Protective behaviours among young African American women with non-monogamous sexual partners.

In the USA, partner non-monogamy is reported to be more common among African American women than White women and may contribute to African American women's increased risk for HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Few studies have explicitly and comprehensively described the protective behaviours that African American women employ with non-monogamous partners to reduce their HIV risk. We conducted interviews to examine protective behaviours among 11 African American women aged 18-24 years who perceived that a partner in the preceding 12 months had another sex partner. Participants described three types of partnerships with 29 non-monogamous men; these partnerships clustered into three categories. Narrative analysis revealed an overall paucity of protective behaviours with non-monogamous partners. Protective behaviours (i.e. communication and condom use) were informed by partnership type, rather than perceptions of non-monogamy. There were few instances in which partner non-monogamy motivated women to terminate sex partnerships. Rather, these decisions were often motivated by changes in other relationship dynamics. To address HIV/STI risk related to partner non-monogamy, HIV prevention strategies for young African American women should emphasise the importance of condom use in all non-marital partnership types. Interventions where testing is available may be effective for women who frequently test for HIV/STIs but do not use condoms.

The influence of social norms on flu vaccination among African American and White adults.

Adult influenza vaccination rates remain suboptimal, particularly among African Americans. Social norms may influence vaccination behavior, but little research has focused on influenza vaccine and almost no research has focused on racially-specific norms. This mixed methods investigation utilizes qualitative interviews and focus groups (n = 118) and national survey results (n = 1643) to assess both descriptive and subjective norms surrounding influenza vaccination. Qualitative results suggest a perceived descriptive norm that 'about half' of the population gets vaccinated. Participants describe differing norms by race and vaccine behavior. Quantitative results confirm a perceived descriptive norm that 40-60% of the population gets vaccinated. Both African Americans and Whites accurately identified race-specific vaccination rates relative to the general population. Individuals who report that a majority of people around them want them to be vaccinated were significantly more likely to be vaccinated, suggesting subjective norms are influential for both White and African American adults. While perceived descriptive norms are somewhat accurate (mirroring the actual influenza vaccination rate), emphasizing a suboptimal vaccination rate may not be beneficial. Health promotion efforts, particularly those targeting African Americans, may benefit from focusing on subjective norms and encouraging friends and family members to talk about the benefits of influenza vaccination.

The Role of Risk Perception in Flu Vaccine Behavior among African-American and White Adults in the United States.

Seasonal flu vaccination rates are low for U.S. adults, with significant disparities between African and white Americans. Risk perception is a significant predictor of vaccine behavior but the research on this construct has been flawed. This study addressed critical research questions to understand the differences between African and white Americans in the role of risk perception in flu vaccine behavior: (1) What is the dimensionality of risk perception and does it differ between the two races?  (2) Were risk perceptions of white and African-American populations different and how were sociodemographic characteristics related to risk for each group? (3) What is the relation between risk perception and flu vaccine behaviors for African Americans and whites? The sample, drawn from GfK's Knowledge Panel, consisted of 838 whites and 819 African Americans. The survey instrument was developed from qualitative research. Measures of risk perception included cognitive and emotional measures of disease risk and risk of side effects from the vaccine. The online survey was conducted in March 2015. Results showed the importance of risk perception in the vaccine decision-making process for both racial groups. As expected, those who got the vaccine reported higher disease risk than those who did not. Separate cognitive and emotional factors did not materialize in this study but strong evidence was found to support the importance of considering disease risk as well as risk of the vaccine. There were significant racial differences in the way risk perception predicted behavior.

Trust during the early stages of the 2009 H1N1 pandemic.

