Communication 616
Health Communication:
Social Science Approaches to Behavioral Prevention
Annenberg School for Communication
Spring 2012
Instructor: Professor Lynn Carol Miller: http://www-rcf.usc.edu/~lmiller/
Email:
Class time: Tues 2-4:50 PM
Room: ASC G38
Office hours: Tues
Instructor: Professor Miller
Texbook:
Borenstein, M., Hedges, L.V., Higgins, J. P. T., Rothstein, H. R. (2009). Introduction to Meta-Analysis. SanFrancisco, CA: John Wiley & Sons. http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Meta-Analysis-Statistics-Practice-Borenstein/dp/0470057246
Glanz, K., Rimer, B. K., & Viswanath, K. (2008). Health behavior and health education: Theory, Research, and Practice (4th edition). San Francisco, CA: John Wiley & Sons.This volume will be available “on line” the first week. You can pre-order at Amazon.com. http://www.amazon.com/Health-Behavior-Education-Research Practice/dp/0787996149/ref=cm_cr_pr_pb_t#productPromotions
Pérez, M. A., & Luquis (2008). Cultural Competence in Health Education and Health
Promotion [E-Book] ISBN: 978-0-470-43249-5 E-Book
Recommended Software: Comprehensive Meta-Analysis
http://www.meta-analysis.com/pages/student_rates.html
(student version – annual fee for students using meta-analysis in a course is $95 if 5 or more copies) You can use a trial version (but wait to do this until you are ready).
Readings as assigned will be posted via blackboard.
Requirements/Evaluation Criteria:
10% Class Participation
20% non-MH Assignments
15% Oral Presentation of Final Review & Meta-Analysis Paper (April 24th)
25% Meta-Analysis Homework (MH)
25% Final Meta-Analysis Paper (April 27th)
Final Project Papers will consist of a data-based review (i.e., meta-analysis). Meta-analyses are often the first (publishable) step in getting a handle on a research area, planning a grant, and identifying what research is most needed (and therefore more likely to be published, funded, etc.). Assuming you get out your meta-analysis in an area before a similar one in a given time frame, this should be highly publishable. It’s a great way for new scholars to establish credentials in an area even when they haven’t themselves done any primary research in that area.
Graded Assignments
# / Date Due / Nature of Assignment / Points1 / January 17th
10 AM / a. MH: Preliminary Search for Focus
b. Individual Models: Identify article
addressing possible health focus (see detailed
description) relevant to individual models. PP slides due / R+2
2 / January 24th
10 AM / a. MH:Specify Review Area (see detailed description)
b. Review an article from one of the meta-analyses for
individual models. Discuss mapping within that meta-analysis
(see detailed assignment) / 2+2
3 / January 31st
10AM / Review a research article that has addressed this
focus using one or more of the interpersonal theories reviewed
(also see articles in meta-analysis from readings).
PP slides due. / 2
4 / February 7
10AM / MH: Collect 10 studies in specified focus area suitable for planned meta-analysis. Provide all abstracts with
references; Be prepared to discuss in class; powerpoint slides. / 2
5 / February 14th
10 AM / Review article that has addressed this focus using
one or more of the theories (community and
group models reviewed). Powerpoint presentation due / 2
6 / February 21st
10AM / MH:Collect all studies; Code studies and compute effect sizes (distribution of). Be prepared to present powerpoint
presentation of this. / 3
7 / February 28,
10AM / a. Review article from meta-analysis or one that has addressed your
focus involving participation. Powerpoint presentation due
b. MH: Initial draft of Method section due / 2+4
8 / March 6,
10AM / a. MH: Examine effect sizes (distribution of) and
examine/analyze potential role of moderators. Powerpoint presentation prepared due
b. MH: Initial Draft of Outline for Introduction due / 2+4
9 / March 20,
10AM / Review article from meta-analysis or one that has addressed
your focus involving personalization.
Powerpoint presentation due / 2
10 / March 27
10AM / a. MH: Review paper results draft due
b. Review article from e-health meta-analysis or one
involving your focus on online samples.
Powerpoint presentation due. / 4+2
11 / April 3
10AM / Review article from mobile health meta-analysis or
one involving your focus on mobile health.
Powerpoint presentation due. / 2
12 / April 10
10AM / Review article from serious games meta-analysis or one
involving your focus serious games.
Powerpoint presentation due.
