IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v9y2012i12p4254-4277d21642.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Narratives and Images Used by Public Communication Campaigns Addressing Social Determinants of Health and Health Disparities

Author

Listed:
  • Christopher E. Clarke

    (Department of Communication, George Mason University, 253 Research Hall, 4400 University Drive MS 3D6, Fairfax, VA 22030, USA)

  • Jeff Niederdeppe

    (Department of Communication, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14850, USA)

  • Helen C. Lundell

    (The Hartman Group, Inc., Bellevue, WA 98005, USA)

Abstract

Researchers have increasingly focused on how social determinants of health (SDH) influence health outcomes and disparities. They have also explored strategies for raising public awareness and mobilizing support for policies to address SDH, with particular attention to narrative and image-based information. These efforts will need to overcome low public awareness and concern about SDH; few organized campaigns; and limited descriptions of existing message content. To begin addressing these challenges, we analyzed characteristics of 58 narratives and 135 visual images disseminated by two national SDH awareness initiatives: The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Commission to Build a Healthier America and the PBS-produced documentary film Unnatural Causes. Certain types of SDH, including income/wealth and one’s home and workplace environment, were emphasized more heavily than others. Solutions for addressing SDH often involved combinations of self-driven motivation (such as changes in personal health behaviors) along with externally-driven factors such as government policy related to urban revitilization. Images, especially graphs and charts, drew connections among SDH, health outcomes, and other variables, such as the relationship between mother’s education and infant mortality as well as the link between heart disease and education levels within communities. We discuss implications of these findings for raising awareness of SDH and health disparities in the US through narrative and visual means.

