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[Dentist and scientific dental information in mass media].

Mass media, such as newspapers and magazines and to a lesser degree TV and radio can provide the public with a lot of scientific information about dental diseases. Especially when it concerns research results with news value or controversial issues. Dentists regarded by the public as the most reliable sources of scientific information about dentistry, can get into problems by the publication of such issues in mass media. Particularly when patients ask questions about developments in certain fields of dentistry (for example periodontology or implantology) covered by the mass media. In this article the importance and the value of communication of scientific information are discussed. The relevance for dentistry is illustrated by means of a series of articles on scientific dental subjects published, during fifteen years, in a Dutch national newspaper. Finally the responsibility of dental faculties and professional organisations when they provide research results to the press and other mass media is pointed out.

Dentists↗

Mass media interventions: effects on health services utilisation.

BACKGROUND: The mass media frequently cover health related topics, are the leading source of information about important health issues, and are targeted by those who aim to influence the behaviour of health professionals and patients. OBJECTIVES: To assess the effects of mass media on the utilisation of health services. SEARCH STRATEGY: We searched the Cochrane Effective Practice and Organisation of Care Group specialised register, MEDLINE, EMBASE, Eric, PsycLit, and reference lists of articles. We hand searched the journals Communication Research (February 1987 to August 1996), European Journal of Communication (1986 to 1994), Journal of Communication (winter 1986 to summer 1996), Communication Theory (February 1991 to August 1996), Critical Studies in Mass Communication (March 1984 to March 1995) and Journalism Quarterly (1986 to summer 1996). SELECTION CRITERIA: Randomised trials, controlled clinical trials, controlled before-and-after studies and interrupted time series analyses of mass media interventions. The participants were health care professionals, patients and the general public. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS: Two reviewers independently extracted data and assessed study quality. MAIN RESULTS: Seventeen studies were included. All used interrupted time series designs. Fourteen evaluated the impact of formal mass media campaigns, and three of media coverage of health related issues. The overall methodological quality was variable. Six studies did not perform any statistical analysis, and seven used inappropriate statistical tests (ie not taking into account the effect of time trend). All of the studies apart from one concluded that mass media was effective. These positive findings were confirmed by our re-analysis in seven studies. The direction of effect was consistent across studies towards the expected change. The pooled effect sizes for studies assessing the impact of mass media on similar aspects of care revealed an effect upon the utilisation of health services that could not be explained by chance alone, ranging from -1.96 (95%CI -1. 19 to -2.73) for campaigns promoting immunisation programmes, to -1. 12 (95%CI -0.49 to -2.36) for those concerning cancer screening. REVIEWER'S CONCLUSIONS: Despite the limited information about key aspects of mass media interventions and the poor quality of the available primary research, there is evidence that these channels of communication may have an important role in influencing the use of health care interventions. Those engaged in promoting better uptake of research information in clinical practice should consider mass media as one of the tools that may encourage the use of effective services and discourage those of unproven effectiveness.

Health Education↗

[Physicians and the mass media. Opinion of physicians on the coverage of medicine, health policy and the medical profession by the mass media].

Every fourth physician disapproves of mass media coverage of health policy questions. Four out of ten physicians are dissatisfied with the way scientific medical issues are covered, and seven out of ten are dissatisfied with articles and programmes about the medical profession. The physicians' dissatisfaction was predicted by a low level of perceived job autonomy and a high level of perceived unrealistic expectations from patients, families, superiors and politicians. The doctors' disapproval of press coverage of the medical profession increased with perceived stress. The dissatisfaction was clearly greater among younger than among older physicians. Internists and surgeons tended to be more dissatisfied than physicians in other specialties. Dissatisfaction with mass media was not, however, a question of personal grudge: respondents who felt that they themselves had been unfairly spoken of by the media did not disapprove of the media coverage of health issue, or of the medical profession in general, to any greater degree than did doctors who had no such personal complaints.

Adult↗

Opportunities for improving the nation's health through collaboration with the mass media.