Distrust of the government often stands in the way of cooperation with public health recommendations in a crisis. The purpose of this article is to describe the public's trust in government recommendations during the early stages of the H1N1 pandemic and to identify factors that might account for these trust levels. The authors surveyed 1,543 respondents about their experiences and attitudes related to H1N1 influenza between June 3, 2009, and July 6, 2009, during the first wave of the pandemic using the Knowledge Networks online panel. This panel is representative of the U.S. population and uses a combination of random digit dialing and address-based probability sampling frames covering 99% of the U.S. household population to recruit participants. To ensure participation of low-income individuals and those without Internet access, Knowledge Networks provides hardware and access to the Internet if needed. Measures included standard demographics, a trust scale, trust ratings for individual spokespersons, involvement with H1N1, experience with H1N1, and past discrimination in health care. The authors found that trust of government was low (2.3 out of 4) and varied across demographic groups. Blacks and Hispanics reported higher trust in government than did Whites. Of the spokespersons included, personal health professionals received the highest trust ratings and religious leaders the lowest. Attitudinal and experience variables predicted trust better than demographic characteristics. Closely following the news about the flu virus, having some self-reported knowledge about H1N1, self-reporting of local cases, and previously experiencing discrimination were the significant attitudinal and experience predictors of trust. Using a second longitudinal survey, trust in the early stages of the pandemic predicted vaccine acceptance later but only for White, non-Hispanic individuals.

Theory-based approaches to understanding public emergency preparedness: implications for effective health and risk communication.

Recent natural and human-caused disasters have awakened public health officials to the importance of emergency preparedness. Guided by health behavior and media effects theories, the analysis of a statewide survey in Georgia reveals that self-efficacy, subjective norm, and emergency news exposure are positively associated with the respondents' possession of emergency items and their stages of emergency preparedness. Practical implications suggest less focus on demographics as the sole predictor of emergency preparedness and more comprehensive measures of preparedness, including both a person's cognitive stage of preparedness and checklists of emergency items on hand. We highlight the utility of theory-based approaches for understanding and predicting public emergency preparedness as a way to enable more effective health and risk communication.

Action, not talk: a simulation of risk communication during the first hours of a pandemic.

This article describes the design, implementation, and evaluation of a simulation of risk communication in the first hours of a pandemic. The simulation design was based on Crisis and Emergency Risk Communication principles espoused by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as the collective experience of the authors. Over 4 hours, 17 local health district risk communicators in Georgia responded to a scenario in which every community in the state had teenagers infected with avian flu after returning from an international conference. The evaluation revealed that local risk communicators had much greater difficulty following risk communication principles under the time pressures of a realistic and stressful event than they did in a tabletop exercise. Strengths and weaknesses of the performance of the local risk communicators are identified in addition to lessons learned about the design and implementation of a risk communication simulation.

Public support for government actions during a flu pandemic: lessons learned from a statewide survey.

To better inform public health officials during a flu pandemic, this study analyzes a representative statewide telephone survey among 1,602 adults to examine knowledge and perceptions about a flu pandemic, trust in government, and support for government actions in a flu pandemic. The findings show citizens do not understand what avian/bird flu is and how it evolves into a pandemic. They also seem to have divergent perceptions regarding the susceptibility and severity of a flu pandemic. More than half of the respondents trust the government to handle a flu pandemic and show strong support for many proposed government actions in a pandemic, except for offering non-fully approved drugs. The findings suggest public health and risk communicators should reinforce support for controversial actions through trust building and personalization of risks rather than mere education or publicity. Public education and engagement should also begin pre-pandemic and continue throughout all phases of the event.

Long-Term Breastfeeding in African American Mothers.

