Health Communication Science Digest | Gateway to Health Communication | CDC

Health Communication Science Digest | Gateway to Health Communication | CDC

COVID-19 and Consumer Behavior

This month, we are including a report on how the COVID-19 pandemic has started to impact consumer behavior. The report is based on Nielsen data from February 2020. It is not published in a peer-reviewed journal. For direct access to the report, go to Key Consumer Behavior Thresholds Identified As The Coronavirus Outbreak Evolves.

Social Media

This month, the Digest contains multiple articles that examine various facets of social media use in health communication (Alonso-Canadas et al., Roy et al., Gandhi et al., Leas et al., Oh et al.). In a related article, Conrad et al. advance an argument for leveraging social media and technology to exploit crowdsourcing for health promotion. 

Message Design

Various articles in this month’s Digest address different aspects of message design (Etnel et al., Dragojevic et al., Konig and Jucks, Puhl). In an experimental study, Aubrey et al. investigate the effects of “appearance framing,” as opposed to health framing, of health advice.

Health Narratives and Conversations

This issue also includes two papers that study the effects of health narratives (Ballard et al., Fitzgerald et al.). Additionally, Thompson demonstrates narrative mapping as a research methodology. In a related domain, two articles report on the dynamics of family communication patterns (Dorrance Hall et al.) and parent-child sex conversations (Bonafide et al.).

Health Information Seeking

This month’s Digest includes four manuscripts that focus on health information seeking. Lu et al. examine intentions to seek flu vaccine information, and Xiao et al. use the Comprehensive Model of Information Seeking to predict smoking behavior. Online health information seeking among Hispanics with low English proficiency is the subject of another paper (Millar et al.). Finally, Zimmerman and Shaw present a concept analysis on health information seeking behavior.

And More! A few other topics round out this month’s Digest. Two articles utilize phone technology, including a mobile phone intervention with adolescents (Martin), and the use of a smart phone panel to collect qualitative data (Boyle et al.). Hall et al. examine effects of front-of-package claims on consumer perceptions of fruit drinks. Lastly, an article that evaluates the brand and messages of CDC’s HEADS UP campaign is included (Waltzman et al.)