Understanding the mass media is a prerequisite to gaining the cooperation of those who control access to media time and space to improve the coverage of health issues about which the public needs, and often wants, to know. To address the complexities of the mass media and how they influence the public's health, a group of Public Health Service agencies, foundations, and research institutions collaborated to review recent changes in the mass media and public health sectors and to recommend steps for increased interaction. These included broadening strategies to include paid advertising, media advocacy, and other tactics beyond public service campaigns; increasing awareness within the public health sector of the media's perspective on health; working collaboratively with media professionals and organizations, including the minority media; and developing guidelines for public-private sector partnerships. These recommendations, and factors affecting the roles of the media and public health communities in informing the public about health, are described in this paper. A complete discussion of these recommendations and related issues can be found in "Mass Media and Health," edited by Caroline McNeil and Elaine Bratic Arkin, a forthcoming publication of the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Public Health Service.

Advertising↗

Mass media interventions for promoting HIV testing.

BACKGROUND: Use of the mass media is one of the important strategies in communicating behavioral change in relation to HIV/AIDS prevention. Mass media are used to promote voluntary HIV counseling and testing and to sustain test-seeking behavior. OBJECTIVES: To assess the effect of mass media interventions and the most effective form of mass media intervention at a general population level or in specific target populations, in relation to changes in HIV testing, compared with a control group or with pre-intervention levels. SEARCH STRATEGY: We searched the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (The Cochrane Library Issue 2, 2004), MEDLINE (1966 to April 2004), EMBASE (1980 to April 2004), NLM Gateway, CINAHL (1982 to April 2004), AIDSearch (1980 to April 2004), and PsycINFO (1974 to April 2004), Sociological abstracts (1982 to April 2004), and Communication studies (1982 to April 2003). The reference lists of related reviews were searched and experts in the field were contacted to identify ongoing research. Relevant web sites of international agencies (UNAIDS, WHO, UNFPA, World Bank, and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) were also searched. All these searches were done without language restriction. All databases were searched up to April 2004. SELECTION CRITERIA: Randomized controlled trials, including cluster-randomized trials and controlled clinical trials, that compared either multimedia interventions or one type of media strategy with a control in relation to promotion of HIV testing were included. Interrupted time series analyses that assessed the effect of mass media against no media or an alternative intervention to promote HIV testing were also included. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS: Two reviewers independently assessed trial quality and extracted data. Study authors were contacted for additional information. Types of mass media interventions, participants, and outcomes were extracted in every possible instance. MAIN RESULTS: Of the 35 references that were identified, two randomized controlled trials, three non-randomized controlled studies, and nine interrupted time series were included in the final analysis. All individual studies concluded that mass media were effective, and this was confirmed by reanalysis of the interrupted time series studies which all had initial impact. Mass media interventions for promotion of HIV testing showed significant immediate (Random effect: Estimated mean = 5.487, 95%CI = 2.370 to 8.605) and overall (Random effect: Estimated mean = 6.095, 95%CI = 1.812 to 10.378) effect. No long-term effects were seen on mass media interventions for promotion of HIV testing (Random effect: Estimated mean = 4.447, 95%CI = -0.188 to 9.082). AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS: Mass media interventions have immediate and overall effects in promotion of HIV testing. No long-term effects were seen. There was no significant impact of detecting seropositive status after mass media intervention for promoting HIV testing, and this finding was limited to a small number of studies. Further research is required to identify possible effects on seropositivity status after mass media intervention for promotion of HIV testing among high-risk groups in epidemic countries. Additional research is needed to identify the effectiveness of different types of mass media interventions, the cost effectiveness of the interventions, and characteristics of messages.

Controlled Clinical Trials as Topic↗

A 10-year retrospective of research in health mass media campaigns: where do we go from here?

Mass media campaigns have long been a tool for promoting public health. How effective are such campaigns in changing health-related attitudes and behaviors, however, and how has the literature in this area progressed over the past decade? The purpose of the current article is threefold. First, I discuss the importance of health mass media campaigns and raise the question of whether they are capable of effectively impacting public health. Second, I review the literature and discuss what we have learned about the effectiveness of campaigns over the past 10 years. Finally, I conclude with a discussion of possible avenues for the health campaign literature over the next 10 years. The overriding conclusion is the following: The literature is beginning to amass evidence that targeted, well-executed health mass media campaigns can have small-to-moderate effects not only on health knowledge, beliefs, and attitudes, but on behaviors as well, which can translate into major public health impact given the wide reach of mass media. Such impact can only be achieved, however, if principles of effective campaign design are carefully followed.

Communication↗

[Mass media consumption in adolescence].

