Government Campaigns Research Articles

User Perceptions of the Make Healthy Normal campaign Facebook Page: A Mixed Methods Study

Facebook is used as part of public health communication efforts but little evidence is available on why people engage with health-related Facebook pages and what content appeals to them. This study aimed to investigate user perceptions of and experience with the Make Healthy Normal (MHN) Facebook page, part of a government campaign to address overweight and obesity in adults in New South Wales, Australia. This sequential mixed methods study comprised an online survey ( n = 591) and six focus groups ( n = 33) of Facebook users, including both fans (i.e., users who have “liked” the MHN page) and non-fans. We analyzed the online survey descriptively and employed inductive thematic analysis for the focus groups, integrating the two data sources at the stage of interpretation. Our results show that MHN and similar health pages are in demand but that there are a number of contextual and content-related factors that are critical in determining user engagement and over which page administrators have varying levels of influence. Contextual factors, including the drivers for user engagement and Facebook user practices, can be leveraged or managed to influence user engagement but they cannot be controlled. On the contrary, content factors, like the nature of posts, post presentation, and post subject, can be directly influenced by page administrators. Policymakers and practitioners can use these findings to inform the design and operation of their own Facebook pages and should look to conduct and disseminate robust evaluation of their pages to improve user satisfaction and engagement.

Pyrethroid resistance persists after ten years without usage against Aedes aegypti in governmental campaigns: Lessons from São Paulo State, Brazil.

BackgroundAedes aegypti, vector of dengue, chikungunya and Zika viruses, is found at high densities in tropical urban areas. The dissemination of this vector is partially the consequence of failures in current vector control methods, still mainly relying upon insecticides. In the State of São Paulo (SP), Brazil, public health managers employed pyrethroids against Ae. aegypti adults from 1989 to 2000, when a robust insecticide resistance monitoring system detected resistance to pyrethroids in several Ae. aegypti populations. However, pyrethroids are also the preferred compounds engaged in household applications due to their rapid knockdown effect, lower toxicity to mammals and less irritating smell.Methodology/Principal findingsWe evaluated pyrethroid resistance in Ae. aegypti populations over the course of a decade, from 2004 to 2015, after interruption of pyrethroid public applications in SP. Qualitative bioassays with papers impregnated with a deltamethrin diagnostic dose (DD) performed with insects from seven SP municipalities and evaluated yearly from 2006 to 2014, detected resistance in most of the cases. Quantitative bioassays were also carried out with four populations in 2011, suggesting a positive correlation between resistance level and survivorship in the DD bioassays. Biochemical tests conducted with seven insect populations in 2006 and 2015, detected increasing metabolic alterations of all major classes of detoxifying enzymes, mostly of mixed function oxidases. Genotyping of the voltage-gated sodium channel (AaNaV, the pyrethroid target-site) with a TaqMan real time PCR based technique was performed from 2004 to 2014 in all seven localities. The two kdr mutations, Val1016Ile and Phe1534Cys, known to be spread throughout Brazil, were always present with a severe decrease of the susceptible allele over time.Conclusions/SignificanceThese results are discussed in the context of public and domestic insecticide use, the necessity of implementation of a strong integrated vector control strategy and the conceptual misunderstanding between 'vector control' and 'chemical control of vectors'.

Placing ‘sustainability’ in context: narratives of sustainable consumption in Nanjing, China

This article examines how ordinary people practice the notion of ‘sustainable consumption’ in relation to their everyday lives and experiences of the wider environment and how these understandings relate to public discourses of sustainability in contemporary China. The paper is based on an empirical analysis of 129 narrative interviews with local residents in urban Nanjing, collected as part of an interdisciplinary and international comparative research project. It argues that in popular narratives, a combination of ‘being green’ – living a healthy lifestyle which has less impact on the environment – and being rational through qinjian jieyue – by reducing both consumption and waste –is regarded as key to sustainability. Such attitudes align with recent government campaigns to create an environmental-friendly and resource-conserving society. However, the analysis demonstrates how this sustainable way of consumption is restricted by Chinese mianzi and guanxi cultures, the anxieties caused by scares related to food safety, a social welfare system that does not promote a sense of security and a widespread distrust of products made in China which has diffused across society. We argue that studies on discourses and practices of sustainable consumption must strive to take more account of diverse local contexts and sociocultural frameworks.