BACKGROUND: According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 39.1% of African American infants are breastfed at 6 months. However, few studies have explored the breastfeeding experiences of African American women who successfully breastfeed to 6 months or longer durations. Research aim: The goal of this qualitative study was to explore the long-term breastfeeding experiences of low-income African American women using the positive deviance approach. METHODS: African American women with breastfeeding experience were recruited through Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) breastfeeding peer counselors. Eligibility criteria included being age 18 or older, currently participating in WIC, and having breastfed one child for at least 6 months in the past 2 years. Semistructured, in-depth interviews were conducted with 11 participants. Interviews were audio-recorded and professionally transcribed. Transcripts were then analyzed for emerging themes using thematic analysis in NVivo software. RESULTS: Participants had on average three children each, with an average length of breastfeeding of 10.5 months per child. Four main themes developed: (a) deciding to breastfeed, (b) initiating breastfeeding, (c) breastfeeding long-term, and (d) expanding breastfeeding support. Participants offered culturally tailored suggestions to improve breastfeeding support for other African American women: prenatal discussions of breastfeeding with health care providers, African American lactation support personnel and breastfeeding support groups, and African American breastfeeding promotion in print and digital media. CONCLUSION: Women who participated in this study breastfed for longer durations than the national average for African Americans. Findings can inform practice and research efforts to improve breastfeeding rates in this population using lessons learned from successful women.

Effective vaccine communication during the disneyland measles outbreak.

Vaccine refusal rates have increased in recent years, highlighting the need for effective risk communication, especially over social media. Fuzzy-trace theory predicts that individuals encode bottom-line meaning ("gist") and statistical information ("verbatim") in parallel and those articles expressing a clear gist will be most compelling. We coded news articles (n=4581) collected during the 2014-2015 Disneyland measles for content including statistics, stories, or bottom-line gists regarding vaccines and vaccine-preventable illnesses. We measured the extent to which articles were compelling by how frequently they were shared on Facebook. The most widely shared articles expressed bottom-line gists, although articles containing statistics were also more likely to be shared than articles lacking statistics. Stories had limited impact on Facebook shares. Results support Fuzzy Trace Theory's predictions regarding the distinct yet parallel impact of categorical gist and statistical verbatim information on public health communication.

Exploring the Continuum of Vaccine Hesitancy Between African American and White Adults: Results of a Qualitative Study.

Vaccine delay and refusal present very real threats to public health. Since even a slight reduction in vaccination rates could produce major consequences as herd immunity is eroded, it is imperative to understand the factors that contribute to decision-making about vaccines. Recent scholarship on the concept of "vaccine hesitancy" emphasizes that vaccine behaviors and beliefs tend to fall along a continuum from refusal to acceptance. Most research on hesitancy has focused on parental decision-making about childhood vaccines, but could be extended to explore decision-making related to adult immunization against seasonal influenza. In particular, vaccine hesitancy could be a useful approach to understand the persistence of racial/ethnic disparities between African American and White adults. This study relied on a thematic content analysis of qualitative data, including 12 semi-structured interviews, 9 focus groups (N=90), and 16 in-depth interviews, for a total sample of 118 (N=118) African American and White adults. All data were transcribed and analyzed with Atlas.ti. A coding scheme combining both inductive and deductive codes was utilized to identify themes related to vaccine hesitancy. The study found a continuum of vaccine behavior from never-takers, sometimes-takers, and always-takers, with significant differences between African Americans and Whites.  We compared our findings to the Three Cs: Complacency, Convenience, and Confidence framework. Complacency contributed to low vaccine acceptance with both races.  Among sometimes-takers and always-takers, convenience was often cited as a reason for their behavior, while never-takers of both races were more likely to describe other reasons for non-vaccination, with convenience only a secondary explanation.  However, for African Americans, cost was a barrier.  There were racial differences in trust and confidence that impacted the decision-making process. The framework, though not a natural fit for the data, does provide some insight into the differential sources of hesitancy between these two populations. Complacency and confidence clearly impact vaccine behavior, often more profoundly than convenience, which can contribute either negatively or positively to vaccine acceptance. The Three Cs framework is a useful, but limited tool to understanding racial disparities. Understanding the distinctions in those cultural factors that drive lower vaccine confidence and greater hesitancy among African Americans could lead to more effective communication strategies as well as changes in the delivery of vaccines to increase convenience and passive acceptance.

Public acceptance of peramivir during the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic: implications for other drugs or vaccines under emergency use authorizations.

