Health Communication Scholars Research Articles

The Power of Puppetry as an Arts-Based Tool for Health and Disability Communication Research

ABSTRACT In this article, we argue that using puppetry as a tool for arts-based research can enhance existing health and disability communication scholarship. We position interdisciplinary puppetry research alongside concepts and theories of interest to communication scholars, including entertainment education, embodiment and performance, communicated narrative sense-making, and dialogue. Then, we share an illustrative case study from our research with the nonprofit organization, MicheLee Puppets. Drawing from interviews with five puppeteers, we describe how the Live Puppet Chat program created unexpected opportunities to connect with neurodiverse spectators during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our “crystalized” narrative and thematic analysis demonstrates how puppeteers used puppet-objects to facilitate dialogue with chat participants. This involved (a) suspending disbelief, (b) suspending judgment, (c) communicating through the lens of (neurodiverse) empowerment, and (c) improvising for empowerment.

Seeking professional help in health crises: The impact of cognitive factors, discrete emotions, and eHealth information seeking on mental health communication.

A common challenge facing public health practitioners and communication scholars is how to best change perceptions and increase favorable attitudes and awareness of health recommendations, such as help-seeking about depression. Given the need to identify persuasive ways to communicate depression, this study examined how discrete emotions, cognition, and engaging eHealth information-seeking behavior affected US adults' intentions regarding help-seeking about depression. The results from an online survey of 1422 US adults revealed (1) elated emotion and loving emotion; (2) depression consciousness; (3) attitude toward seeking help from mental health services; and (4) eHealth information-seeking significantly predicted intention to seek help from professionals. In addition, depression consciousness, attitude toward seeking help from mental health services, and eHealth information-seeking acted as sequential mediators for the relationship between elated emotion, loving emotion, and behavioral intention. Implications for health communication and depression communication research and practice are discussed.

From the United States to the United Kingdom: Hope, Blended Family Social Support, and Computer-Mediated Communication Amidst Chronic Illness

ABSTRACT This Defining Moments essay contributes to health communication scholarship regarding the role of religion/spirituality as a coping strategy during severe illness and the realities of providing social support in blended families. It also invites readers to reconsider the capacities and constraints of utilizing technology-mediated communication to provide support within close familial relationships. Finally, this narrative acknowledges the messiness of providing support in the evolving realities of family life and the complexity of “being there” for people we love when we cannot physically be present.

U.S. Males and Pornography: Replication and Experimental Extension

ABSTRACT Communication scientists have published pornography research in the communication discipline’s central journals for decades. Health communication scholars have become particularly interested in pornography in recent years, given increasing evidence of its likely impact on critical sexual health outcomes. An important resource for scholarship on pornography use is the General Social Survey (GSS). The first major article on pornography use and potential effects using the GSS was published only a decade ago and in a sexological journal, however. The present study provides a replication of this original article within the context of a GSS methodological experiment designed to provide pornography scholars with the first opportunity in 50 years to test a potential new pornography use measure. Results are interpreted in terms of their implications for the GSS, the pornography literature in general, and multiple theories of media use, processes, and effects.

TikTok as a Source of Health Information and Misinformation for Young Women in the United States: Survey Study.

TikTok is one of the most-used and fastest-growing social media platforms in the world, and recent reports indicate that it has become an increasingly popular source of news and information in the United States. These trends have important implications for public health because an abundance of health information exists on the platform. Women are among the largest group of TikTok users in the United States and may be especially affected by the dissemination of health information on TikTok. Prior research has shown that women are not only more likely to look for information on the internet but are also more likely to have their health-related behaviors and perceptions affected by their involvement with social media. We conducted a survey of young women in the United States to better understand their use of TikTok for health information as well as their perceptions of TikTok's health information and health communication sources. A web-based survey of US women aged 18 to 29 years (N=1172) was conducted in April-May 2023. The sample was recruited from a Qualtrics research panel and 2 public universities in the United States. The results indicate that the majority of young women in the United States who have used TikTok have obtained health information from the platform either intentionally (672/1026, 65.5%) or unintentionally (948/1026, 92.4%). Age (959/1026, 93.47%; r=0.30; P<.001), education (959/1026, 93.47%; ρ=0.10; P=.001), and TikTok intensity (ie, participants' emotional connectedness to TikTok and TikTok's integration into their daily lives; 959/1026, 93.47%; r=0.32; P<.001) were positively correlated with overall credibility perceptions of the health information. Nearly the entire sample reported that they think that misinformation is prevalent on TikTok to at least some extent (1007/1026, 98.15%), but a third-person effect was found because the young women reported that they believe that other people are more susceptible to health misinformation on TikTok than they personally are (t1025=21.16; P<.001). Both health professionals and general users were common sources of health information on TikTok: 93.08% (955/1026) of the participants indicated that they had obtained health information from a health professional, and 93.86% (963/1026) indicated that they had obtained health information from a general user. The respondents showed greater preference for health information from health professionals (vs general users; t1025=23.75; P<.001); the respondents also reported obtaining health information from health professionals more often than from general users (t1025=8.13; P<.001), and they were more likely to act on health information from health professionals (vs general users; t1025=12.74; P<.001). The findings suggest that health professionals and health communication scholars need to proactively consider using TikTok as a platform for disseminating health information to young women because young women are obtaining health information from TikTok and prefer information from health professionals.

