Impact of a worker notification program: assessment of attitudinal and behavioral outcomes

Does talking the talk matter? Effects of supervisor safety communication and safety climate on long-haul truckers' safety performance

This study examines the distinct contribution of supervisory safety communication and its interaction with safety climate in the prediction of safety performance and objective safety outcomes. Supervisory safety communication is defined as subordinates' perceptions of the extent to which their supervisor provides them with relevant safety information about their job (i.e., top-down communication) and the extent to which they feel comfortable discussing safety issues with their supervisor (i.e., bottom-up communication). Survey data were collected from 5162 truck drivers from a U.S. trucking company with a 62.1% response rate. Individual employees' survey responses were matched to their safety outcomes (i.e., lost-time injuries) six months after the survey data collection. Results showed that the quality of supervisor communication about safety uniquely contributes to safety outcomes, above and beyond measures of both group-level and organization-level safety climate. The construct validity of a newly-adapted safety communication scale was demonstrated, particularly focusing on its distinctiveness from safety climate and testing a model showing that communication had both main and moderating effects on safety behavior that ultimately predicted truck drivers' injury rates. Our findings support the need for continued attention to supervisory safety communication as an important factor by itself, as well as a contingency factor influencing how safety climate relates to safety outcomes.

Use of the Persuasive Health Message framework in the development of a community-based mammography promotion campaign

PURPOSE

We describe how the Persuasive Health Message (PHM) framework was used to guide the formative evaluation informing development of messages and materials used in a community-based multi-media campaign intended to motivate low-income African American women to obtain low- or no-cost mammograms through the CDC's National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program.

METHODS

Seventy-eight African American women were recruited for eight focus groups that discussed breast cancer screening. The moderator guide was developed in accordance with the PHM framework and solicited information on perceived threat and efficacy, cues, salient beliefs and referents, and barriers to self-efficacy.

RESULTS

We created persuasive messages to emphasize that African American women are susceptible to the threat of breast cancer, but that their personal action in obtaining regular mammograms may lead to early detection, subsequent treatment, and reduced cancer mortality. The messages addressed concerns of self-efficacy by emphasizing that uninsured women can also obtain high-quality low- or no-cost mammograms. In an attempt to combat the sentiment that breast cancer is a death sentence, the messages indicated that breast cancer can be successfully treated, especially when detected early.

CONCLUSIONS

The PHM framework consists of three steps: (1) determine information about threat and efficacy; (2) develop an audience profile; and (3) construct a persuasive message. It offered our team easy-to-follow, flexible steps to create a persuasive and effective campaign promoting awareness and use of mammogram screening among low-income African American women.

Factors associated with cancer distress in the Asbestos Post-Exposure Survey (APEXS)

OBJECTIVES

CT-scan screening programs for lung cancer detection have been proposed in high-risk subjects, and more recently in former asbestos-exposed subjects. However, to date no data are available on psychological impact of such programs. The aim of this study is to examine the risk factors of psychological distress at baseline of a CT-scan screening program among asbestos-exposed subjects.

METHODS

The Asbestos Post-Exposure Survey (APEXS) was carried out in France between October 2003 and December 2005 in order to screen asbestos-related diseases by CT-scan. Volunteers underwent self-administered questionnaires including an asbestos exposure assessment and, for a large sub-sample, a validated psychological distress scale. Non-exposed subjects were used as reference group.

RESULTS

At baseline, a significant higher level of distress was observed in exposed subjects (n = 3,122) relative to the reference group (n = 486) after adjustment on age, sex, and tobacco status. This distress is associated independently with the self-perception of (i) intensity of asbestos exposure and (ii) the risk of current or future disease related to the asbestos exposure. The perception of the cancer risk related to asbestos seems to play a fundamental role in this psychological distress.

CONCLUSION

In this study, asbestos-exposed subjects experienced a higher significant cancer distress than previously described in literature. These findings may be of potential public health importance. First, the impact of such occupational exposures on quality of life of patients who suffer from cancer related to these exposures has to be appraised. Secondly, the assessment of psychological impact of CT-scan screening programs among asbestos-exposed subjects is also required.

A computer-based approach to preventing pregnancy, STD, and HIV in rural adolescents

A computer- and Internet-based intervention was designed to influence several variables related to the prevention of pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in rural adolescents. The intervention was guided by the extended parallel process model and was evaluated using a pretest-post-test control group design with random assignment at the school level. Three hundred and twenty-six tenth-grade males and females enrolled in two rural Appalachian public high schools completed the survey at both points in time. Results indicate the vast majority (88.5%) of students in the experimental school completed at least one activity (M = 3.46 for those doing at least one activity). Further, both the overall program and all but one of the activities were rated positively by participants. Regarding the effects of the intervention, results indicate that students in the experimental school were less likely to initiate sexual activity and had greater general knowledge, greater condom negotiation self-efficacy, more favorable attitudes toward waiting to have sex, and greater situational self-efficacy than in the control school. In tandem, the results suggest that the computer-based programs may be a cost-effective and easily replicable means of providing teens with basic information and skills necessary to prevent pregnancy, STDs, and HIV.