Mass media influences on family planning knowledge, attitudes and method choice among sexually active men in sub-Saharan Africa.

Men are underrepresented in family planning (FP) research, and despite the widespread promotion of FP through mass media, there is no systematic evaluation on how mass media exposure influences their FP knowledge, attitudes and behavior. Using Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) data from 31 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), collected between 2010 and 2019, this paper examines the associations between three types of traditional mass media (radio, television and print) with FP knowledge, attitudes and method choices among reproductive age men in SSA, relative to other socio-cultural factors. Estimates to quantify the relative contribution of each type of mass media, relative to other evidence-based socio-cultural influences on FP outcomes, were derived using the Shorrocks-Shapley decomposition. Radio exposure had the largest impact on FP knowledge, attitudes and method choice, accounting for 26.1% of the variance in FP knowledge, followed by Television (21.4%) and education attainment (20.7%). Mass media exposure had relatively minimal impact on FP method choice, and between the three types of mass media, television (8%) had the largest influence on FP method choice. Print media had comparatively lesser impact on FP knowledge (8%), attitudes (6.2%) and method choice (3.2%). Findings suggest that mass media exposure has positive influences on FP knowledge, attitudes and method choice but its influence on FP knowledge, attitudes and method choice is smaller relative to other socio-cultural factors such as education, household wealth and marital status. As such, efforts to increase FP uptake in Sub-Saharan Africa should take into consideration the impact of these socio-cultural economic factors.

How much are we exposed to alcohol in electronic media? Development of the Alcoholic Beverage Identification Deep Learning Algorithm (ABIDLA).

BACKGROUND: Evidence demonstrates that seeing alcoholic beverages in electronic media increases alcohol initiation and frequent and excessive drinking, particularly among young people. To efficiently assess this exposure, the aim was to develop the Alcoholic Beverage Identification Deep Learning Algorithm (ABIDLA) to automatically identify beer, wine and champagne/sparkling wine from images. METHODS: Using a specifically developed software, three coders annotated 57,186 images downloaded from Google. Supplemented by 10,000 images from ImageNet, images were split randomly into training data (70 %), validation data (10 %) and testing data (20 %). For retest reliability, a fourth coder re-annotated a random subset of 2004 images. Algorithms were trained using two state-of-the-art convolutional neural networks, Resnet (with different depths) and Densenet-121. RESULTS: With a correct classification (accuracy) of 73.75 % when using six beverage categories (beer glass, beer bottle, beer can, wine, champagne, and other images), 84.09 % with three (beer, wine/champagne, others) and 85.22 % with two (beer/wine/champagne, others), Densenet-121 slightly outperformed all Resnet models. The highest accuracy was obtained for wine (78.91 %) followed by beer can (77.43 %) and beer cup (73.56 %). Interrater reliability was almost perfect between the coders and the expert (Kappa = .903) and substantial between Densenet-121 and the coders (Kappa = .681). CONCLUSIONS: Free from any response or coding burden and with a relatively high accuracy, the ABIDLA offers the possibility to screen all kinds of electronic media for images of alcohol. Providing more comprehensive evidence on exposure to alcoholic beverages is important because exposure instigates alcohol initiation and frequent and excessive drinking.

Fear of Crime and Cultivation Effect. Social and Psychological Predictors / Miedo al crimen y efecto de cultivo. Predictores sociales y psicológicos

Abstract Within the framework of the study of cultivation, the present research attempts to study the association between general TV consumption, particular TV news, and fear of crime. The analysis considers narrative transportation and system justification as psychological predictor variables; in addition, sex, level of crime in the area of residence, and social class as social covariates. Participants were 516 young (M = 20.5 years, SD = 4.7) Costa Ricans. A hierarchical regression analysis (stepwise) was conducted. Results indicated that people who experienced more narrative transportation, less system justification, women, and low social class, have higher levels of fear of crime. Results are discussed from the need to expand the cultivation hypothesis of fear of crime.

Resumen En el marco de la teoría del cultivo, la presente investigación estudia la asociación entre el consumo general de televisión, noticias televisivas y el miedo al crimen. El análisis considera el transporte narrativo y la justificación del sistema como variables predictoras psicológicas; además, el sexo, el nivel de delincuencia en el área de residencia y la clase social como covariables sociales. Los participantes fueron 516 jóvenes costarricenses (M = 20.5 años, DE = 4.7). Se realizó un análisis de regresión jerárquica (stepwise). Los resultados indican que las personas que experimentaron más transporte narrativo, menos justificación del sistema, las mujeres y la clase social baja tienen mayores niveles de miedo al crimen. Se discuten los resultados a partir de la necesidad de ampliar la hipótesis de cultivo del miedo al crimen.

Heterogeneity in TV fast food advertisement exposure in South Korea.

