Evaluation of the Effectiveness of a Suicide Prevention Advertising Media Campaign : Analysis of Changes in Knowledge-Attitude-Behavior by Using Propensity Score Matching

Abstract

ObjectivesZZThis study was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of a suicide prevention ad- vertising media campaign by the Korea Suicide Prevention Center in 2014 and to analyze the changes in the levels of suicide prevention related-knowledge, attitude, and behavior of the ad- vertisement viewers. MethodsZZData of 703 participants who responded to both the pre and post telephone surveys out of 1100 adults aged 19 or over randomly selected nationwide were analyzed using a strati- fied proportional quota sampling method considering sex, age, and region by a survey agency. A propensity score matching (PSM) analysis was used to adjust for potential biases in estimated effects. ResultsZZOf 703 participants who completed pre and post survey interviews, 25.9% watched the media campaign. Comparing the knowledge, attitude, and behavior scores between the ad- vertisement viewers (n=182) and non-viewers (n=521), of those who watched the media cam- paign, participants' knowledge score showed a statistically significantly increase in all methods of the PSM analysis while there were no statistically significant changes in attitude and behavior. ConclusionZZThe results supported the effectiveness of a suicide prevention media campaign in terms of knowledge, but not of attitude and behavior related to suicide prevention. Further long-term large evaluation studies are suggested. J Korean Neuropsychiatr Assoc 2015;54(2):202-208 KEY WORDSZZ Suicide prevention · Mass media campaign · TV advertisement · Effectiveness evaluation · Propensity score matching.