ABSTRACTS
Volume 13, Number 4
June 2008
Vol. 13, Number4: Contents | Editorial | Abstracts
Using Culture-Centered Qualitative Formative Research to Design Broadcast Messages for HIV Prevention for African American Adolescents
Jennifer R. Horner a; Daniel Romer a; Peter A. Vanable b; Laura F. Salazar c; Michael P.
Carey d; Ivan Juzang e; Thierry Fortune e; Ralph DiClemente c; Naomi Farber f; Bonita
Stanton g; Robert F. Valois h
a Annenberg Public Policy Center, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
b Department of Psychology & Center for Health and Behavior, Syracuse University, New York, USA
c Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
d Center for Health and Behavior, Syracuse University, New York, USA
e MEE Productions, Inc., Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
f College of Social Work, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina, USA
g Wayne State University and Children's Hospital of Michigan, Detroit, Michigan, USA
h Arnold School of Public Health, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina, USA
The need for formative research in designing mass media health-education messages is widely accepted; however, distinct methodologies for developing such messages are less well documented. This article describes a culture-centered approach for developing messages to promote sexual risk reduction in urban African American adolescents. The method uses qualitative formative research to identify “competing narratives” that support healthy behavior despite the dominance of messages that favor risk-taking behavior. The method is illustrated using qualitative analysis of semistructured interviews with 124 adolescents. Analysis focuses on two barriers to sexual risk reduction: (a) social pressure for early initiation of sexual intercourse and (b) perceptions that condoms reduce sexual pleasure. We demonstrate how competing narratives identified in the analysis can be featured in radio and television messages advocating healthy behavior by modeling risk-reducing negotiation skills. z
Global and Local Networking for HIV/AIDS Prevention: The Case of the Saathii E-Forum
Rebecca DeSouza a; Mohan Jyoti Dutta b
a University of Minnesota, Duluth, Minnesota, USA
b Purdue University, Indiana, USA
The global spread of HIV/AIDS has sparked the proliferation of civil society groups working on various aspects of the disease such as prevention, treatment, support, and policy. In this article, we explore the role of the Internet in networking civil society organizations working on HIV/AIDS-related issues cross local and global spaces. Specifically, we conducted a thematic analysis of an e-forum established by the nongovernmental organization (NGO) Saathii, working on HIV/AIDS issues in India to (a) identify the specific functions served by the e-forum and (b) explore how global and local actors use the e-forum to network with one another. The thematic analysis documented four key functions of the online forum: (a) to provide HIV/AIDS-related news, (b) to serve as an informational resource, (c) to promote political activism, and (d) to express emotions. The discussion elaborates on the how global and local actors network with one another and build solidarity.
An Outcome Assessment of an ABC-Based HIV Peer Education Intervention Among Kenyan University Students
Ann Neville Miller a; Mike Mutungi b; Elena Facchini b; Benard Barasa b;
Wycliffe Ondieki c; Charles Warria d
a University of Central Florida, Orlando, Florida, USA
b I Choose Life-Africa,
c Liverpool VCT, Nairobi, Kenya
d Mildmay International, Kisumu, Kenya
This study reports an outcome assessment on an HIV peer education intervention at the main campus of Kenyatta University in Nairobi, Kenya. A quasiexperimental separate sample pretest-posttest design was used. Campuswide baseline and endline surveys were conducted with 632 and 746 students, respectively, soliciting information on HIV-related knowledge, attitudes, and behavior. After 2 years of on-campus intervention, no changes in behavior were evident with respect to either abstinence or number of sexual partners. Small but statistically significant changes were found in condom attitudes and behavior, and a large increase in HIV testing was evident. It is recommended that future research more specifically compare abstinence versus multiple option peer education programs, giving special attention to the role of peer educators as models.
Reporting AIDS and the Invisible Victims in China: Official Knowledge as News in the People's Daily, 1986-2002
Dong Dong a; Tsan-Kuo Chang a; Dan Chen b
a School of Journalism & Mass Communication, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
b School of Journalism, Fudan University, Shanghai, China
Against the backdrop of the sociology of knowledge as a framework, the purposes of this study are threefold: (1) to examine the discourses surrounding the AIDS news in China; (2) to determine how Chinese people with AIDS and the identification of their social groups are covered at the national level; and (3) to discuss the implications of reporting AIDS as official knowledge for a better understanding of the interplay between the mass media and social structure in China today. Findings indicate that as an epidemic, AIDS in China has not only become invisible in the national news, but also constructed as a nonissue devoid of social consequences in public health communication. It is a disease mostly presented in an “us vs. them” news discourse that helps convey the official knowledge as to how AIDS is to be perceived and understood in the country.
Using Diffusion of Innovation Theory to Encourage the Development of a Children's Health Collaborative: A Formative Evaluation
A. Celeste Farr a; Natalie Ames.a
a North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA
Lack of access to medical treatment and preventive care affects children's immediate well-being and has potential consequences for their physical and mental health as adults. The study reported in this article was designed as the first step in planning and implementing a communitywide collaborative to work on improving medically underserved children's access to health care. The authors used a two-stage, census-based telephone survey to identify organizations that had contact with medically underserved children and to assess the status of the communication network among them. Although there was no evidence of a functioning network among the organizations surveyed, the results indicate that many organizations would participate in a network and suggest possibilities for developing an organizational network aimed at improving children's access to health care.
Antecedent Characteristics of Online Cancer Information Seeking Among Rural Breast Cancer Patients: An Application of the Cognitive-Social Health Information Processing (C-SHIP) Model
Bret R. Shaw ab; Lori L. DuBenske c; Jeong Yeob Han c; Ludmila Cofta-Woerpel de; Nigel
Bush fg; David H. Gustafson bh; Fiona McTavish bh
a Department of Life Sciences Communication, University of Wisconsin—Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, USA
b Center for Excellence in Cancer Communication Research, Madison, Wisconsin, USA
c Department of Telecommunications, Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, USA
d National Cancer Institute's Cancer Information Service—South Central Region, Houston, Texas, USA
e Department of Behavioral Science, University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Texas, USA
f National Cancer Institute's Cancer Information Service—Northwest Region, Seattle, Washington, USA
g Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, Washington, USA
h University of Wisconsin—Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, USA
Little research has examined the antecedent characteristics of patients most likely to seek online cancer information. This study employs the Cognitive-Social Health Information Processing (C-SHIP) model as a framework to understand what psychosocial characteristics precede online cancer-related information seeking among rural breast cancer patients who often have fewer health care providers and limited local support services. Examining 144 patients who were provided free computer hardware, Internet access, and training for how to use an interactive cancer communication system, pretest survey scores indicating patients' psychosocial status were correlated with specific online cancer information seeking behaviors. Each of the factors specified by the C-SHIP model had significant relationships with online cancer information seeking behaviors, with the strongest findings emerging for cancer-relevant encodings and self-construals, cancer-relevant beliefs and expectancies, and cancer-relevant self-regulatory competencies and skills. Specifically, patients with more negative appraisals in these domains were more likely to seek out online cancer information. Additionally, antecedent variables associated with the C-SHIP model had more frequent relationships with experiential information as compared with to didactic information. This study supports the applicability of the model to discern why people afflicted with cancer may seek online information to cope with their disease.
Book Review
A Review of: “Charon, R. (2006). Narrative Medicine: Honoring Stories of Illness.”
Oxford: Oxford University
Nicole L. Defenbaugh
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