Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Communicating In Crisis Situations, Rick Gorvett, Chris Morse, Julie Volkman

Communication Faculty Journal Articles

Communicating technical information, especially in a crisis situation and particularly when the audience does not share the technical background, is a challenge that actuaries frequently face. This essay describes the dynamics and issues involved in crisis communications and provides some recommendations for actuaries confronting such a situation.

Social Media Usage Patterns: Research Note Regarding The Lack Of Universal Validated Measures For Active And Passive Use, Briana M. Trifiro, Jennifer Gerson

Communication Faculty Journal Articles

The existing literature regarding social media use provides extant evidence supporting the claim that usage patterns ultimately have the capability of impacting users. However, the vast majority of the literature is based upon experimental laboratory settings where participants are observed by researchers. The current article asserts that there is a significant deficiency within the discipline regarding the validated measurement of usage patterns of social networking sites (SNSs) and offers guidance for those who may want to develop a general measure.

Foregrounding Morality: Encouraging Parental Media Literacy Intervention Using The Tares Test For Ethical Persuasion, Kevin Pearce, Stanley Baran

Communication Faculty Journal Articles

In the United States, children are exposed to literally hundreds of thousands of television commercials a year and virtually every aspect of kids’ lives are replete with commercial messages. The negative effects of this exposure are well documented. Yet, there remains very little regulation or limit on advertising to children beyond that which exists for adults. Additionally, only about 1/3 of U.S. parents wish for stronger controls. This presents a challenge for media literacy scholars and practitioners. Research has shown that, when presented with information about the negative effects of commercial messages, parents are more likely to adopt some form …

Patient-Centeredness In Electronic Communication: An Evaluation Of Patient-To-Healthcare-Team Secure Messaging, Timothy P. Hogan, Tana M. Luger, Julie Volkman, Mary Rocheleau, Edith Nourse Rogers Memorial Veterans Hospital, Anna M. Barker, Kim M. Nazi, Thomas K. Houston, Barbara G. Bokhour

Communication Faculty Journal Articles

Background: As information and communication technology is becoming more widely implemented across health care organizations, patient-provider email or asynchronous electronic secure messaging has the potential to support patient-centered communication. Within the medical home model of the Veterans Health Administration (VA), secure messaging is envisioned as a means to enhance access and strengthen the relationships between veterans and their health care team members. However, despite previous studies that have examined the content of electronic messages exchanged between patients and health care providers, less research has focused on the socioemotional aspects of the communication enacted through those messages.

Objective: Recognizing the potential …

Narratives To Enhance Smoking Cessation Interventions Among African-American Smokers, The Acce Project, Thomas K. Houston, Catarina Kiefe, Heather Kohler, Jessica Williams, Julie E. Volkman, Jeroan Allison, Pamela Foster, Andrea Cherrington

Communication Faculty Journal Articles

Background: Low-income, African-American smokers are less likely to have resources to aid in quitting smoking. Narrative communication may provide an enhancement to traditional smoking cessation interventions like NRT, medications, or behavioral treatments for this audience. After extensive pilot testing of stories and personal experiences with smoking cessation from African-Americans from a low-income community, we conducted a randomized control trial using stories to augment routine inpatient treatment among African-Americans at an urban Southern hospital (N = 300).

Results: Differences in smoking cessation outcomes between the intervention (stories DVD + routine clinical treatment) and control (routine clinical treatment) arms were compared using …

The National Cancer Institute’S Health Information National Trends Survey [Hints]: A National Cross-Sectional Analysis Of Talking To Your Doctor And Other Healthcare Providers For Health Information, Julie E. Volkman, Tana M. Luger, Kimberly Ll Harvey, Timothy P. Hogan, Stephanie L. Shimada, Daniel Amante, Keith D. Mcinnes, Hua Feng, Thomas K. Houston

Communication Faculty Journal Articles

Background: The need to understand preferred sources of health information remains important to providing patient-centered care. The Internet remains a popular resource for health information, but more traditional sources may still be valid for patients during a recent health need. This study sought to understand the characteristics of patients that turn to their doctor or healthcare provider first for a recent health or medical information need. Methods: Using the national cross-sectional survey, Health Information National Trend Study [HINTS], characteristics of those who sought a doctor or healthcare provider for a recent health information need were compared to other sources. Weighted …

Quitters Referring Smokers: A Quitline Chain-Referral Pilot Study, Kathryn Delaughter, Julie E. Volkman, Barrett D. Phillips, Thomas K. Houston

Communication Faculty Journal Articles

Background: Telephone counseling Quitlines can support smoking cessation, but are under-utilized. We explored the use of smoker peer-referrals to increase use of a Quitline in Mississippi and Alabama.

Findings: Collaborating with the Alabama and Mississippi Quitline, we piloted peer-referrals to Quitlines. Successful ‘quitters’ who had used the Quitline were contacted at routine follow-up and recruited to participate as a peer-referrer and refer their friends and family who smoked to the Quitline. Peer-referrers completed a training session, received a manual and a set of Quitline brochures a peer-referral forms. These peer-referral forms were then returned to the Quitline telephone counselors who …

Cluster-Randomized Trial Of A Web-Assisted Tobacco Quality Improvement Intervention Of Subsequent Patient Tobacco Product Use: A National Dental Pbrn Study, Thomas K. Houston, Catarina Kiefe, Jeroan Allison, Gregg H. Gilber, Julie E. Volkman, Midge N. Ray, Kathryn Delaughter

Communication Faculty Journal Articles

Background Brief clinician delivered advice helps in tobacco cessation efforts. This study assessed the impact of our intervention on instances of advice given to dental patients during visits on tobacco use quit rates 6 months after the intervention.

Methods The intervention was cluster randomized trial at the dental practice level. Intervention dental practices were provided a longitudinal technology-assisted intervention, oralcancerprevention.org that included a series of interactive educational cases and motivational email cues to remind dental provides to complete guideline-concordant brief behavioral counseling at the point of care. In all dental practices, exit cards were given to the first 100 consecutive …

Disentangling The Characteristics Of Narratives Comprising Evidence: Outcomes Of Osteoporosis Narrative Evidence For Young Women, Julie E. Volkman, Roxanne Parrot

Communication Faculty Journal Articles

Health communication scholars are charged with seeking ways to convey health information in credible and reliable ways for audiences. In the context of osteoporosis, the challenge becomes how to communicate risk and prevention to young women, as prevention behaviors started early in life can help decrease osteoporosis diagnosis later in life. Evidence has been shown to be one message tool that can increase comprehension of information presented and influence outcomes. Previous research has found that statistical evidence to be associated with systematic processing, or careful attention to messages, whereas narrative evidence evokes heuristic processing, or a reliance on heuristics. Yet, …

How Effectively Are We Managing Innovation?, Stanley J. Baran, Peter Zadan, John H. Vanston

Communication Faculty Journal Articles

The writer's observe that top management's stated commitment to innovation has yet to be successfully infused into many organizations.