Adolescents’ Preferences for Mainstream and Paraphilic Pornography and Sexual Health Components: Attention to Within-And Between-Person Dynamics Over Time

ABSTRACT Health communication scholars are becoming increasingly cognizant of the potential health implications of youths’ pornography consumption. However, while research on pornography viewing and adolescent health and development has become increasingly common, the possible importance of distinguishing between mainstream and paraphilic consumption and within-and-between person dynamics has been underemphasized. Accordingly, the present study explored relations between adolescents’ preferences for mainstream and paraphilic pornography and their sexual satisfaction and sexual arousability in three-wave panel data using random intercept cross-lagged panel models. At a between-person level, only mainstream pornography viewing was positively related to adolescents’ sexual arousability. No relations were found between mainstream and paraphilic pornography viewing and sexual satisfaction at a between-person level. Results further revealed that an increased exposure to mainstream pornography and paraphilic pornography was not associated with sexual arousability and sexual satisfaction at the individual level. Null findings regarding paraphilic pornography viewing may be explained by the presence of a floor effect. Further, no differences in the investigated relations were found between sexually inexperienced and experienced adolescents, and between single adolescents and adolescents in a relationship. The findings are discussed in light of recent commentary on the uses of random-intercept cross-lagged panel models in the communication discipline.

The Impact of Health Communication Research on Medical and Health Professional Education and Training

ABSTRACT In this essay, we review how health communication scholarship has been translated into various communication skills trainings (CSTs), we present four case studies of how health communication research informed the development and implementation of specific CSTs, and we reflect on how we can productively define “impact” in looking back as well as looking forward within this line of research.

Podcasting as Storycrafting and Translational Health Communication Scholarship

ABSTRACT Defining Moments is a podcast that extends the reach of articles published in Health Communication into public acoustic realms. In this essay, we locate Defining Moments in the broader realm of podcasting and highlight its inception, production, distribution, and impact through available data analytics. We approach podcasting as a relational experience in which meaning-making extends beyond any audio text to include reactions, interactions, and actions. Across three seasons and thirty-five episodes, the podcast has created space for scholars to translate research for general audiences and reflect on defining moments of their personal and professional lives, often situated in adverse experiences or unjust social contexts. Common to all episodes are stories of retrospective sensemaking in the service of prospective change.

Diminishing Psychological Reactance Through Self-Transcendent Media Experiences: A Self-Report and Psychophysiological Investigation

ABSTRACT Health communication scholars have provided ample evidence demonstrating the ways in which freedom-threatening language used in persuasive health messages evokes freedom-threat perceptions, state psychological reactance, and intentions to engage in behaviors opposite of those recommended by the health message. This study examined a novel mitigation strategy for diminishing these outcomes. We examined whether prior exposure to entertainment portrayals of moral virtue (versus a neutral video) can dampen audiences’ psychological reactance, intentions to consume alcohol, and defensive message processing via their psychophysiological responses to a subsequent, freedom-threatening excessive alcohol consumption public service announcement (PSA). The results revealed that participants who viewed entertainment portrayals of moral virtue (N = 50 college-aged participants) self-reported higher levels of elevation, moved, and inspiration relative to participants in the control condition (N = 50 college-aged participants). Participants who were exposed to entertainment portrayals of moral virtue prior to the excessive alcohol consumption PSA also self-reported less psychological reactance and fewer behavioral intentions to consume alcohol following the excessive alcohol consumption PSA than participants in the control condition. Consistent with these self-report data, participants in the entertainment portrayals of moral virtue condition exhibited less defensive message processing of the excessive alcohol consumption PSA via their psychophysiological responses relative to the control group. The results indicate that initial exposure to entertainment portrayals of moral virtue can dampen audiences’ cognitive, emotional, and behavioral responses to a subsequent, freedom-threatening health message, thereby increasing the chances of improved health outcomes.