A prospective observational study of emergency department presentations following novel psychoactive substance use.

Background and aims Novel psychoactive substances are compounds intended to mimic the effects of illicit drugs. They provide a unique challenge to healthcare, as complications of their use and their impact on services are relatively unknown. This study aims to determine nature of presentations, patient demographics and impact on healthcare. Methods Novel psychoactive substances users who presented to a large urban emergency department over 4 weeks were prospectively identified and followed for 1 year. Patients over 13 years old were eligible for inclusion. Information regarding patient demographics and presentations was collected. Results During the study period, 53 patients (39 male), mean age 32.6 ± 8.9 (±standard deviation), presented 148 times with complaints relating to novel psychoactive substances use. Study population characteristics included history of illicit drug use (83.0%), intravenous drug use (64.2%), psychiatric diagnosis or symptoms (56.6%), methadone prescription (52.8%) and having no fixed abode (37.7%). Injection was the most common method of use (72.3%), Burst the most commonly named agent (19.6%) and behavioural change the most common presenting complaint (31.1%). Patients collectively spent 10,620 h in hospital over 1 year. Conclusion This study highlights differences between the young population targeted by government campaigns regarding novel psychoactive substances use and the presenting population to hospital, and the associated burden on the National Health Service.

Analyzing the MERS disease control strategy through an optimal control problem

Abstract A deterministic mathematical model of the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) disease is introduced. Medical masks, supportive care treatment and a government campaign about the importance of medical masks will be involved in the model as time dependent variables. The problem is formulated as an optimal control one to minimize the number of infected people and keep the intervention costs as low as possible. Assuming that all control variables are constant, we find a disease free equilibrium point and an endemic equilibrium point explicitly. The existence and local stability criteria of these equilibria depend on the basic reproduction number. A sensitivity analysis of the basic reproduction number with respect to control parameters tells us that the intervention on medical mask use and the campaign about the importance of medical masks are much more effective for reducing the basic reproduction number than supportive care intervention. Numerical experiments for optimal control problems are presented for three different scenarios, i.e., a scenario of different initial conditions for the human population, a scenario of different initial basic reproduction numbers and a scenario of different budget limitations. Under budget limitations, it is much better to implement the medical mask intervention in the field, rather than give supportive care to control the spread of the MERS disease in the endemic prevention scenario. On the other hand, the medical mask intervention should be implemented partially together with supportive care to obtain the lowest number of infected people, with the lowest cost in the endemic reduction scenario.

"Affective Reactions" of Rural and Urban Voters to Government Campaign Commercials in Maharashtra

"Affective Reactions" of Rural and Urban Voters to Government Campaign Commercials in Maharashtra

Factors associated with waterpipe tobacco smoking among Lebanese women

ABSTRACTWaterpipe tobacco smoking (WTS) has become a serious public health threat in the Middle East and beyond. To estimate the prevalence rates of cigarette and WTS among Lebanese women and describe characteristics associated with each behavior. Secondary analysis of women’s health data obtained in a national survey in 2010. Of 2,255 selected women, 78 percent reported no or past long-term WTS. Among the 12 percent of regular waterpipe smokers, 40 percent were light users (mean three waterpipe heads weekly), while 60 percent were heavy users (mean of 11 heads per week). About 70 percent were never or past long-term cigarette smokers. Younger age, location within Greater Beirut (GB) and having professional employment were significantly associated with use of WTS. Older age, GB location, lower education, and ever-married were significantly associated with cigarette smoking. WTS is becoming a socially normative behavior among empowered professional women, who can spare the time and expense to engage in this behavior in easily accessible cafés, which prohibit cigarette smoking. Government, media, and NGO campaigns against smoking should target waterpipe use, not only in Lebanon but also across the Arab world and among Arab communities in the Diaspora with messages different from anti-cigarette campaigns.