OBJECTIVE: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that up to 88 million H1N1 influenza cases, 398,000 hospitalizations, and up to 18,050 related deaths, including significant racial and ethnic disparities, occurred between April 2009 and March 13, 2010. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved emergency use authorizations (EUAs), which allowed the distribution of unapproved drugs or the off-label use of approved drugs. In late 2009, peramivir was granted an EUA for patients with severe disease. This study examined factors associated with willingness to take peramivir. METHODS: In 2010 we conducted a nationally representative survey with 2079 respondents randomly drawn from the Knowledge Networks research panel. Our completion rate was 56%. Respondents received information about peramivir from a fact sheet and then answered questions about their willingness to take the drug. RESULTS: Overall, 48% of participants indicated that they would probably or definitely take peramivir. Seventy-nine percent definitely would take the drug if their doctor recommended it and there were no alternative treatments. There were significant racial differences in willingness. The term experimental to refer to the drug decreased willingness to accept peramivir among both whites and blacks. CONCLUSIONS: Trust in the FDA was important for peramivir acceptance. Particular care must be taken to ensure that patients and their families understand the complex nature of EUA drugs. Lessons learned can inform communication about future EUAs. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2015;9:166-174).

WIC peer counselors' perceptions of breastfeeding in African American women with lower incomes.

BACKGROUND: African American women have the lowest breastfeeding rates among all racial/ethnic groups in the United States. Peer counseling is an effective intervention in improving breastfeeding in this population. However, little is known on peer counselors' perceptions of breastfeeding in African American women. OBJECTIVE: As part of a larger qualitative study, the goal of this study was to understand the contextual factors influencing breastfeeding decisions of low-income African American women from the perspective of breastfeeding peer counselors (PCs). METHODS: Three focus groups were conducted with 23 PCs from the Women, Infants, and Children program in a southeastern state. All focus group discussions were audio-recorded, professionally transcribed, and analyzed using thematic analysis. Bronfenbrenner's socioecological model was used to group categories into themes. RESULTS: Of the sample, 47.8% were African American, 78.2% were married, and 56.5% had some college education. Five main themes emerged to describe factors at multiple levels influencing breastfeeding in PCs' low-income African American clients: individual, microsystem, exosystem, macrosystem, and chronosystem. Novel findings included (1) having breast pumps may give African American women a "sense of security," (2) cultural pressures to be a "strong black woman" can impede breastfeeding support, and (3) breastfeeding "generational gaps" have resulted from American "slavery" and when formula was "a sign of wealth." CONCLUSION: As PCs described, low-income African American women's breastfeeding decisions are affected by numerous contextual factors. Findings from this study suggest a need to broaden the public health approach to breastfeeding promotion in this population by moving beyond individual characteristics to examining historical and sociocultural factors underlying breastfeeding practices in African American women.

Determinants of Parental Acceptance of the H1N1 Vaccine.

Although designated as a high-risk group during the 2009-2010 H1N1 pandemic, only about 40% of U.S. children received the vaccine, a relatively low percentage compared with high-risk groups in seasonal influenza, such as the elderly, whose vaccine rates typically top 70%. To better understand parental decision making and predictors of acceptance of the H1N1 vaccine, we examined data from a representative national sample of parents (n = 684), using the health belief model as a framework. The most important predictors of vaccine acceptance were "cues to action" at multiple levels, from intrapersonal to mass communication, including the influence of friends, family, the media, and modeling by the Obama family; costs and benefits and self-efficacy were also significant predictors of vaccine acceptance. Higher perceived levels of H1N1 risk were not associated with vaccine uptake. Results suggest that traditional measures of perceived risk may not account for the cost-benefit analysis inherent in vaccine decision making, and that messages designed to emphasize disease risk may be ineffective. The authors recommend emphasizing cues to action that support norming and modeling of vaccine acceptance.

Exploring communication, trust in government, and vaccination intention later in the 2009 H1N1 pandemic: results of a national survey.