Understanding Trends in Health Communication and Appropriate Design for Outstanding Research Outcome in Nigeria

This study evaluated the frequency of health communication issues published in Journal of Communication and Media Research (JCMR) as a percentage of the total publications, the dominant themes on health communication in the JCMR and the dominant research designs used in the studies on health communication in the JCMR. A qualitative research design was employed in this study with survey of literature in the JCMR. The study found that the average coverage of health communication by health communication scholars in JCMR. was the predominant thematic area of health communication covered by JCMR. It established that the theme of assessment and evaluation of health interventions and campaigns and the theme of Doctor-Patient Communication is the lowest area of attention. This can be justified by the fact that it is relatively a new area of health communication research in Nigeria. It was discovered that majority of researchers did not specify the research design employed in the various articles in JCMR while case study research was the dominant design that scholars used in JCMR.

Abstract P6-09-03: Examining recollections of Black women with breast cancer who participated in clinical trials: A grounded practical theory study of patient-provider communication

Abstract Introduction: The presence of strong barriers to research participation for Black and Brown women is indisputable. However, existing evidence clearly supports the possibility of equal levels of participation among members of minoritized populations in past breast cancer clinical trials, demonstrating that while these participation barriers do undoubtedly exist, they are not always insurmountable. A main implication of this current study is that researchers should take greater strides to remove the onus of recruitment responsibility from racialized population members, and instead leave it with the providers, investigators, and health care teams who hold enough power to make change. Purpose: This project takes a grounded practical theory (GPT) approach to engage with Black women who have been diagnosed with breast cancer and have participated in a breast cancer clinical trial and explores their recollections of conversations with their providers. GPT focuses on reconstructing particular communication practices, highlighting both the important procedural role of communication in practice and its ability to present intricate complications that echo society’s norms and values. The aim of this work is to investigate and analyze those patient-provider conversations to try to illuminate how providers can better engage these women in ways that will positively influence their perceptions of breast cancer clinical trial participation. Methods: The current study was part of a larger project examining the recruitment of Black women to breast cancer clinical trials. Fourteen women (N=14) from six different states in the U.S., all of whom self-identified as Black, Black American, or African American, agreed to be interviewed as part of a larger study. All participants had participated or were currently participating in a breast cancer clinical trial. The interviews yielded a wealth of interesting and potentially important additional data about Black female breast cancer patients and their communication experiences with their providers. Employing grounded practical theory as a framework helped increase insight into the patient-provider communication needs of Black women who have participated in a breast cancer clinical trial. Results: Findings were summarized into four categories: 1) the participants held differing perspectives and personal impressions toward their providers; 2) the women reflect on their individual breast cancer journeys through richly described incidences, describing searching for, and finding trials on their own, or being guided by healthcare providers who suggested a clinical trial for them; 3) each participant’s shared details of their unique communication relationship with medical and research providers; and 4) the cultural aspects of participants’ patient-provider communication, focusing primarily on their expressions of faith. These findings have important implications for health communication scholars, healthcare providers, and breast cancer clinical trial research principal investigators and team members. Conclusion: As opposed to the conclusion that one may draw from most published explanations of poor minority accrual to clinical trials, which appear to put the blame on the minoritized population members themselves, the current work outlines the actions and non-actions of many providers, and suggests that adjusting to approaches that demonstrate more encouragement and acceptance of their patients might result in better clinical trial participation outcomes from these group members. Citation Format: Precious Okoruwa, Katherine E. Ridley-Merriweather. Examining recollections of Black women with breast cancer who participated in clinical trials: A grounded practical theory study of patient-provider communication [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 2022 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium; 2022 Dec 6-10; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2023;83(5 Suppl):Abstract nr P6-09-03.

“What Do You Do if They Say ‘No’?”: Agency, Materiality, and Justice in Pelvic Exams

ABSTRACT In this defining moments essay, I take up feminist new materialist and reproductive justice theories to explore communication, autonomy, consent, and in/justice in the context of pelvic exams. I use feminist new materialism and reproductive justice to illustrate the ways in which traditional medical education practices, histories of misogynoir, speculums, patient gowns, and more communicate and matter in pelvic exam teaching and practice. In so doing, I move between academic prose and short narratives drawn from my lived experiences as both a patient and a Gynecological Teaching Associate (a role in which I instruct medical students learning to perform pelvic exams). Ultimately, I argue that attending to influence of other-than-humans and adopting relational conceptions of agency can help health communication scholars and practitioners advance equity and justice in pelvic exams.