Perfil epidemiológico de 80 pacientes com traumatismo raquimedular, internados no Hospital do Pronto-Socorro Municipal de Belém, PA, no período de janeiro a setembro de 2002

Lesão irreversível da medula é um evento agudo e inesperado que altera drasticamente a vida do indivíduo. No Brasil, estudos sobre trauma raquimedular (TRM) são escassos, sobretudo na região Norte. Deste modo, os autores objetivam avaliar os aspectos epidemiológicos do TRM, em pacientes internados no Hospital do Pronto-Socorro Municipal de Belém, PA (HPSM– Belém). Foram aplicados questionário epidemiológico e classificação neurológica da Associação Americana de Lesões Medulares em 80 pacientes do HPSM–Belém, de janeiro a setembro de 2002. A maioria dos pacientes era do sexo masculino (83,75%), jovem (21 a 30 anos), apresentava baixo grau de escolaridade (53,75%) e tinha renda própria (75%). As mais freqüentes causas foram: quedas (41,25%), acidentes de trânsito (23,75%), violência (16,25%) e mergulho (5%). As regiões vertebrais mais acometidas foram: torácica (37,97%), cervical (36,71%) e lombar (25,32%). Das lesões, 87,5% estavam associadas com tetraplegia ou paraplegia. Quanto ao déficit: 71,20% apresentavam déficit completo ou incompleto. A maioria das vítimas de acidentes automobilísticos estava sem cinto de segurança (85,71%) e o álcool esteve relacionado à etiologia do TRM. Conclui-se que os achados mostram uma situação grave que pode ser evitada se mais esforços forem destinados à prevenção.

Nation Branding in Transition Countries: A Multimodal Analysis of Romania and Moldova Tourism Campaigns

The nature of nationhood is changing in the age of globalization, marketization, and mediatization. In this context, the nation is built as a brand with the aim of attracting tourists and increase economic development. A particular case of nation branding is to be found in Romania and Moldova, two countries that started to reposition themselves after the fall of communism. In this context, this paper focuses on a comparative semiotic analysis of two nation branding campaigns initiated by the Romanian and Moldavian Governments: “Discover the Place Where You Feel Reborn” (Romania, 2014) and “Discover the Routes of Life” (Moldova, 2014). In so doing, a multimodal approach (Iedema, 2003; Kress & Van Leeuwen, 1996; Van Leeuwen, 2001) is employed, highlighting the importance of image, sound and text as semiotic resources in the discursive configuration of Romania’s and Moldova’s nation brands, comparatively. Special attention is given to the analysis of logos, websites and videos, comprising different communication situations used to create meaning in the tourism campaigns. The paper investigates how elements of neoliberal ideology are addressed in two governmental campaigns, comparatively, considering the “marketization of public discourse” (Fairclough, 1993).

Nation Branding in Transition Countries: A Multimodal Analysis of Romania and Moldova Tourism Campaigns

The nature of nationhood is changing in the age of globalization, marketization, and mediatization. In this context, the nation is built as a brand with the aim of attracting tourists and increase economic development. A particular case of nation branding is to be found in Romania and Moldova, two countries that started to reposition themselves after the fall of communism. In this context, this paper focuses on a comparative semiotic analysis of two nation branding campaigns initiated by the Romanian and Moldavian Governments: “Discover the Place Where You Feel Reborn” (Romania, 2014) and “Discover the Routes of Life” (Moldova, 2014). In so doing, a multimodal approach (Iedema, 2003; Kress & Van Leeuwen, 1996; Van Leeuwen, 2001) is employed, highlighting the importance of image, sound and text as semiotic resources in the discursive configuration of Romania’s and Moldova’s nation brands, comparatively. Special attention is given to the analysis of logos, websites and videos, comprising different communication situations used to create meaning in the tourism campaigns. The paper investigates how elements of neoliberal ideology are addressed in two governmental campaigns, comparatively, considering the “marketization of public discourse” (Fairclough, 1993).

