Conflicting Health-Related Scientific Evidence in News Reports: Effects of Hedging and Presentation Format on Perceived Issue Uncertainty and Scientists’ and Journalists’ Credibility

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hui Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Health Communication ◽  
Scientific Evidence ◽  
The Other ◽  
Presentation Format ◽  
News Article ◽  
Online Experiment ◽  
News Reports ◽  
Conflicting Evidence ◽  
Health Related

Introduction: This study examined effects of two journalistic practices in reporting conflicting scientific evidence, hedging and presentation format, on scientists’ and journalists’ credibility and issue uncertainty. Methods: An online experiment was conducted using students from a western U.S. university. Hedging was manipulated as reporting methodological limitations versus not reporting the limitations in news articles covering the conflict. Presentation format was manipulated as using a single news article to report both sides of the conflict versus using double articles with one side of the conflict in one article and the other side in the other article. Results: The study found that perceived issue uncertainty was higher in hedged news articles than that in non-hedged articles; presentation format did not affect people’s perceived issue uncertainty. For scientists’ credibility (both competence and trustworthiness), this study found that it was lower in the single-article format than that in the double-article format; for journalists’ credibility, this study found that journalists’ trustworthiness in the two formats did not vary, but their competence was lower in the double-article format than that in the single-article format. Conclusion: This study contributes to the field of science and health communication by examining effects of presentation format used in communicating conflicting health-related scientific evidence and by examining effects of communicating scientific limitations in a context where conflicting evidence exists. Keywords: conflicting scientific evidence, hedging, presentation format, scientists’ credibility, journalists’ credibility

scholarly journals Humor and Fear—Two Sides of the Same Coin?: Experimental Evidence on Humor Appeals in Health Communication Related to Childhood Vaccination

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Florian Fischer ◽  
Franziska Carow ◽  
Stefanie Gillitzer
Keyword(s):  
Health Communication ◽  
Scientific Evidence ◽  
Childhood Vaccination ◽  
Attitudes And Behaviors ◽  
Text Types ◽  
Health Related ◽  
Additional Value ◽  
Two Sides ◽  
Oriented Approach ◽  
Experimental Study Design

Until now, health communication has largely failed to debunk fears and caveats related to vaccination. This study aims to investigate the effects of different text types used in health communication in an experimental study design. A neutrally formulated text was compared to a humorous text using the formula of a fairytale. Overall, the study indicates no additional value in using the humorous format as an innovative and target-group-oriented approach to inform readers about scientific evidence related to vaccination. Although the effects of the two text types do not differ, the credibility of the neutrally formulated text was much more likely to be judged as high. This indicates that the perception of credibility is not the only criterion in health communication leading to knowledge gains and changes in health-related attitudes and behaviors.

Health Communication: Implications for Diverse Populations

2011 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 12-19
Author(s):  
Amy Hasselkus
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Health Communication ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Linguistically Diverse ◽  
Good Health ◽  
The United States ◽  
Poor Health ◽  
Health Care Decisions ◽  
Diverse Backgrounds ◽  
Health Related

The need for improved communication about health-related topics is evident in statistics about the health literacy of adults living in the United States. The negative impact of poor health communication is huge, resulting in poor health outcomes, health disparities, and high health care costs. The importance of good health communication is relevant to all patient populations, including those from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. Efforts are underway at all levels, from individual professionals to the federal government, to improve the information patients receive so that they can make appropriate health care decisions. This article describes these efforts and discusses how speech-language pathologists and audiologists may be impacted.

Do we form or deform? Qualitative Investigation in Public Hospitals of Madrid

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
María Jesús Gómez Camuñas ◽  
Purificación González Villanueva
Keyword(s):  
Participant Observation ◽  
Scientific Evidence ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Public Hospitals ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Business Growth ◽  
Small Hospital ◽  
Student Learn ◽  
Depth Interviews