Abstract B041: An examination of patient-provider communication through recollections of Black breast cancer clinical trial participants

Abstract Introduction: Despite the indisputable presence of strong barriers to research participation for Black and Brown women, evidence exists that clearly supports the possibility of nearly equal levels of participation among members of minoritized populations in past breast cancer clinical trials (BC CTs), demonstrating that while these participation barriers do undoubtedly exist, they are not always insurmountable. Purpose: The current project takes a grounded practical theory approach to engage with Black women who have been diagnosed with BC and have participated in a BC CT and explores their recollections of conversations with their providers. The aim of this work was to investigate and analyze those patient-provider conversations to try to illuminate how providers can better engage these women in ways that will positively influence their perceptions of BC CT participation. Methods: Fourteen women (N=14) from six different states in the U.S., all of whom self-identified as Black, Black American, or African American, agreed to be interviewed as part of a larger study. All participants had participated or were currently participating in a BC CT. Employing grounded practical theory as a framework helped increase insight into the patient-provider communication needs of Black women who have participated in a BC CT. Results: Findings were summarized into four categories. The first category focused on the differing perspectives and personal impressions the participants held toward their providers. In the second category, the women reflect on their individual BC journeys through richly described incidences, describing searching for and finding trials on their own, or being guided by healthcare providers who suggested a CT for them. The shared details of each participant’s unique communication relationship with medical and research providers are shared in the third category. Finally, category four highlights the cultural aspects of participants’ patient-provider communication, focusing primarily on their expressions of faith. Each of these findings has important implications for health communication scholars, healthcare providers, and BC CT research PIs and team members. Conclusions: This study amplified voices of Black women w/BC diagnoses enrolled in CTs through richly described incidences of patient/provider (P/P) communication experiences and individual BC CT paths &amp; journeys. The study highlighted the salience of promoting cultural P/P conversations. This work centers on the ineffective explanations for low racial/ethnic minority CT presence, which can be interpreted as placing blame on the members of underserved populations themselves. Implications: Researchers must take greater strides to remove the onus of recruitment responsibility from racialized population members, and instead leave it with the members of the healthcare industry, who hold enough power to make change. Citation Format: Katherine E. Ridley-Merriweather. An examination of patient-provider communication through recollections of Black breast cancer clinical trial participants [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 15th AACR Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved; 2022 Sep 16-19; Philadelphia, PA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2022;31(1 Suppl):Abstract nr B041.

Hesitancy in the Home: The Relationship between Family Communication Patterns and Willingness to Converse about Covid-19 Vaccination

While family communication has repeatedly been found to be related to health decisions and outcomes, the role of family communication within the study of Covid-19 vaccine hesitancy has not received adequate attention. The present study ( N = 1,005) assesses the relationship between family communication patterns and willingness to converse about the Covid-19 vaccine with a family member, while also considering trust in government as a moderator. Findings revealed that individuals coming from high conversation-oriented homes who are also younger, unvaccinated, and imagining the vaccine conversation with their mother or father (as opposed to other family members) were more willing to converse with a family member about the Covid-19 vaccine. Conformity orientation only negatively predicted such willingness to converse when moderated by age. Surprisingly, trust in government was not found to moderate the relationship between either family communication pattern orientation and willingness to converse about the Covid-19 vaccine. Theoretical implications relevant for family and health communication scholars and healthcare professionals designing vaccine messaging are discussed.

A dose of public health and community pride: American local radio at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic

The March 2020 onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States created an immediate need for news, information and interaction. Public health communication scholars recommended media strategies that emphasized accurate information about the virus and mitigation measures, providing access to experts, and using opinion leaders to relay recommendations to the public. Local radio is a critical medium during a crisis because it can inform the public while comforting listeners with reminders of community pride. This study analysed programming on four local talk radio stations in New Jersey, Minnesota and Rhode Island, documenting how the stations and their announcers served the public during those chaotic early days. Despite notable exceptions, these stations properly kept listeners informed about what their leaders were doing about the pandemic, while also calling upon local symbols and aspects of culture, comforting and reassuring listeners, and giving them a space to share their stories.