OBJECTIVES: To describe mass media use in teenagers (television, mobile phones, computers, Internet and video games) and to analyze its influence on teenagers' health and development. MATERIAL AND METHODS: We performed a cross sectional study by means of a survey of 884 teenagers aged between 14 and 18 years old who were in the third and fourth years of high school in six towns in Cantabria (Spain) in June 2003. The statistical analysis consisted of uni- and bivariable descriptive statistics. RESULTS: All the teenagers had a television set at home and 24 % of families had four or more television sets. The presence of distinct mass media in teenagers' rooms was 52.5 % for televisions, 57.8 % for computers, 52 % for the Internet and 38.7 % for games consoles. The most frequently found media in teenagers' bedrooms were radio/cassette players and compact disks with 76.8 % and 67.4 %, respectively. Teenagers watched television for an average of 3 hours per day on weekdays and 3.2 hours per day at weekends. They played games consoles for an average of 0.69 hours per day on weekdays (41 min) and an average of 1.09 hours per day (65 min) at weekends and used the Internet on weekdays for an average of 0.83 hours per day (49 min) and an average of 1.15 hours per day (69 min) at weekends. A total of 87.2 % of the teenagers, especially girls, had a mobile phone (91.6 % of girls versus 82.4 % of boys; p < 0.001). The average age at which teenagers had the first mobile phone was 13 years old. Expenditure on mobile phones amounted to 15 3 a month in girls and 10 3 a month in boys, and mobiles were mainly used for sending messages. Nearly half the teenagers (46.4 %) took their mobile phones to high school and reported they had an average of three mobile phones at home. Most (82.1 %) surfed the net but boys preferred surfing and downloading games and girls preferred chatting and sending e-mails. Sixty-two percent of teenagers had been to a cybercafé and 40.8 % has visited a pornographic web site, especially boys (33.1 % of boys versus 7.7 % of girls; p < 0.001). Nearly two-thirds of teenagers (71.5 %) had a video console, especially boys (87 % of boys versus 57.2 % of girls; p < 0.001) and they started playing with them at an average age of 8.8 years. Boys preferred video games with shooting, fights, sports and driving, while girls preferred adventure video games. Nearly a quarter (22.2 %) spent money on video games and cybercafés (an average of 27.06 3 a month in boys and 16.81 3 a month in girls) with no significant differences between sexes. CONCLUSIONS: Society as a whole and especially health professionals should increase health education on mass media consumption, by stimulating reasonable use of mass media and teaching teenagers to be critical. Parents should set a limit of less than 2 hours/day to the use of mass media and should avoid their presence in teenagers' bedrooms. Prepay mobile phone should be used and switched off in inappropriate places. Parents should supervise and educate teenagers about video games, Internet access and e-mail usage in adolescence.

Adolescent↗

Mass media interventions for preventing smoking in young people.

BACKGROUND: The mass media have been used as a way of delivering preventive health messages. They have the potential to reach and to modify the knowledge, attitudes and behaviour of a large proportion of the community. OBJECTIVES: To determine the effectiveness of mass media campaigns in preventing the uptake of smoking in young people. SEARCH STRATEGY: We searched Medline, and 28 other electronic databases. Handsearching of key journals was also carried out, the bibliographies of identified studies were checked for additional references and contact with content area specialists was made. Date of last search June 1998. SELECTION CRITERIA: Randomised trials, controlled trials without randomisation and time series studies that assessed the effectiveness of mass media campaigns (defined as channels of communication such as television, radio, newspapers, bill boards, posters, leaflets or booklets intended to reach large numbers of people and which are not dependent on person to person contact) in influencing the smoking behaviour (either objective or self-reported) of young people under the age of 25 years. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS: Information relating to the characteristics and the content of media interventions, participants, outcomes and methods of the study was abstracted by one reviewer and checked by a second. Studies were combined using qualitative narrative synthesis. MAIN RESULTS: Six out of a total of 63 studies reporting information about mass media smoking campaigns met all of the inclusion criteria. All six studies used a controlled trial design. Two studies concluded that the mass media were effective in influencing the smoking behaviour of young people. Both of the effective campaigns had a solid theoretical basis, used formative research in designing the campaign messages and message broadcast was of reasonable intensity over extensive periods of time. REVIEWER'S CONCLUSIONS: There is some evidence that the mass media can be effective in preventing the uptake of smoking in young people, but overall the evidence is not strong.