OBJECTIVES: To assess TV fast food ad exposure in South Korea. METHODS: We assessed time trends of targeted ratings (licensed from Nielsen Media Research Korea) by household income and education during 2004-2010. RESULTS: Lower income groups saw more fast food TV ads during the study period. Exposure decreased in all income groups with a bigger income gap in 2010 than in 2004. The relative exposure to local fried chicken franchise TV ads surged from one fifth in 2004 to half of all TV fast food ads seen in 2010 in all socioeconomic status (SES). CONCLUSIONS: Future studies should assess the link between TV fast ood ad exposure, an important contextual factor for individual food choices, and actual consumption.

The influences of immigration on health information seeking behaviors among Korean Americans and Native Koreans.

Korean Americans (KAs) have low screening rates for cancer and are often not well informed about their chronic diseases. Reduced access to health-related information is one reason for gaps in knowledge and the widening health disparities among minority populations. However, little research exists about KAs' health information seeking behaviors. Guided by the Structural Influence Model, this study examines the influence of immigration status on KAs' trust in health information sources and health information seeking behaviors. Cross-sectional surveys were conducted in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area as well as in the Gwangju metropolitan city in South Korea during 2006-2007. Two hundred and fifty-four KAs and 208 native Koreans who were 40 years of age or older completed the surveys. When comparing native Koreans to KAs, we found KAs were 3 times more likely to trust health information from newspapers or magazines (odds ratio [OR] = 3.13; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.49-6.54) and 11 times more likely to read the health sections of newspapers or magazines (OR = 11.35; 95% CI = 3.92-32.91) in multivariate adjusted models. However, they were less likely to look for health information from TV (OR = 0.29; 95% CI = 0.12-0.72) than native Koreans. Our results indicate that immigration status has profound influences on KAs' health information seeking behaviors. Increasing the availability of reliable and valid health information from printed Korean language magazines or newspapers could have a positive influence on increasing awareness and promoting screening behaviors among KAs.

An exploratory study of a text classification framework for Internet-based surveillance of emerging epidemics.

PURPOSE: Early detection of infectious disease outbreaks is crucial to protecting the public health of a society. Online news articles provide timely information on disease outbreaks worldwide. In this study, we investigated automated detection of articles relevant to disease outbreaks using machine learning classifiers. In a real-life setting, it is expensive to prepare a training data set for classifiers, which usually consists of manually labeled relevant and irrelevant articles. To mitigate this challenge, we examined the use of randomly sampled unlabeled articles as well as labeled relevant articles. METHODS: Naïve Bayes and Support Vector Machine (SVM) classifiers were trained on 149 relevant and 149 or more randomly sampled unlabeled articles. Diverse classifiers were trained by varying the number of sampled unlabeled articles and also the number of word features. The trained classifiers were applied to 15 thousand articles published over 15 days. Top-ranked articles from each classifier were pooled and the resulting set of 1337 articles was reviewed by an expert analyst to evaluate the classifiers. RESULTS: Daily averages of areas under ROC curves (AUCs) over the 15-day evaluation period were 0.841 and 0.836, respectively, for the naïve Bayes and SVM classifier. We referenced a database of disease outbreak reports to confirm that this evaluation data set resulted from the pooling method indeed covered incidents recorded in the database during the evaluation period. CONCLUSIONS: The proposed text classification framework utilizing randomly sampled unlabeled articles can facilitate a cost-effective approach to training machine learning classifiers in a real-life Internet-based biosurveillance project. We plan to examine this framework further using larger data sets and using articles in non-English languages.

Reported exposure to pro-tobacco messages in the media: trends among youth in the United States, 2000-2004.

PURPOSE: Document changes from 2000 to 2004 in youth reports of exposure to pro-tobacco messages in the mass media, including images of smoking and tobacco advertising. DESIGN: Comparison of cross-sectional data from three waves of the school-based National Youth Tobacco Surveys conducted in 2000 (N= 33,772), 2002 (N= 23,439), and 2004 (N= 23,540). SETTING: Public and private middle schools and high schools across the United States. SUBJECTS: Students in grades 6 through 12. MEASURES: Smoking status; exposure to images of smoking on television and in movies; exposure to advertisements for tobacco products in stores, on the Internet, and in newspapers and magazines; demographic data. RESULTS: Youth exposure to pro-tobacco messages declined within all media channels studied from 2000 to 2004, except the Internet. Despite these declines, most youth in the United States remain exposed to pro-tobacco messages: 81% saw images of smoking on television or in movies (down from 90%), 85% saw tobacco ads in stores (down from 88%), 50% saw tobacco ads in newspapers and magazines (down from 66%), and 33 % saw tobacco ads on the Internet (up from 22%). CONCLUSION: Despite recent progress in this area, most youth in the United States are still at increased risk of smoking as a result of exposure to pro-tobacco messages in the mass media.