MH: Revised Draft of Intro, Methods, Results with discussion
due / 4+2
13 / April 17 / SOLVE assignment (see more detail below) / 2
OR / April 24 / Oral Report on Meta-Analysis / 15%
MF / April 27 / Final Draft of Meta-Analysis Due / 25%
Course Description:
Health Communication takes place at every levels of analysis (i.e., individual, interpersonal, group/network, organizational, and societal). Communicating about health can also involve mass media as well as online and via new/emerging technologies. Health communication is a broad, growing, and exciting field with exceptional career opportunities (e.g., for academic positions in health communication; for a visible national/international presence and impact beyond, as well as within, the field of communication, for large federal research grants). Many of our faculty at USC’s Annenberg School for Communication conduct research in and have federal and other grants this area http://healthcommunication.net/USouthern_CA.html.
Researchers in health communication tend to focus on communication approaches in support of one of two broad behavioral goals:
1) preventing, via behavioral action, diseases/adverse physical and mental health outcomes in the first place, or
(2) understanding/supporting early and accurate disease/health condition diagnosis, effective treatment, and adequate maintenance of a drug/therapy regimen to ameliorate or best control adverse effects of that health condition.
This course is designed to provide an overview of health communication approaches aimed at the prevention (or pre-emption) of diseases (e.g., cancers, infections) or other adverse physical (e.g., injury, violence, suicide, birth defects) or mental health outcomes by the promotion of behavior change (away from risky; towards healthier decisions/behavior). Another Annenberg course (i.e., on Medical Communication) is focused on providing an overview of the second domain. In addition to a focus on health communication theory and research on prevention and pre-emption, this course is focused on enhancing participation and personalization of interventions, especially using new communication technologies (e.g., interactive technologies, games, intelligent agents, mobile technologies, social media, etc.). These new technologies afford exceptional opportunities for communication interventions that can incorporate and test new interventions while reaching and personalizing interventions for diverse individuals.
The specific objectives of this course are to provide students with background in:
a. major theories of behavioral prevention.
b. a sampling of empirical research in health communication relevant to behavioral prevention.
c. major methodological approaches in this domain, including the use of randomized longitudinal designs and meta-analyses.
d. how researchers link theory to research and interventions,
e. cutting-edge domains (e.g., using interactive technologies and gaming environments to produce communication interventions over the web).
f. funding priorities in health communication (by major
funding organizations such as the National Institutes of Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) that will help shape the future of research in this area.
g. key socialization information in this domain (e.g., Where should I
look for information in this domain? What conferences should I go to? Who should I network with?; where grant funding is available (how would I start thinking about grants?) Etc.)
• Opportunities to develop skills in:
a. Approaching problems encountered in health communication (prevention).
b. Critiquing/Reviewing literature in this domain (as well as searching the literature in health communication and allied disciplines).
c. Meta-analysis.
d. Orally presenting work in conference-like format.
• Opportunities to develop a professional portfolio of work (e.g., conference presentations /potentially publishable work) that can further your career.
These include:
a. Presentation slides for research and teaching health communication (your own associated with a given topic (for your review) as well as those developed by the class). These are associated with weekly assignments.
b. Meta-Analysis: Review of the prevention literature in a given domain to address a theoretical question using meta-analysis. This could be submitted to a conference/provide the basis for a potentially publishable paper and serve to specify what research questions in an area need to be addressed.
c. Conference Style Presentation Slides on your individual project.
Background
Many of the leading causes of death domestically and internationally, such as chronic diseases, acute infections, accidents, suicide, and homicide, are preventable with health education/promotion efforts, or other behavioral interventions. That change may involve reducing individuals’ risky decision-making behaviors, encouraging them to engage in healthier choices, or persuading individuals to be tested for diseases. For example, reducing tobacco use, moderating alcohol use, maintaining a healthy diet, engaging in safer sexual practices, exercising regularly, reducing -- or learning to cope more effectively with --chronic stressors, and behaving in ways that reduce toxin/foodborne illness and illicit drug exposure could reduce the incidence of many chronic diseases. Changing health behaviors, however, often involves more than the individual level of analysis alone: Successful health communication interventions often address social and behavioral factors at one or more levels of analysis (e.g., individual, interpersonal, institutional, community, and policy levels).
Successful prevention (or pre-emption) interventions may use interpersonal or community or media-based, increasingly are using interactive media and advanced communication technologies (e.g., interactive agents, games) and interventions delivered “on-line” are part of the mix. Targeting diverse populations, tailoring messages and interventions to those audiences, and personalizing those interventions to optimize risk reduction and health promotion are also major foci in health communication. Increasingly, there is also a focus at major federal agencies charged with promoting the nation’s health (e.g., National Institutes of Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) on encouraging the participation of diverse populations at risk for specific deleterious health outcomes in the research process and reaching (and reducing health disparities in) diverse, often hard to reach audiences. An additional week is devoted to international health communication.