Adolescent↗

Recruitment using mass media strategies.

Use of mass media represents a recruitment strategy with a relatively moderate volume of initial contacts and entries, a moderate ratio of entries to initial contacts, and a relatively moderate effort level requirement for the recruitment team. In the CPPT, nine centers recruited participants directly through newspapers, radio or television or a combination. Media sources accounted overall for 4% of initial contacts, 11% of first protocol visits and 11% of entries. The media also served in an adjunctive role to other recruitment strategies. The yield from television and newspaper messages was generally better than that from radio. The flow of response varied appreciably among these types of media. Only one-fourth as many participants recruited through this strategy were excluded due to unwillingness to proceed at the first protocol visit as was observed among all sources.

Clinical Trials as Topic↗

Research in using mass media to prevent smoking.

Mass media are particularly appropriate for reaching young people in smoking-prevention campaigns; however, past research has placed little emphasis on designing effective interventions. Only a few studies have been conducted to develop and evaluate methods to use media for smoking reduction among youth, and only one quasi-experimental study has demonstrated actual reductions in youth smoking. This research requires the use of large controlled field studies that cross disciplines. These lack an established funding base. Furthermore, campaign approaches seeking to reduce youth demand for tobacco products are currently receiving less attention from anti-tobacco policy makers than approaches restricting the supply of tobacco to youth. Scientists from various health behavior and education disciplines should join with creative media production professionals to develop more effective messages and message delivery systems to reach youth at high risk of smoking. Further efforts should be made to share information among these professionals and producers of entertainment programs for youth, as well as among anti-tobacco policy makers, so that the most effective approaches can be employed to reduce youth smoking on a broad scale.

Adolescent↗

Lessons learned from public health mass media campaigns: marketing health in a crowded media world.

Every year, new public health mass media campaigns are launched attempting to change health behavior and improve health outcomes. These campaigns enter a crowded media environment filled with messages from competing sources. Public health practitioners have to capture not only the attention of the public amid such competition, but also motivate them to change health behaviors that are often entrenched or to initiate habits that may be new or difficult. In what ways are public health mass media campaigns now attempting to succeed in a world crowded with media messages from a myriad of sources? What are the conditions that are necessary for a media campaign to successfully alter health behaviors and alter outcomes in the long term? To what extent can the successes and failures of previous campaigns be useful in teaching important lessons to those planning campaigns in the future? In this chapter we attempt to answer these questions, drawing from recent literature on public health mass media campaigns.

Health Promotion↗

[Impact of mass media on the use of health services. A systematic review of the literature].

BACKGROUND: Mass media may influence the use of health services either through campaigns promoting the use of specific procedures or through the coverage of health related issues outside the context of a planned intervention. To assess their effect on the utilization of health services a systematic overview of primary research was undertaken. METHODS: Experimental and quasi experimental studies meeting pre defined entry criteria and providing information on the impact of mass media on objective measures on health services utilization were searched through Medline, Embase, Psychlit, Eric, as well as handsearching key journals. Data on the detail and content of interventions were abstracted and raw data describing health services utilization obtained. Effect sizes were calculated for each study and then pooled across studies on the same topic using a random effects model. RESULTS: Out of 69 papers providing information on the impact of mass media on aspects of health services utilization, 17 interrupted time series met our quality criteria. Fourteen evaluated the impact of formal mass media campaigns, 3 of media coverage of health related issues. The overall methodological quality was rather variable, with 6 studies not performing any statistical analysis, and 7 using inadequate statistical tests (i.e. not taking into account the effect of time trend). All the studies but the concluded positively on the effect of mass media. These positive findings were confirmed by our re-analysis in 7, while in the remaining the effect of mass media was not statistically significant. The direction of effect was consistent across individual studies and the pooled effect sizes revealed an effect upon the utilization of health services that could not be explained by chance alone, ranging from -1.96 (95% CI: -1.19, -2.73) for campaigns promoting immunization programs, to -1.12 (95% CI: -0.49, -2.46) for those concerning cancer screening. CONCLUSIONS: Despite the overall limited quality of primary research, this review supports the view that these channels of communication may have an important role in influencing the use of health care interventions. Mass media should be considered as one of the tools that may encourage the use of effective services and discourage those of unproved effectiveness.