Memorable messages about genes and health: implications for direct-to-consumer marketing of genetic tests and therapies.

The era of genomic health care introduces new realities into decision-making about the prevention and treatment of disease. Despite this reality, relatively little is known about lay audience recollection of images and messages about genes and health, or their perceptions about the role of genetics research for health, and what diseases are inherited. Participants (N=482) responded to three open-ended thought-listing tasks to consider these issues. Results revealed the significance of movies in framing memorable messages for participants, with print sources and television also represented. Both awareness and product commercials also comprised specific memories. Cloning was a frequently recalled message and often the first thought that came to participants' minds. While a broad range of conditions were associated with health risks inherited from one's family, cancer was most often identified. The messages recalled revealed a number of common features including their tendency to be emotion-laden. The theoretic and pragmatic implications of these results are considered.

The challenges of social marketing of organ donation: news and entertainment coverage of donation and transplantation.

While great strides have been made in persuading the public to become potential organ donors, actual behavior has not yet caught up with the nearly universally favorable attitudes the public expresses toward donation. This paper explores the issue by situating the social marketing of organ donation against a broader backdrop of entertainment and news media coverage of organ donation. Organ donation storylines are featured on broadcast television in medical and legal dramas, soap operas, and other television serials approximately four times per month (not including most cable networks), and feature storylines that promote myths and fears of the organ donation process. National news and other non-fictionalized coverage of organ donation are even more common, with stories appearing over twenty times a month on average. These stories tend to be one-dimensional and highly sensationalized in their coverage. The marketing of organ donation for entertainment essentially creates a counter-campaign to organ donation, with greater resources and reach than social marketers have access to. Understanding the broader environmental context of organ donation messages highlights the issues faced by social marketing campaigns in persuading the public to become potential donors.

Communication choices of the uninsured: implications for health marketing.

According to published scholarship on health services usage, an increasing number of Americans do not have health insurance coverage. The strong relationship between insurance coverage and health services utilization highlights the importance of reaching out to the uninsured via prevention campaigns and communication messages. This article examines the communication choices of the uninsured, documenting that the uninsured are more likely to consume entertainment-based television and are less likely to read, watch, and listen to information-based media. It further documents the positive relationship between interpersonal communication, community participation, and health insurance coverage. The entertainment-heavy media consumption patterns of the uninsured suggests the relevance of developing health marketing strategies that consider entertainment programming as an avenue for reaching out to this underserved segment of the population.

Looking to the future of new media in health marketing: deriving propositions based on traditional theories.

Market trend data show that the media marketplace continues to rapidly evolve. Recent research shows that substantial portions of the U.S. media population are "new media" users. Today, more than ever before, media consumers are exposed to multiple media at the same point in time, encouraged to participate in media content generation, and challenged to learn, access, and use the new media that are continually entering the market. These media trends have strong implications for how consumers of health information access, process, and retain health-related knowledge. In this article we review traditional information processing models and theories of interpersonal and mass media access and consumption. We make several theory-based propositions for how traditional information processing and media consumption concepts will function as new media usage continues to increase. These propositions are supported by new media usage data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's entry into the new media market (e.g., podcasting, virtual events, blogging, and webinars). Based on these propositions, we conclude by presenting both opportunities and challenges that public health communicators and marketers will face in the future.

Materials to prepare hospice families for dying in the home.

Many changes occur in the final hours of life. Family members of those dying at home need to be prepared for these changes, both to understand what is happening and to provide care. The objectives of this study were to describe (1) the written materials used by hospices to prepare families for dying in the home setting and (2) the content of such materials. Questionnaires were sent to 400 randomly selected hospices, of which 170 responded (45.3%) sending their written materials. The most frequently used publications were Gone from My Sight (n = 118 or 69.4%), Final Gifts (n = 44 or 25.9%) and Caregiving (n = 14 or 8.2%). Half (56.5%) of the hospices used other publications and a majority (n = 87 or 51.2%) used multiple publications. Materials were given to the families by nurses (78.2%) or social workers (67.6%). More than 90% of the hospices had materials that addressed the following signs of impending death: decreased fluid intake, decreased food intake, breathing pattern changes, cold extremities, mottling, increased sleeping, changes at the moment of death, audible secretions, urinary output changes, disorientation, incontinence, overall decline and restlessness. Seven signs were addressed less than 30% of the time; pain (28.2%), dyspnea (19.4%), bed-bound state (18.2%), skin changes (18.2%), vital sign changes (17.1%), surge of energy (11.8%) and mandibular breathing (5.9%). Hospice staff should know the content of the materials offered by their agency so they can verbally address the gaps between the written materials and family needs.

HealthMap: global infectious disease monitoring through automated classification and visualization of Internet media reports.