<div><i>Background</i>: the creative capacities and the knowledge of the employees are components of the intellectual capital of the company; hence, their training is a key activity to achieve the objectives and business growth. <i>Objective</i>: To understand the meaning of learning in the hospital from the experiences of its participants through the inquiry of meanings. <i>Method</i>: Qualitative design with an ethnographic approach, which forms part of a wider research, on organizational culture; carried out mainly in 2 public hospitals of the Community of Madrid. The data has been collected for thirteen months. A total of 23 in-depth interviews and 69 field sessions have been conducted through the participant observation technique. <i>Results</i>: the worker and the student learn from what they see and hear. The great hospital offers an unregulated education, dependent on the professional, emphasizing that they learn everything. Some transmit the best and others, even the humiliating ones, use them for dirty jobs, focusing on the task and nullifying the possibility of thinking. They show a reluctant attitude to teach the newcomer, even if they do, they do not have to oppose their practice. In short, a learning in the variability, which produces a rupture between theory and practice; staying with what most convinces them, including negligence, which affects the patient's safety. In the small hospital, it is a teaching based on a practice based on scientific evidence and personalized attention, on knowing the other. Clearly taught from the reception, to treat with caring patience and co-responsibility in the care. The protagonists of both scenarios agree that teaching and helping new people establish lasting and important personal relationships to feel happy and want to be in that service or hospital. <i>Conclusion</i>: There are substantial differences related to the size of the center, as to what and how the student and the novel professional are formed. At the same time that the meaning of value that these health organizations transmit to their workers is inferred through the training, one orienting to the task and the other to the person, either patient, professional or pupil and therefore seeking the common benefit.</div>

Health Communication for Hospice Care through Chinese media: Digital Topic Modeling Approach (Preprint)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qian Liu ◽  
Zequan Zheng ◽  
Jingsen Chen ◽  
Winghei Tsang ◽  
Jin Shan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mass Media ◽  
Health Communication ◽  
Topic Modeling ◽  
Health Care Services ◽  
Hospice Care ◽  
Patient Treatment ◽  
News Reports ◽  
Care Services ◽  
Time Period ◽  
Second Period

BACKGROUND Hospice care, a type of end-of-life care provided for dying patients and their families, has been rooted in China since the 1980s. It can improve receivers’ quality of life as well as ease their economic burden. The Chinese mass media have continued to actively dispel misconceptions of hospice care and deliver the latest information to citizens. OBJECTIVE This study aimed to retrieve and analyze news reports on hospice care to gain insight into whether any differences exist in delivered heath information as time went by and the role the mass media played in health communication in recent years. METHODS We searched the Huike (WiseSearch) database for related news from Chinese mass media between 2014 and 2019. We set January 1, 2014 to December 31, 2016 as the first time period and January 1, 2017 to December 31, 2019 as the second time period. Python was used to complete the data cleaning process. We determined appropriate topic numbers for these two periods based on coherence score and applied the latent Dirichlet allocation topic modeling. Keywords of each topic and corresponding topics’ names were then generated. The topics were plotted into different circles and their distances on the two-dimensional plane was represented by multidimensional scaling. RESULTS After removing the duplicated and irrelevant news articles, we obtained a total of 2227 articles. We chose eight as the suitable topic number for both time periods and generated topics’ name and their keywords. The top three most reported topics in the first period were patient treatment, hospice care stories, and development of health care services and health insurance, accounting for 18.68% (n = 178), 16.58% (n = 158), and 14.17% (n = 135) of the collected reports, respectively. The top three most reported topics in the second period were hospice care stories, patient treatment, and development of health care services, accounting for 15.62% (n = 199), 15.38 (n = 15.38), and 14.27% (n = 182), respectively. CONCLUSIONS Topic modeling of news reports gives us a better understanding of patterns of health communication about hospice care by mass media. Chinese mass media frequently reported on hospice care in April due to a traditional Chinese festival. An increase in coverage in the second period was observed. These two periods share six similar topics, among which patient treatment outstrips hospice care stories as the most-reported topic in the second period, showing the humanistic spirit behind the reports. We suggest stakeholders cooperate with the mass media when planning to update policies.

Außerklinische Beatmung – Konzepte und Therapieempfehlungen

2017 ◽  
Vol 142 (16) ◽  
pp. 1197-1204 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Schwarz ◽  
Friederike Magnet ◽  
Bernd Schönhofer ◽  
Wolfram Windisch
Keyword(s):  
Mechanical Ventilation ◽  
Scientific Evidence ◽  
Underlying Disease ◽  
Home Mechanical Ventilation ◽  
Term Survival ◽  
Number Of Patients ◽  
Related Quality ◽  
Außerklinische Beatmung ◽  
Health Related

AbstractThe prognosis of patients receiving home mechanical ventilation is very heterogeneous and depends on the underlying disease, the degree of respiratory dependency and the comorbidities. Due to the severe chronic diseases, the initiation of a long-term NIV must be done during an inpatient treatment. Two recently published randomized controlled trials using more aggressive forms of NPPV targeted at normalizing hypercapnic PaCO2 values, showed improved long term survival also in patients with an underlying diagnosis of COPD. Consequently, the number of patients receiving home mechanical ventilation has dramatically increased in recent years and more and more outpatient settings has been established without scientific evidence. Nevertheless, beside reliable care structures, ethical aspects and health related quality of life are of great importance in the context of home mechanical ventilation.