Does the Central Government’s Anti-Corruption Campaign Have an Impact on Corporate Cost Stickiness?

This paper starts with the anti-corruption campaign of the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), adopts the empirical method to study whether and how the anti-corruption campaign of the central government influences the cost stickiness of enterprises. And the paper further studies whether the anti-corruption campaign has different impacts on enterprises with different property rights. The results show that the cost stickiness of listed companies decreases significantly after the anti-corruption campaign. Compared with non-state-owned enterprises, the cost stickiness of state-owned enterprises weakened less after the anti-corruption campaign started. The research results of this paper show that anti-corruption can restrain the rent-seeking behavior of enterprises and make them apply more resources to normal production and operation activities.

Strategy at Yuhisai Koudoukan: Reading the Tea Leaves

This field-based case uses a Japanese teahouse and cultural space to discuss broader themes in strategy formation.The material would work well to conduct a strategic capability analysis. Sotatsu Ota, director of Yuhisai Koudoukan (Koudoukan), bought the property to save it from being destroyed in 2008. In the decade since, sales have grown, but the business has yet to turn a profit. Yet there is a traditional piece to teahouses that Ota-san was sensitive about: they were not meant to be prosperous. Koudoukan was a place that served as a cultural embassy, marrying the traditional tea ceremony with modern cultural outreach internationally. Customers were often interesting people from all over the world as well as locals. Yet the space for traditional culture in Japan seemed to be shrinking, even in the face of an aggressive governmental campaign to encourage integration of the old and new. Was there a place for Koudoukan to teach culture, tradition, and creativity to a modernized Japan and a globalized world? Could the primary mission of promoting traditional tea ceremonies become financially successful without violating the tradition wrapped around the original intent of teahouses? Ota-san needed to figure out how best to run Koudoukan in the years ahead. Excerpt UVA-S-0303 Jul. 9, 2018 Strategy at Yuhisai Koudoukan: Reading the Tea Leaves Sotatsu Ota (in kanji: 太田達), director of Yuhisai Koudoukan (Koudoukan), sat on a white-stone bench; before him, a small waterfall snaked its way down the round rocks. He stayed for several minutes, trying to leave his thoughts behind before the tea ceremony that awaited him. Yet he couldn't shake his worries about the future of Koudoukan, a Japanese culture space and teahouse in Kyoto. Ota-san bought the property to save it from being destroyed in 2008. In the decade since, sales had grown, but the business had yet to turn a profit—a situation not exactly unheard of in a global economy where many companies ran on the basis of growth now, profits later. Yet there was a traditional piece to teahouses that Ota-san was sensitive about: they were not meant to be prosperous. Koudoukan was a place that served as a cultural ambassador, marrying the traditional tea ceremony with modern cultural outreach internationally. Customers were often interesting people from all over the world as well as locals. Yet the space for traditional culture in Japan seemed to be shrinking, even in the face of an aggressive governmental campaign to encourage integration of the old and new. Was there a place for a cultural school like Koudoukan in a modernized Japan? Could the primary mission of promoting traditional tea ceremonies become financially successful without violating the tradition wrapped around the original intent of teahouses? Ota-san needed to figure out how best to run Koudoukan in the decade ahead. Introduction of Chadou . . .

Advertisers’ perceptions regarding the ethical appropriateness of new advertising formats aimed at minors

Although they are key stakeholders, advertisers’ views on the usage of novel (integrated and/or interactive) advertising toward minors has remained largely unexplored in academic research. This study aims to fill this gap by examining advertising professionals’ opinions about the ethical appropriateness of using novel advertising formats aimed at children and teenagers, how to advance advertising literacy in minors, and their views of practices that are potentially privacy-invading, by means of both a quantitative online survey and qualitative in-depth interviews with Belgian advertising professionals. Results show that advertisers perceive that from 12 years onward, minors are capable to understand novel advertising formats and it is ethically justified to use them. Remarkably, advertisers would inform minors already from the age of 10 years onward about the commercial intention behind new advertising formats. Advertisers have strict opinions about collecting information online from minors. They advocate a combination of laws and self-regulation and governmental and educational campaigns to raise awareness and develop advertising literacy.