Prevention often involves changing decision-making and behavior. Historically, many of these “decisions” have been thought to involve primarily more rational factors such as cognitions (that implicate more cognitive educational efforts to change beliefs and skills, etc.): And the theories underlying these approaches are typically consistent with that view. Increasingly, we are realizing and formulating theory consistent with the view that many risky decisions are automatic and affectively-based. And, in fact, both cognitive and affective factors appear to predict change in behavior (e.g., change in risky behavior).
Virtual environments (and intelligent agents and games) and on-line interventions for changing behaviors are proving to be especially promising tools for challenging and changing risky behaviors, including changing HIV risk behaviors. We discuss some of these enabling communication technologies and the communication theory and research that underpin their use.
Another topic we discuss throughout is how to review the literature to determine what needs to be done and to evaluate the effectiveness of interventions for changing behavior. As relevant, we discuss methods that are used in brief “modules” for clarification, drawing on the examples that we are discussing in class. Students will conduct their own potentially publishable meta-analysis for their project paper.
Classes Content
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January 10, 2012 Introduction
Glanz, K., Rimer, B. K., & Viswanath, K. (2008). The scope of health behavior and health education. In Glanz, K., Rimer, B. K., & Viswanath, K. (Eds.), Health behavior and health education: Theory, research, and practice (4th edition). San Francisco, CA: John Wiley & Sons. Available free at the Wiley site,
http://he-cda.wiley.com/WileyCDA/HigherEdTitle/productCd-0787996149,courseCd-HBE110,pageType-copy,page-excerpt.html
Glanz, K., Rimer, B. K., & Viswanath, K. (2008). Theory, research, and practice in health behavior and health education. In Glanz, K., Rimer, B. K., & Viswanath, K. (Eds.), Health behavior and health education: Theory, research, and practice (4th edition). San Francisco, CA: John Wiley & Sons. Available free at the Wiley site,
http://he-cda.wiley.com/WileyCDA/HigherEdTitle/productCd-0787996149,courseCd- HBE110,pageType-copy,page-excerpt.html
Note: By January 17th identify a potential “health area of focus” that you will investigate more deeply during the course of the semester. This needs to be more “firmed up” by January 24th.
Arrange time to meet with Prof. Miller the week of the 15th to work out your focus for the semester
Prediction and Pre-Emption
January 17, 2012 Individual Models of Health Behavior
Theory – review
Champion, V.L. & Skinner, C. S. (2008). The Health Belief Model. In Glanz, K., Rimer, B. K., & Viswanath, K. (Eds.), Health behavior and health education: Theory, research, and practice (4th edition). San Francisco, CA: John Wiley & Sons.
Montano, D. E. & Kasprzyk, D. (2008). Theory of Reasoned Action, Theory of Planned Behavior and the Integrated Behavioral Model. In Glanz, K., Rimer, B. K., & Viswanath, K. (Eds.), Health behavior and health education: Theory, research, and practice (4th edition). San Francisco, CA: John Wiley & Sons.
Prochaska, J. O., Redding, C.A., Evers, K.E. (2008). The Transtheoretical Model and Stages of Change. In Glanz, K., Rimer, B. K., & Viswanath, K. (Eds.), Health behavior and health education: Theory, research, and practice (4th edition). San Francisco, CA: John Wiley & Sons.
Glasgow, R. E., & Linnan, L. A. (2008). Evaluation of Theory-Based Interventions. In Glanz, K., Rimer, B. K., & Viswanath, K. (Eds.), Health behavior and health education: Theory, research, and practice (4th edition). San Francisco, CA: John Wiley & Sons.
January 24, 2012 Meta-analysis Overview (Individual Model examples)
Albarracín, D., Johnson, B. T., Fishbein, M., & Muellerleile, P. A. (2001). Theories of reasoned action and planned behavior as models of condom use: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 127(1), 142-161. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.127.1.142
Albarracin, D.; Gillette, J. C.; Earl, A. N.; Glasman, L, R., Durantini, M. R.; et al. A Test of Major Assumptions About Behavior Change: A Comprehensive Look at the Effects of Passive and Active HIV-Prevention Interventions Since the Beginning of the Epidemic. Psychological Bulletin, 131.6 (Nov 2005): 856-897.
Bornstein Chapters 1 and 2, How a meta-analysis works and Why perform a meta-analysis; Also Read Chapters 39,40, (41),43
January 31, 2012 Interpersonal Models of Health Behavior
Theory/research-review
McAlister, A. L., Perry, C.L., & Parcel, G. S. (2008). How individuals, environments, and
health behavior interaction: Social Cognitive Theory. In Glanz, K., Rimer, B. K., & Viswanath, K. (Eds.), Health behavior and health education: Theory, research, and practice (4th edition). San Francisco, CA: John Wiley & Sons.