Data Interpretation, Statistical↗

Mass media campaign--A Su Salud.

A mass media health promotion program directed toward reducing future cancer trends among Mexican Americans, the largest subgroup of Hispanics in the United States, by decreasing smoking and encouraging smoking prevention and other health practices is described. Included is an outline of the program design and its significant features and a discussion of social modeling, the theoretical approach which provides a framework for the program. The development of the program, including the role focus groups played in the identification of areas to be targeted by the program, and the production and implementation of the mass media campaign based upon the targeted program areas are also discussed.

Adolescent↗

Mass media and smoking cessation: a critical review.

Evaluations of 40 mass media programs/campaigns designed to influence cigarette smoking were reviewed. Information/motivation programs/campaigns generally produced changes in awareness, knowledge, and attitudes. Extensive national campaigns also produced meaningful behavioral change. Programs/campaigns designed to promote some specific smoking-related action produced mixed results, depending in large part on the type of promotion involved. Mass media cessation clinics were found to be effective, with media plus social support being more effective than viewing plus printed material, and either combination being more effective than viewing alone. It was concluded that mass media health promotion programs can be more effective than many academics may have thought, but that the knowledge necessary to ensure such success is seriously lacking. Research studies, rather than simple evaluations, are needed to improve our knowledge base and build a science of mass media health promotion.

Adult↗

Physical activity interventions using mass media, print media, and information technology.

INTRODUCTION: Media-based physical activity interventions include a variety of print, graphic, audiovisual, and broadcast media programs intended to influence behavior change. New information technology allows print to be delivered in personalized, interactive formats that may enhance efficacy. Media-based interventions have been shaped by conceptual models from health education, Social Cognitive Theory, the Transtheoretical Model, and Social Marketing frameworks. METHODS: We reviewed 28 studies of media-based interventions of which seven were mass media campaigns at the state or national level and the remaining 21 were delivered through health care, the workplace, or in the community. RESULTS: Recall of mass-media messages generally was high, but mass-media campaigns had very little impact on physical activity behavior. Interventions using print and/or telephone were effective in changing behavior in the short term. Studies in which there were more contacts and interventions tailored to the target audience were most effective. CONCLUSION: A key issue for research on media-based physical activity interventions is reaching socially disadvantaged groups for whom access, particularly to new forms of communication technology, may be limited. There is a clear need for controlled trials comparing different forms and intensities of media-based physical activity interventions. Controlled studies of personalized print, interactive computer-mediated programs, and web-based formats for program delivery also are needed. The integration of media-based methods into public and private sector service delivery has much potential for innovation.

Adolescent↗

Using mass media within health-promoting practice: a nursing perspective.

For some time health professionals have recognized the growing importance of utilizing mass media strategies as part of their health-promoting practice. The ever-evolving climate of technology and increasing reliance on mass communications has further reinforced the position of mass media initiatives. The enormous potential for mass media resources to reach certain audiences and influence their health-related behaviours has become particularly well established. Despite these facts, however, it is argued that the nursing profession has been less than pro-active in acknowledging, accommodating and adopting such practices. Consequently, the incorporation of health-related mass media initiatives into nursing's health-promotional role remains an elusive exercise. The maintenance of such a position, it is claimed, is potentially damaging for the profession as a whole. In light of this state of affairs, this paper seeks to review the literature surrounding the nature and processes of mass media strategies, their relevance to health promotion and nursing, how they are currently utilized and how they can be incorporated further into nursing practice. In conclusion, it is argued that nursing should seek to become a more active user of mass communication/media technology--especially in relation to its health-promotional practices.

Attitude to Health↗

[Mass media involvement in education and information about HIV/AIDS].

AIDS is the first international mass media disease. Throughout the world, most people have learned more about AIDS from radio, television and the press than from personal contacts with health professionals. Mass media AIDS materials influence behavior most when they are designed and developed for different segments of the audience, with the specific needs and concerns of those segments in mind. In the past mass media evoked fear, anxiety and other negative emotional responses to AIDS and didn't proposed practical and realistic ways of action. The journalists made frequently distinctions between innocent victims of HIV, that are infants and recipients of infected blood or blood products through health care, and other "guilty" infected people such as gays, sex workers or african people. Mass media can change behavior and if journalists accept their responsibility in presenting the news, the publicity about AIDS may have a great and positive impact in HIV/AIDS.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