing and individual responsibility framing to communicate about health disparities, and visual images and exemplars to target messages to higher-risk subgroups. There is not yet a clear evidence-based approach for communicating about health disparities and avoiding potential unintended effects. However, we offer recommendations for communicating about HIV-related disparities based on our findings. Because we found limited literature that addressed our research questions in the context of HIV, we propose a research agenda to build an evidence base for developing effective messages about HIV-related disparities.

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Risky Business: New York City’s Experience With Fear-Based Public Health Campaigns

Cited by 18 publications

References 14 publications

Hispanic Male’s Perspectives of Health Behaviors Related to Weight Management

Hispanic Male’s Perspectives of Health Behaviors Related to Weight Management

Means, ends and the ethics of fear-based public health campaigns

Effectively Communicating About HIV and Other Health Disparities: Findings From a Literature Review and Future Directions

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