Suggested Citation

  • Christopher E. Clarke & Jeff Niederdeppe & Helen C. Lundell, 2012. "Narratives and Images Used by Public Communication Campaigns Addressing Social Determinants of Health and Health Disparities," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 9(12), pages 1-24, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:9:y:2012:i:12:p:4254-4277:d:21642
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/9/12/4254/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/9/12/4254/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Winterbottom, Anna & Bekker, Hilary L. & Conner, Mark & Mooney, Andrew, 2008. "Does narrative information bias individual's decision making? A systematic review," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 67(12), pages 2079-2088, December.
    2. Srinivasan, S. & O'Fallon, L.R. & Dearry, A., 2003. "Creating Healthy Communities, Healthy Homes, Healthy People: Initiating a Research Agenda on the Built Environment and Public Health," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 93(9), pages 1446-1450.
    3. Elizabeth Rigby & Joe Soss & Bridget C. Booske & Angela M. K. Rohan & Stephanie A. Robert, 2009. "Public Responses to Health Disparities: How Group Cues Influence Support for Government Intervention," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 90(5), pages 1321-1340, December.
    4. Morency, P. & Gauvin, L. & Plante, C. & Fournier, M. & Morency, C., 2012. "Neighborhood social inequalities in road traffic injuries: The influence of traffic volume and road design," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 102(6), pages 1112-1119.
    5. Chris M. R. Smerecnik & Ilse Mesters & Loes T. E. Kessels & Robert A. C. Ruiter & Nanne K. De Vries & Hein De Vries, 2010. "Understanding the Positive Effects of Graphical Risk Information on Comprehension: Measuring Attention Directed to Written, Tabular, and Graphical Risk Information," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(9), pages 1387-1398, September.
    6. Gollust, S.E. & Lantz, P.M. & Ubel, P.A., 2009. "The polarizing effect of news media messages about the social determinants of health," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 99(12), pages 2160-2167.
    7. Huang, G. & London, J., 2012. "Mapping cumulative environmental effects, social vulnerability, and health in the San Joaquin Valley, California," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 102(5), pages 830-832.
    8. Smedley, B.D., 2012. "The lived experience of race and its health consequences," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 102(5), pages 933-935.
    9. Purnell, J.Q. & Peppone, L.J. & Alcaraz, K. & McQueen, A. & Guido, J.J. & Carroll, J.K. & Shacham, E. & Morrow, G.R., 2012. "Perceived discrimination, psychological distress, and current smoking status: Results from the behavioral risk factor surveillance system reactions to race module, 2004-2008," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 102(5), pages 844-851.
    10. Angela Fagerlin & Catharine Wang & Peter A. Ubel, 2005. "Reducing the Influence of Anecdotal Reasoning on People’s Health Care Decisions: Is a Picture Worth a Thousand Statistics?," Medical Decision Making, , vol. 25(4), pages 398-405, July.
    11. Gee, G.C. & Walsemann, K.M. & Brondolo, E., 2012. "A life course perspective on how racism may be related to health inequities," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 102(5), pages 967-974.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Nick Bellissimo & Gillie Gabay & Attila Gere & Michaela Kucab & Howard Moskowitz, 2020. "Containing COVID-19 by Matching Messages on Social Distancing to Emergent Mindsets—The Case of North America," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(21), pages 1-10, November.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Bertoli, Paola & Grembi, Veronica & Morelli, Massimo & Rosso, Anna Cecilia, 2023. "In medio stat virtus? Effective communication and preferences for redistribution in hard times," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 214(C), pages 105-147.
    2. Grisé, Emily & Buliung, Ron & Rothman, Linda & Howard, Andrew, 2018. "A geography of child and elderly pedestrian injury in the City of Toronto, Canada," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 321-329.
    3. Katherine King, 2013. "Jane Jacobs and ‘The Need for Aged Buildings’: Neighbourhood Historical Development Pace and Community Social Relations," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 50(12), pages 2407-2424, September.
    4. Slaughter-Acey, Jaime C. & Brown, Tony N. & Keith, Verna M. & Dailey, Rhonda & Misra, Dawn P., 2020. "A tale of two generations: Maternal skin color and adverse birth outcomes in Black/African American women," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 265(C).
    5. Cameron A. MacKenzie & Kristy A. Bryden & Anna A. Prisacari, 2020. "Integrating narratives into decision making for complex systems engineering design issues," Systems Engineering, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 23(1), pages 65-81, January.
    6. Gindo Tampubolon & S. V. Subramanian & Ichiro Kawachi, 2013. "Neighbourhood Social Capital And Individual Self‐Rated Health In Wales," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 22(1), pages 14-21, January.
    7. Milner, Mattie & Rice, Stephen & Rice, Connor, 2019. "Support for environmentally-friendly airports influenced by political affiliation and social identity," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).
    8. Laura D. Scherer & Jeffrey T. Kullgren & Tanner Caverly & Aaron M. Scherer & Victoria A. Shaffer & Angela Fagerlin & Brian J. Zikmund-Fisher, 2018. "Medical Maximizing-Minimizing Preferences Predict Responses to Information about Prostate-Specific Antigen Screening," Medical Decision Making, , vol. 38(6), pages 708-718, August.
    9. Garcia-Retamero, Rocio & Hoffrage, Ulrich, 2013. "Visual representation of statistical information improves diagnostic inferences in doctors and their patients," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 27-33.
    10. Hans R. A. Koster & Jos van Ommeren, 2019. "Place-Based Policies and the Housing Market," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 101(3), pages 400-414, July.
    11. Sabo, Samantha & Shaw, Susan & Ingram, Maia & Teufel-Shone, Nicolette & Carvajal, Scott & de Zapien, Jill Guernsey & Rosales, Cecilia & Redondo, Flor & Garcia, Gina & Rubio-Goldsmith, Raquel, 2014. "Everyday violence, structural racism and mistreatment at the US–Mexico border," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 66-74.
    12. Freling, Traci H. & Yang, Zhiyong & Saini, Ritesh & Itani, Omar S. & Rashad Abualsamh, Ryan, 2020. "When poignant stories outweigh cold hard facts: A meta-analysis of the anecdotal bias," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 160(C), pages 51-67.
    13. Eric R. Stone & Wändi Bruine de Bruin & Abigail M. Wilkins & Emily M. Boker & Jacqueline MacDonald Gibson, 2017. "Designing Graphs to Communicate Risks: Understanding How the Choice of Graphical Format Influences Decision Making," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 37(4), pages 612-628, April.
    14. Alison Jayne Gerlach & Alysha McFadden, 2022. "Re-Envisioning an Early Years System of Care towards Equity in Canada: A Critical, Rapid Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(15), pages 1-23, August.
    15. Firth, Caislin L. & Hosford, Kate & Winters, Meghan, 2021. "Who were these bike lanes built for? Social-spatial inequities in Vancouver's bikeways, 2001–2016," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    16. Hanning, Cooper & Jerrett, Michael & Su, Jason G. & Wolch, Jennifer, 2012. "Safe Routes to Play? Pedestrian and Bicyclist Crashes Near Parks in the Los Angeles Region," University of California Transportation Center, Working Papers qt2st3m2cv, University of California Transportation Center.
    17. Jensen, Jakob D. & King, Andy J. & Carcioppolo, Nick & Krakow, Melinda & Samadder, N. Jewel & Morgan, Susan, 2014. "Comparing tailored and narrative worksite interventions at increasing colonoscopy adherence in adults 50–75: A randomized controlled trial," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 31-40.
    18. Hannah A D Keage & Tobias Loetscher, 2018. "Estimating everyday risk: Subjective judgments are related to objective risk, mapping of numerical magnitudes and previous experience," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(12), pages 1-17, December.
    19. Walsemann, Katrina M. & Goosby, Bridget J. & Farr, Deeonna, 2016. "Life course SES and cardiovascular risk: Heterogeneity across race/ethnicity and gender," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 152(C), pages 147-155.
    20. Soud K. Al-Thani & Alexandre Amato & Muammer Koç & Sami G. Al-Ghamdi, 2019. "Urban Sustainability and Livability: An Analysis of Doha’s Urban-form and Possible Mitigation Strategies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(3), pages 1-25, February.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:9:y:2012:i:12:p:4254-4277:d:21642. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.