Communicating Public Health Information Effectively

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Communicating Public Health Information
Effectively
Population Health Program
Patrick Remington, MD, MPH
PHS 803 Monitoring Population Health
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Overview

• Written communication
• Oral communication
• Media
• Public health surveillance
• Risk communication
• Social marketing
• Media advocacy

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Public Health Surveillance

• The traditional surveillance loop included
  disseminating information
• Core functions of public health include
  assessment and policy development
• Challenge is to use information to promote policy
  change

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Public Health Surveillance

• The ongoing systematic collection, analysis, and
  interpretation of outcome-specific data essential
  to the planning, implementation, and evaluation
  of public health programs, closely integrated
  with the timely dissemination of these data to
  those responsible for prevention and control

• Thacker, 1988

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Public Health Surveillance

• To use data to improve population health

• Remington, 1999

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Integrating Surveillance with Public Health
Programs
Data Interpretation
Program Evaluation
Data Analysis
Information Dissemination
Program Implementation
Data Collection
Program Planning
Source Remington and Goodman Chronic Disease
Epidemiology and Surveillance, 1999
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Communication Framework

• 1. What do the data show?
• 2. What should be said?
• 3. What is the communication objective?
• 4. To whom should the message be directed?
• 5. What communication medium should be used?
• 6. Was the communication objective achieved?

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What do the data show?

• Conduct the analysis
• Time, person, place analyses
• Increasing rate of disease
• Higher rates of disease in certain people
• Higher rates of disease in a certain place

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What Makes News?
News
News
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What should be said?

• Establish the message
• Less is more
• Long, technical reports get filed. Short, brief
  reports might get read.
• Single Over-riding Communication Objective SOCO

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What is the communication objective?

• Set the objective
• Most important, yet most often ignored step
• Report it because its there
• To educate the public
• To promote a public health policy

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To whom should the message be directed?

• Define the audience
• Depends strongly upon the communication objective
• General public is the default, when policy-makers
  might be a better choice

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What communication medium should be used?

• Select the channel
• Professional journals, direct mail, radio/TV,
  etc.
• Public health often uses technical reports
• Wisconsin Medical Journal used in Wisconsin

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Was the communication objective achieved?

• Evaluate the impact
• Process measures
• Number of reports distributed/newspaper stories
• Outcome measures
• Changes in awareness, attitudes, behaviors
• Enactment of a policy
• Difficult to prove cause and effect

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Other issues to consider

• The fine line between surveillance and
  advocacy
• Media advocacy starts with a policy goal, and
  uses data to support it
• Surveillance starts with data, and uses it to
  support a policy

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Conclusions

• Chaotic media coverage of health research
• Organized communication of public health
  surveillance data
• Aggressive advocacy using data to support the
  cause

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Written Communication

• Use structured style
• Introduction, methods, results, discussion
• Write abstract last
• Use topic sentences
• Review the style of the intended journal
• Read out loud!
• Practice by review manuscripts

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Oral Communication

• Understand your audience and purpose of the
  presentation
• Plan to finish early
• Use slides only when necessary
• One slide for each minute

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Audiovisuals

• Make sure they are easy to read
• Use sans serif font (not fonts like Times New
  Roman)
• Do not experiment with colorssome are hard to
  read
• Black type on white background is safe. Can use
  the most colors

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Audiovisuals, cont.

• White print on blue background, with yellow type
  for highlights
• Other colors can be hard to read
• Walk the readers eyes through the slide
• Practice the presentation
• Have your talk tape recorded or video taped

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Percent Smokers, Wisconsin, 1999
Percent
Age group
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Trends in Cancer Death Rate, by Age and Gender,
Wisconsin, 1980 versus 1997
Percent change
Age group
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Change in the Number of All Cancer Deaths by Sex
and Age, U.S., 1986 to 1996
Change from Number in 1986
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Media

• Passive versus active
• Get to know the media
• Marketing information both need to benefit from
  the exchange
• Personal contacts are essential
• Exclusives
• The media and health controversies

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Social Marketing

• 4 Ps
• Product (information)
• Price (exchange)
• Place (channel)
• Promotion (appeal)
• Thorough understanding of the needs and
  perceptions of the target audience

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Media Advocacy

• Establish the groups policy goals
• Decide on target audience
• Frame the issue and construct the message
• Construct a media advocacy plan
• Evaluate the impact

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Contrasts

• Science and/or advocacy?
• Media advocacy versus risk communication
• Public health versus academics
• What constitutes research?

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Summary

• Public health surveillance includes the effective
  communication of information to those who need to
  know
• The data rarely speak for themselves
• Practitioners must develop expertise in health
  communication