With the growing recognition of the critical role that risk communication plays in a public health emergency, a number of articles have provided prescriptive best practices to enhance such communication. However, little empirical research has examined perceptions of the quality of communication, the impact of uncertainty on changing communication, use of information sources, and trust in specific government spokespersons. Similarly, although there is significant conceptual focus on trust and communication as important in vaccination intent and acceptance, little research has explored these relationships empirically. We conducted an online survey in late January 2010 with a nationally representative sample (N=2,079) that included Hispanic and African American oversamples. The completion rate was 56%. We found that public health officials were the most trusted spokespersons, with President Obama being the most highly trusted elected official. Demographic variables, including race, accounted for 21% of the variance in trust of the president. Perceptions of the quality of communication were high, including significant understanding of uncertainty and appreciation for officials' openness about evolving information. Other factors that contributed to vaccination acceptance were quality of communication, closely following the news, and confidence in the vaccine because of a role model effect of the Obama daughters' immunizations; these factors significantly increased trust in government actions. Because the challenges of communication often vary over the course of a pandemic, there is a consistent need to pay close attention to both communication content and delivery and prepare public health officials at all levels to be effective communicators.

US public support for vaccine donation to poorer countries in the 2009 H1N1 pandemic.

BACKGROUND: During the 2009 H1N1 pandemic, the global health community sought to make vaccine available "in developing nations in the same timeframe as developed nations." However, richer nations placed advance orders with manufacturers, leaving poorer nations dependent on the quantity and timing of vaccine donations by manufacturers and rich nations. Knowledge of public support for timely donations could be important to policy makers during the next pandemic. We explored what the United States (US) public believes about vaccine donation by its country to poorer countries. METHODS AND FINDINGS: We surveyed 2079 US adults between January 22(nd) and February 1(st) 2010 about their beliefs regarding vaccine donation to poorer countries. Income (p = 0.014), objective priority status (p = 0.005), nativity, party affiliation, and political ideology (p<0.001) were significantly related to views on the amount of vaccine to be donated. Though party affiliation and political ideology were related to willingness to donate vaccine (p<0.001), there was bipartisan support for timely donations of 10% of the US vaccine supply so that those "at risk in poorer countries can get the vaccine at the same time" as those at risk in the US. CONCLUSIONS: We suggest that the US and other developed nations would do well to bolster support with education and public discussion on this issue prior to an emerging pandemic when emotional reactions could potentially influence support for donation. We conclude that given our evidence for bipartisan support for timely donations, it may be necessary to design multiple arguments, from utilitarian to moral, to strengthen public and policy makers' support for donations.

The social ecological model as a framework for determinants of 2009 H1N1 influenza vaccine uptake in the United States.

Research on influenza vaccine uptake has focused largely on intrapersonal determinants (perceived risk, past vaccine acceptance, perceived vaccine safety) and on physician recommendation. The authors used a social ecological framework to examine influenza vaccine uptake during the 2009 H1N1 pandemic. Surveying an adult population (n = 2,079) in January 2010 with significant oversamples of Blacks and Hispanics, this study found that 18.4% (95% confidence interval = 15.6-21.5) had gotten the 2009 H1N1 vaccine. Variables at each level of the social ecological model were significant predictors of uptake as well as of intent to get the vaccine. The intrapersonal level explained 53%, the interpersonal explained 47%, the institutional level explained 34%, and the policy and community levels each explained 8% of the variance associated with vaccine uptake. The levels together explained 65% of the variance, suggesting that interventions targeting multiple levels of the framework would be more effective than interventions aimed at a single level.

The vagaries of public support for government actions in case of a pandemic.

Government health measures in a pandemic are effective only with strong support and compliance from the public. A survey of 1,583 US adults early in the 2009 H1N1 (swine influenza) pandemic shows surprisingly mixed support for possible government efforts to control the spread of the disease, with strong support for more extreme measures such as closing borders and weak support for more basic, and potentially more effective, policies such as encouraging sick people to stay home from work. The results highlight challenges that public health officials and policy makers must address in formulating strategies to respond to a pandemic before a more severe outbreak occurs.