Search Term Identification Methods for Computational Health Communication: Word Embedding and Network Approach for Health Content on YouTube

BackgroundCommon methods for extracting content in health communication research typically involve using a set of well-established queries, often names of medical procedures or diseases, that are often technical or rarely used in the public discussion of health topics. Although these methods produce high recall (ie, retrieve highly relevant content), they tend to overlook health messages that feature colloquial language and layperson vocabularies on social media. Given how such messages could contain misinformation or obscure content that circumvents official medical concepts, correctly identifying (and analyzing) them is crucial to the study of user-generated health content on social media platforms.ObjectiveHealth communication scholars would benefit from a retrieval process that goes beyond the use of standard terminologies as search queries. Motivated by this, this study aims to put forward a search term identification method to improve the retrieval of user-generated health content on social media. We focused on cancer screening tests as a subject and YouTube as a platform case study.MethodsWe retrieved YouTube videos using cancer screening procedures (colonoscopy, fecal occult blood test, mammogram, and pap test) as seed queries. We then trained word embedding models using text features from these videos to identify the nearest neighbor terms that are semantically similar to cancer screening tests in colloquial language. Retrieving more YouTube videos from the top neighbor terms, we coded a sample of 150 random videos from each term for relevance. We then used text mining to examine the new content retrieved from these videos and network analysis to inspect the relations between the newly retrieved videos and videos from the seed queries.ResultsThe top terms with semantic similarities to cancer screening tests were identified via word embedding models. Text mining analysis showed that the 5 nearest neighbor terms retrieved content that was novel and contextually diverse, beyond the content retrieved from cancer screening concepts alone. Results from network analysis showed that the newly retrieved videos had at least one total degree of connection (sum of indegree and outdegree) with seed videos according to YouTube relatedness measures.ConclusionsWe demonstrated a retrieval technique to improve recall and minimize precision loss, which can be extended to various health topics on YouTube, a popular video-sharing social media platform. We discussed how health communication scholars can apply the technique to inspect the performance of the retrieval strategy before investing human coding resources and outlined suggestions on how such a technique can be extended to other health contexts.

Using Animated Videos to Increase Patient Knowledge: A Meta-Analytic Review.

This article meta-analyzed 21 studies that tested the effectiveness of animated videos in improving learning in clinical and nonclinical settings compared with standard education. Animation was defined as the use of moving objects that are typically drawn or simulated. Videos ranged from just over 2 min in duration to 16 min in duration in articles published from 2009 through 2020. Mayer's Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning provided the theoretical model to frame the current analyses. Findings indicated an overall positive effect (d = 0.35) for use of animation in improving viewers' learning across a variety of health and clinical contexts, including surgery and diabetes. Moderator analyses indicated learning effects were greater in patient samples and samples with a higher proportion of male participants. Study findings were discussed in terms of the theoretical and practical implications for health communication scholars and practitioners.

A Scoping Review of Emerging COVID-19 Health Communication Research in Communication and Media Journals

ABSTRACT This article reports a scoping review of emerging research on COVID-19 health communication. We reviewed and analyzed 206 articles published in 40 peer-reviewed communication journals between January 2020 to April 2021. Our review identified key study characteristics and overall themes and trends in this rapidly expanding field of research. Our review of health communication scholarship during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic suggests that health communication scholars have risen to the challenges and interrogated important issues in COVID-19 communication at the individual, group, organizational, and societal levels. We identified important gaps that warrant future research attention including experimental research that seeks to test the causal effects of communication, studies that evaluate communication interventions in under-served populations, research on mental health challenges imposed by the pandemic, and investigations on the promise of emerging communication technologies for supporting pandemic mitigation efforts.

Comparing how information source and trust influence risk perception about Ebola in Ghana and Liberia.

The increasing occurrence of diseases across geographical borders creates a need to understand how information source preferences and trust in those sources influence risk perception across contexts. However, cross-context studies about information sources are not common in health communication and promotion scholarship. Using a survey, the research team compared how information sources, perceived usefulness of Ebola information, interpersonal and social trust and context influence risk perception and self-efficacy in an Ebola-affected (Liberia) and -unaffected (Ghana) country. Respondents from the unaffected country trusted the information they received significantly more and had higher levels of interpersonal and social trust than respondents from the affected country. These findings reinforce the use of community health workers as channels to support behavior and social change-focused programs, particularly in crisis situations, in addition to other information channels and sources.

Art Advocacy: Applying a Public Memory Rhetorical Framework to Health Crisis Communication

ABSTRACT Health campaigns and public health messaging strategies often rely on text-based efforts to communicate with audiences. As research grows in the areas of health and visual media, this essay puts a rhetorical framework of public memory in conversation with health campaign communication to show possibilities for audiences who are less likely to be moved by traditional institutional health narratives. The artifact for analysis is an art installation by Domenic Esposito, who in 2018 designed and placed a large scale “Opioid Spoon” at the headquarters of Purdue Pharma in Stamford, Connecticut. After situating public art as an effective way to advance health crisis messaging, we then preview the next phase of this research project that analyzes COVID-19 art as a counterpublic health narrative. We conclude by suggesting future health communication scholarship engage with the intersections of public health art, memory, and advocacy in order to reflect more accurately how communities experience health inequity.