An archaeology of societal resilience

There seems to be a worldwide push, through policy and Government campaigns, to emphasise a local and decentralised responsibility for societal safety and security. Often, this push is argued for using the notion of resilience. Using an archaeological approach this paper sets out to analyse the conditions of possibility for resilience to get established as an object of knowledge within the discourse of societal safety and security. Three such conditions of possibility are analysed: a scientific availability of resilience language and theory which offers an academic credibility to claims for resilience, a political need to decentralise initiatives (and costs) for societal safety and security to local actors and networks, and a number of events defining the need for such an approach. Critical questions are raised regarding the transfer of responsibility to citizens for societal safety and security, the normative use of resilience language as well as whether the resilience object of knowledge actually provides new language or whether it rather repackages previously present objects of discursive knowledge.

Postcatastrophic Re-Reading of Tadeusz Hołuj’s Puste pole

This article deals with the re-interpretation of Tadeusz Hołuj’s drama Puste pole (1963; The Empty Field) and its theatrical staging by Józef Szajna in 1965. Based on the drama I want to demonstrate how the artists – who were both survivors of the concentration camp in Auschwitz – managed re-presenting the Holocaust despite the political situation and the accompanying anti-Semitic government campaign in Poland in the 1960s. The reception of the drama of then and nowadays shows how that re-presentation was once interpreted due to the political circumstances, which made the issue of the Holocaust and the Jews bannend from public life, language, and memory. Finally I explore how Hołuj’s drama can be read today when we approach it via postcatastophic re-reading determined by after-knowledge, retrospection, and retroactivity.

Co-producing cyber protest: mesomobilization in the digital age

ABSTRACTThis article examines how mesomobilization deploys on the web to foster online resistance. We focus on a particular cyber protest targeting a governmental campaign against illegal downloading and show how webzines, as meso-level actors, managed to turn their readers’ comments into appealing frames around cultural legitimacy, Internet freedom and morality. In this instance, web users initiated the diagnostic framing and provided webzines with motives to launch a call to arms. This took the form of parody that produced a disruption and a set of grievances against the official campaign. Our fieldwork reveals the existence of online dormant networks – pre-existing fluid cultural groups sharing common interests – that meso-level actors readily mobilize when a crisis arises. Our study extends our understanding of consumer resistance by highlighting the dynamics of online networks in organizing overt protest and political challenge.

The effect on turnout of campaign mobilization messages addressing ballot secrecy concerns: A replication experiment.

Given the persistence of public doubts about the integrity of ballot secrecy, which depress turnout, two prior experiments have shown precise evidence that both official governmental and unofficial mobilization campaigns providing assurances about ballot secrecy increase turnout among recently registered nonvoters. To assess whether these findings replicate in other political settings, we describe a replication experiment where a non-governmental, non-partisan mobilization campaign sent similar treatment mailings containing assurances about ballot secrecy protections to recently registered nonvoters during the 2014 general election in Mississippi. We find that sending this mailer has no effect on turnout rates in this setting, which is characterized by an unusually low baseline turnout rate. These results are consistent with past research concluding that nonpartisan Get Out The Vote (GOTV) mail has very weak effects among very low turnout propensity registrants, and suggest that there are heterogeneous effects of ballot secrecy treatments associated with subjects’ characteristics and the electoral context.