The Client-Centred Evidence-Based Practice of Occupational Therapy

1998 ◽  
Vol 65 (3) ◽  
pp. 136-143 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary Egan ◽  
Claire-Jehanne Dubouloz ◽  
Claudia Von Zweck ◽  
Josée Vallerand
Keyword(s):  
Occupational Therapy ◽  
Process Model ◽  
Evidence Based Practice ◽  
Scientific Evidence ◽  
Treatment Decision ◽  
Population Based ◽  
Individual Characteristics ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Health Related ◽  
Problem Solving Process

Evidence-based practice has its roots in evidence-based medicine. This term refers to the formulation of treatment decision using the best available research evidence. While the concept has gained increased attention among health care workers in the recent past, practice based on scientific evidence has been recommended for over 300 years. However, all health-related professions continue to report difficulties adopting evidence-based practice. Notably, practitioners are often concerned that results of population-based research may not be relevant for their specific patients. This may be of particular concern for occupational therapists who aim to provide client-centred intervention, taking into consideration individual characteristics of the client, the environment and the occupation. As well, those wishing to practice evidence-based occupational therapy must determine which decisions are made during the course of therapy and what evidence may impact on these decisions. The Occupational Performance Process Model (Fearing, Law & Clark, 1997) outlines the occupational therapy problem solving process and assists therapists to integrate knowledge from both client and therapist. A framework for evidence-based occupational therapy is presented, based on this model.

scholarly journals Social Aspects of Health Communication – Towards a Research Agenda

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. I-IV
Author(s):  
Sarah Geber ◽  
Tobias Frey ◽  
Thomas N. Friemel
Keyword(s):  
Health Communication ◽  
Impression Management ◽  
Research Agenda ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Academic Research ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Social Aspects ◽  
Health Related ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Individual

Health and health-related behaviours are embedded in social contexts in various ways which comprise both risks and opportunities for health communication. We propose a research agenda on social aspects of health communication and introduce the articles of the present special issue. Owing to the complexity of individuals’ social contexts, the research agenda addresses questions lying at the individual, interpersonal, and societal levels. The issue’s articles cover different and highly relevant questions of this research agenda, ranging from stigmatisation to impression management to collective action and from experimental designs to qualitative interviews and netnography. In sum, the articles demonstrate not only the diversity but also the relevance of academic research on social aspects of health communication. We expect that this topic will continue gaining importance, given the ongoing digitalisation of the media environment and the increasing interconnectedness of producers and users, doctors and patients, and experts and laypersons.

scholarly journals Lista de comprobación para mejorar la información sobre fármacos en la prensa: la importancia de informar sobre las fases y la incertidumbre de la investigación = A checklist for improving drug information in the general press: the importance of reporting on the phases and uncertainty of research

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 203
Author(s):  
Fèlix Bosch ◽  
Clàudia Escalas ◽  
Ainoa Forteza ◽  
Elisabet Serés ◽  
Gonzalo Casino
Keyword(s):  
Mass Media ◽  
Health Communication ◽  
Drug Information ◽  
Qualitative Studies ◽  
Current Phase ◽  
Quality Of Reporting ◽  
Interest In Science ◽  
News Reports ◽  
Medios De Comunicacion

Resumen: El interés de la ciudadanía por la ciencia es consecuente con que los medios de comunicación difundan también información sobre fármacos. Sin embargo, se requieren más estudios cuantitativos y cualitativos que analicen este tipo de información en la prensa generalista. En este artículo se revisan los estudios que han analizado las noticias sobre fármacos, así como las herramientas disponibles para evaluar su calidad. Se revisan aspectos cualitativos a considerar al informar sobre fármacos en investigación o ya comercializados: la necesidad de contrastar las fuentes, citar la publicación de origen y emplear un lenguaje comprensible. Asimismo, se recomienda informar tanto de beneficios como de riesgos, y hacerlo con valores relativos y absolutos; evitar la generación de falsas expectativas y contextualizar los aspectos relacionados con la financiación. Además, se sugiere explicitar la fase de investigación en la que se encuentra el fármaco para así orientar sobre las posibilidades y plazos para su comercialización, y sobre las fuentes de información más adecuadas. Con esta revisión y las consideraciones planteadas, este artículo pretende promover una reflexión general para mejorar la calidad de las noticias sobre fármacos, a la vez que proporciona una primera lista de comprobación útil para comunicadores y periodistas científicos.Palabras clave: comunicación en salud; divulgación; fármacos; información; investigación; medicamentos; medios de comunicación; prensa.Abstract: Given the public’s interest in science, it is logical that the mass media disseminate information about drugs. However, few quantitative or qualitative studies have analyzed the way this type of information is presented in the lay press. This article reviews the studies that have analyzed news reports about drugs and discusses the tools that are available to evaluate the quality of such reports. It also examines qualitative aspects when reporting on drugs in research or when have already been marketed: the need to check the sources, to cite the original reports, and to use language that is easy to understand. To avoid creating false expectations, news reports should inform readers about risks as well as benefits in both relative and absolute terms and put financial aspects in context. Moreover, it is important to specify the drug’s current phase of development to inform if and when it is likely to be commercialized. Finally, news reports about drugs should point readers to the most appropriate sources to obtain further information. This article aims to promote general reflection and ultimately to improve the quality of reporting about drugs in the general press and to provide a checklist for science communicators and journalists.Keywords: health communication; popularization; drugs; information; investigation; medicines; media; press.

