ABSTRACTS
Volume 12, Number 6
September 2007
Vol. 12, Number 6: Contents | Editorial | Abstracts
Determinants of Physician Discussion Regarding Tobacco and Alcohol Abuse
Klea D. Bertakis a; Rahman Azari b
a Department of Family and Community Medicine, University of California, Davis, California, USA
b Department of Statistics, University of California, Davis, California, USA
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommends that clinicians screen adults for tobacco and alcohol abuse and provide appropriate interventions. This study employed direct observation and interactional analysis of medical visits to investigate factors associated with physician discussion of tobacco and alcohol use with patients. New adult patients were randomly assigned to primary care at a university medical center. Videotapes of the visits were analyzed using the Davis observation code. Regression equations related discussions of substance use (alcohol and other substances), smoking, and health promotion to patient health status, depression, age, education, income, gender, alcohol abuse, and current smoking. Patients reporting better physical health were more likely to have their physicians employ a practice style emphasizing addiction behaviors (p = .0186). Substance use (p = .0117) and health promotion counseling (p = .0130) occurred more frequently with younger patients. Physicians discussed substance use (p = < .0001) and addiction (p < .0001) more often with male patients. Problem drinkers were more likely to have physicians address their substance use (p = .0069) and focus on addiction behaviors (p = .0017). Physicians adopted an addiction-oriented practice style (p < .0001), addressing substance use (p = .0009) and smoking (p < .0001), more often with patients who smoked. Physicians appear more apt to discuss these behavioral risk factors with healthier, younger, male patients who abuse tobacco and alcohol.
Public Meetings About Suspected Cancer Clusters: The Impact of Voice, Interactional Justice, and Risk Perception on Attendees' Attitudes in Six Communities
Katherine A. McComas a; Craig W. Trumbo b; John C. Besley c
a Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA
b Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA
c University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina, USA
Holding a public meeting is a frequent method of communicating with community residents during official investigations into possible cancer clusters; however, there has been little formal research into the effectiveness of this method of health communication. This article presents research examining the influence of public meetings held during ongoing cancer cluster investigations in six U.S. communities. Drawing on social psychological theories of organizational justice, it examines the degree to which three specific elements of justice, including having a voice in the process, receiving fair interactional treatment, and facing equal risk of loss (i.e., cancer), influenced five outcome variables: meeting satisfaction, community connectedness, willingness to accept meeting outcomes or recommendations, willingness to attend future public meetings, and concern about the potential cancer cluster. The analysis of data collected from meeting attendees who responded to the mailed survey (N = 165) confirms a strong role for justice concerns in public meeting evaluations. In particular, perceptions of voice and interactional treatment had consistently large effects on the outcome variables, suggesting that managing a fair public engagement process can contribute to positive civic outcomes even during periods of heightened community concern about area cancer rates.
Evaluating a Minor Storyline on ER About Teen Obesity, Hypertension, and 5 A Day
Thomas W. Valente a; Sheila Murphy a; Grace Huang a; Jodi Gusek a; Jennie Greene a; Vicki Beck a
a University of Southern California, Alhambra, California, USA
This study evaluates the effects of an ER (NBC) storyline about teen obesity, hypertension, and 5 A Day on knowledge, attitudes, and behavior. The storyline depicted an African American teen who presented at the emergency room with burns from a workplace injury. Upon diagnosis, the teen was discovered to have hypertension and counseled to eat more fruits and vegetables and get more exercise. The evaluation was conducted using three separate datasets, one of which provided data on a sample of primetime viewers before and after the storyline aired. Results showed that the storyline affected self-reported behavior change and had modest impacts on knowledge, attitudes, and practices. Interestingly, these effects were stronger for men than for women, possibly due to men's lower knowledge levels at baseline. Issues including identification with characters and the value of even modest effects on large audiences and the implications of our findings for future evaluations of entertainment education (EE) and other health communication programs are discussed.
Attitude Toward Direct-to-Consumer Advertising and Drug Inquiry Intention: The Moderating Role of Perceived Knowledge
Soontae An a
a A.Q. Miller School of Journalism and Mass Communications, Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas, USA
This study examined how consumers' general attitude toward direct-to-consumer advertising (DTCA) influenced their drug inquiry intent, and whether the relationship between attitude toward DTCA and drug inquiry intent was moderated by their perceived knowledge of health and medicine. Results showed that those with favorable views of DTCA were more likely to inquire and request an advertised drug they saw. The effect was greater in magnitude for consumers with high perceived knowledge in health and medicine, however, than for those with low perceived knowledge.
Processing Radio PSAs: Production Pacing, Arousing Content, and Age
Annie Lang a; Nancy Schwartz a; Seungjo Lee a; James Angelini a
a Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, USA
This experiment uses the limited capacity model of mediated message processing (LC3MP) to investigate the effects of production pacing and arousing content in radio public service announcements (PSAs) on the emotional and cognitive responses of college-age and tween (9-12-year-olds) participants. The LC3MP predicts that both arousing content and production pacing should increase emotional arousal, physiological arousal, cognitive effort, and encoding up to the point of cognitive overload after which cognitive effort and encoding should decrease. Results showed that, as expected, arousing content did increase emotional arousal and cognitive effort for both tweens and college students, though the effect was larger for college students. For production pacing, however, the results were less clear cut. First, it was found that for radio PSAs pacing increased arousal for calm messages only. Further, the effects of production pacing on cognitive effort were larger for tweens and were experienced primarily during the first 25 seconds of the message, while college students were less affected by production pacing, and those effects appeared in the last 25 seconds of the messages. Finally, none of the messages in this experiment resulted in cognitive overload - thus both production pacing and arousing content increased memory for both groups of participants.
Book Reviews: Disabling Rhetorics
Wilson, J. C., & Lewiecki-Wilson, C. (Eds.). (2001). Embodied rhetorics: Disability in language and culture
A Review of: "Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois, University Press
Author: Glenda R. Bala
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