Beliefs, Attitudes, Subjective Rules and Perceived Control about Water Saving Behavior

AbstractWater scarcity in Brazil is a reality. Residences in various parts of the country have gone through water rationing through the past years. The Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) is formed by beliefs, attitudes, subjective norms, perceived control and behavioral intentions in relation to a specific behavior. This theory seeks to identify individuals′ behavioral intentions and, consequently, predict peoples′ behavior. This study aimed to identify the beliefs and attitude components, social norms and perceived control in relation to the behavior of saving water. Twenty-six interviews were supported by a questionnaire related to TPB components. The obtained results indicated the attitudes in terms of saving water are related to economic advantages, in financial terms from cheaper water bills. In addition, there is an advantage to society in the future about the water availability for human use, as well as avoiding rationing and preserving a natural resource that is becoming scarce. Regarding to saving water problems, the need to change habits and the possibility of places and belongings getting dirtier over time has been described. The social norms are current present in the family figure, friends and neighbors mainly. In the case of perceived control, changes of habits, government campaigns and even the client - among other factors - were considered as factors that help or hinder individuals trying to save water.

Where Are Those Better Angels of Our Society? Subaltern Counterpublics in Hungary During the Refugee Crisis

This article presents findings of a research carried out among pro-refugee individuals in social media in Hungary. During the so-called refugee crisis that emerged in the summer of 2015, anti-immigrant sentiments in the Hungarian public were fueled by a strong governmental campaign. This unusually strong propaganda campaign created a strong hegemonic discourse. Nevertheless, a pro-refugee counterpublic opposing the hegemonic discourse also emerged. The article discusses existing scholarly literature on the phenomenon and how it appears in and is shaped by the digital sphere. The empirical findings focus on two characteristics of the pro-refugee counterpublic. First, we look at the political affiliations of this counterpublic. Second, we ask if the different digital affordances used by the counterpublic and their combinations indicate the formation of a community. The methodological ambition of the article is to present a digital data-driven approach, based on data provided by Facebook, which allows the individual profiling of each user. The connections and schemata of these profiles provide the analytical background of the present research. We aim to illustrate that such a digital approach has a number of advantages over traditional sociological methods, especially in the research of subaltern counterpublics.

Outdoor spatial spraying against dengue: A false sense of security among inhabitants of Hermosillo, Mexico.

BackgroundGovernment-administered adulticiding is frequently conducted in response to dengue transmission worldwide. Anecdotal evidence suggests that spraying may create a “false sense of security” for residents. Our objective was to determine if there was an association between residents’ reporting outdoor spatial insecticide spraying as way to prevent dengue transmission and both their reported frequency of dengue prevention practices and household entomological indices in Hermosillo, Mexico.Methodology/Principal findingsA non-probabilistic survey of 400 households was conducted in August 2014. An oral questionnaire was administered to an adult resident and the outer premises of the home were inspected for water-holding containers and presence of Ae. aegypti larvae and pupae. Self-reported frequency of prevention practices were assessed among residents who reported outdoor spatial spraying as a strategy to prevent dengue (n = 93) and those who did not (n = 307). Mixed effects negative binomial regression was used to assess associations between resident’s reporting spraying as a means to prevent dengue and container indices. Mixed effects logistic regression was used to determine associations with presence/absence of larvae and pupae. Those reporting spatial spraying disposed of trash less frequently and spent less time indoors to avoid mosquitoes. They also used insecticides and larvicides more often and covered their water containers more frequently. Their backyards had more containers positive for Ae. aegypti (RR = 1.92) and there was a higher probability of finding one or more Ae. aegypti pupae (OR = 2.20). Survey respondents that reported spatial spraying prevented dengue were more likely to be older and were exposed to fewer media sources regarding prevention.Conclusions/SignificanceThe results suggest that the perception that outdoor spatial spraying prevents dengue is associated with lower adoption of prevention practices and higher entomological risk. This provides some support to the hypothesis that spraying may lead to a “false sense of security”. Further investigations to clarify this relationship should be conducted. Government campaigns should emphasize the difficulty in controlling Ae. aegypti mosquitoes and the need for both government and community action to minimize risk of dengue transmission.