OBJECTIVE: Unstructured electronic information sources, such as news reports, are proving to be valuable inputs for public health surveillance. However, staying abreast of current disease outbreaks requires scouring a continually growing number of disparate news sources and alert services, resulting in information overload. Our objective is to address this challenge through the HealthMap.org Web application, an automated system for querying, filtering, integrating and visualizing unstructured reports on disease outbreaks. DESIGN: This report describes the design principles, software architecture and implementation of HealthMap and discusses key challenges and future plans. MEASUREMENTS: We describe the process by which HealthMap collects and integrates outbreak data from a variety of sources, including news media (e.g., Google News), expert-curated accounts (e.g., ProMED Mail), and validated official alerts. Through the use of text processing algorithms, the system classifies alerts by location and disease and then overlays them on an interactive geographic map. We measure the accuracy of the classification algorithms based on the level of human curation necessary to correct misclassifications, and examine geographic coverage. RESULTS: As part of the evaluation of the system, we analyzed 778 reports with HealthMap, representing 87 disease categories and 89 countries. The automated classifier performed with 84% accuracy, demonstrating significant usefulness in managing the large volume of information processed by the system. Accuracy for ProMED alerts is 91% compared to Google News reports at 81%, as ProMED messages follow a more regular structure. CONCLUSION: HealthMap is a useful free and open resource employing text-processing algorithms to identify important disease outbreak information through a user-friendly interface.

Health disparities and advertising content of women's magazines: a cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND: Disparities in health status among ethnic groups favor the Caucasian population in the United States on almost all major indicators. Disparities in exposure to health-related mass media messages may be among the environmental factors contributing to the racial and ethnic imbalance in health outcomes. This study evaluated whether variations exist in health-related advertisements and health promotion cues among lay magazines catering to Hispanic, African American and Caucasian women. METHODS: Relative and absolute assessments of all health-related advertising in 12 women's magazines over a three-month period were compared. The four highest circulating, general interest magazines oriented to Black women and to Hispanic women were compared to the four highest-circulating magazines aimed at a mainstream, predominantly White readership. Data were collected and analyzed in 2002 and 2003. RESULTS: Compared to readers of mainstream magazines, readers of African American and Hispanic magazines were exposed to proportionally fewer health-promoting advertisements and more health-diminishing advertisements. Photographs of African American role models were more often used to advertise products with negative health impact than positive health impact, while the reverse was true of Caucasian role models in the mainstream magazines. CONCLUSION: To the extent that individual levels of health education and awareness can be influenced by advertising, variations in the quantity and content of health-related information among magazines read by different ethnic groups may contribute to racial disparities in health behaviors and health status.

Conocimientos del plan de protección, seguridad y evacuación en caso de sismos y su influencia en la actuación del personal en situación simulada C.E.N. de Mujeres Teresa Gonzáles de Fanning - 1997 / Knowledge of the protection plan, security and evacuation in case of earthquakes and its influence in the performance of the personnel in simulated situation - C. N. of women Teresa Gonzales de Fanning - 1997

El estudio estuvo dirigido a evaluar los conocimientos sobre el plan de protección, seguridad y evacuación en caso de sismos y su influencia en la actuación del personal directivo, administrativo, docente y de mantenimiento en una situación simulada en el CEN "Teresa Gonzáles de Fanning" (Jesús María - Lima). La población total de trabajadores en el turno mañana del nivel secundario fue de 123 y la muestra de estudio según conversión estadística de 100; a quienes se les evaluó por medio de un cuestionario de preguntas cerradas y opción única los aspectos de medios de información, organización, medidas de seguridad y primeros auxilios. Para valorar el nivel de conocimientos se empleó la escala de Staninos agrupada en tres categorías, sobresaliendo el nivel regular y dentro de ello los primeros auxilios con 34 por ciento en el nivel malo. Durante el simulacro se evaluó la actuación del personal contando con el apoyo del Comité de Defensa Civil del Colegio, también se empleó la escala de Staninos teniendo un nivel regular destacando 36 por ciento y 27 por ciento del nivel malo en medidas de seguridad y primeros auxilios respectivamente. El nivel de conocimientos en organización y primeros auxilios muestra una similitud con los resultados del simulacro a diferencia de las medidas de seguridad.

La Gaceta Nº 121: Decreto Nº374: Ley de educación popular para la salud y la comunicación gratuita de sus mensajes / The Gazette Nº 121: Decret 374: Law of popular education for the health and gratuitous communication of their messages

El decreto establece que los medios de comunicación deberán transmitir sin costo alguno los mensajes de educación Popular para la salud, con el objetivo de promover hábitos de higiene, sanidad en el medio ambiente y así erredicar los focos de insalubridad y de esta forma proteger la salud de la población