scholarly journals Investigation of Risk Of Bias due to Unreported and SelecTively included results in meta-analyses of nutrition research: the ROBUST study protocol

F1000Research ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 1760 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew J. Page ◽  
Lisa Bero ◽  
Cynthia M. Kroeger ◽  
Zhaoli Dai ◽  
Sally McDonald ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Scientific Evidence ◽  
Open Science ◽  
Included Study ◽  
Risk Of Bias ◽  
Dietary Guidelines ◽  
Healthy Population ◽  
Nutrition Research ◽  
Health Related ◽  
Meta Analyses

Background: Dietary guidelines should be informed by systematic reviews (SRs) of the available scientific evidence. However, if the SRs that underpin dietary guidelines are flawed in their design, conduct or reporting, the recommendations contained therein may be misleading or harmful. To date there has been little empirical investigation of bias due to selective inclusion of results, and bias due to missing results, in SRs of food/diet-outcome relationships. Objectives: To explore in SRs with meta-analyses of the association between food/diet and health-related outcomes: (i) whether systematic reviewers selectively included study effect estimates in meta-analyses when multiple effect estimates were available; (ii) what impact selective inclusion of study effect estimates may have on meta-analytic effects, and; (iii) the risk of bias due to missing results (publication bias and selective non-reporting bias) in meta-analyses. Methods: We will systematically search for SRs with meta-analysis of the association between food/diet and health-related outcomes in a generally healthy population, published between January 2018 and June 2019. We will randomly sort titles and abstracts and screen them until we identify 50 eligible SRs. The first reported meta-analysis of a binary or continuous outcome in each SR (the ‘index meta-analysis’) will be evaluated. We will extract from study reports all study effect estimates that were eligible for inclusion in the index meta-analyses (e.g. from multiple instruments and time points) and will quantify and test for evidence of selective inclusion of results. We will also assess the risk of bias due to missing results in the index meta-analyses using a new tool (ROB-ME). Ethics and dissemination: Ethics approval is not required because information will only be extracted from published studies. Dissemination of the results will be through peer-reviewed publications and presentations at conferences. We will make all data collected from this study publicly available via the Open Science Framework.

scholarly journals Predictive policing: Utopia or dystopia? On attitudes towards the use of big data algorithms for law enforcement

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fernando Miró Llinares
Keyword(s):  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Main Part ◽  
Scientific Evidence ◽  
The Other ◽  
State Control ◽  
Legal Decisions ◽  
Technological Revolution ◽  
Predictive Policing ◽  
Predictive Algorithms ◽  
The One

The use of predictive AI tools to improve decision-making in relation to crime prevention and investigation is a reality. They are being implemented almost before we fully understand how they work, while we make relevant legal decisions that may determine the progress of the technology, and long before we can predict their full impact. This paper addresses the attitudes towards this technological revolution applied to criminal justice, focusing in particular on its use by police. The first section summarises and describes the techniques and technologies that make up predictive policing. Subsequently, the main part of the study analyses the attitudes with which this technology has been received. These range from the optimism of those who defend its immediate implementation as a way to improve police objectivity and efficiency, to the pessimism of those who see its use as strengthening a dystopia of state control and surveillance. Two apparent extremes that correspond to the transition from optimism to technological pessimism of the twentieth century. The article concludes with a defence of a realistic, critical and informed view of the use of these predictive algorithms. A vision that, on the one hand, accepts that there are no neutral technologies, yet does not fall into fatalism and technophobia; and, on the other hand, places the human being and the legitimate police function at the centre of the algorithmic equation while redefining its objectives based on the scientific evidence applied to each individual technology.

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