"#I-Am-Engaged": Conceptualization and First Implementation of a Multi-Actor Participatory, Co-designed Social Media Campaign to Raise Italians Citizens' Engagement in Preventing the Spread of COVID-19 Virus

The effect of consumer-perceived COVID-19 ad value on health-protective behavior: Mediating role of engagement

Though the pandemic has passed, social media-based messaging continues to exhibit COVID-19-related cues (e.g., wearing a face mask to stay safe), continuing to foster consumers' health-protective behavior. However, it remains unclear how social media communications (e.g., advertising) affect such behavior, exposing an important literature-based gap. Addressing this gap, we deploy Ducoffe's advertising value model to examine how pandemic-related advertisements (e.g., those urging consumers to stay safe, including post-the pandemic) impact their health-protective behavior. We also examine how consumer engagement (CE) mediates these associations. To explore these issues, we collected data from a sample of 301 Gen Z consumers, which was analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). We find that informative, credible, irritating, and obtrusive ads raise consumer engagement and health-protective behavior. Engagement was also found to strengthen these associations, revealing their strategic value. We conclude by outlining important theoretical and practical implications that arise from our analyses.

Understanding COVID: Collaborative Government Campaign for Citizen Digital Health Literacy in the COVID-19 Pandemic

The strategy "Understanding COVID" was a Public Health campaign designed in 2020 and launched in 2021 in Asturias-Spain to provide reliable and comprehensive information oriented to vulnerable populations. The campaign involved groups considered socially vulnerable and/or highly exposed to COVID-19 infection: shopkeepers and hoteliers, worship and religious event participants, school children and their families, and scattered rural populations exposed to the digital divide. The purpose of this article was to describe the design of the "Understanding COVID" strategy and the evaluation of the implementation process. The strategy included the design and use of several educational resources and communication strategies, including some hundred online training sessions based on the published studies and adapted to the language and dissemination approaches, that reached 1056 people of different ages and target groups, an accessible website, an informative video channel, posters and other pedagogical actions in education centers. It required a great coordination effort involving different public and third-sector entities to provide the intended pandemic protection and prevention information at that difficult time. A communication strategy was implemented to achieve different goals: reaching a diverse population and adapting the published studies to different ages and groups, focusing on making it comprehensible and accessible for them. In conclusion, given there is a common and sufficiently important goal, it is possible to achieve effective collaboration between different governmental bodies to develop a coordinated strategy to reach the most vulnerable populations while taking into consideration their different interests and needs.

The public sector and co-creation in turbulent times: A systematic literature review on robust governance in the COVID-19 emergency

The capacity of public sector of co-creating with other stakeholders is challenged by the increasing presence of disruptive turbulent events, such as the COVID-19. At this regard, robustness has been identified as a suitable response to deal with this kind of events. Through a systematic literature review, we analyzed how public sector organizations have co-created with other actors during the COVID-19 and what have been the contribution of robust governance strategies. Our findings point firstly to the empirical validity of the robustness concept, providing evidence of the extensive use of robust governance strategies into the co-creation processes. Second, we identified a configurational approach to robustness, with governments co-creating by simultaneously employing several robust strategies. Thirdly, we observed a more active involvement of societal stakeholders, with emergence of proto-institutions and potential threats to the political system.

The politics of mask-wearing: Political preferences, reactance, and conflict aversion during COVID

The current project examines how psychological reactance and conflict orientation relate to the highly politicized debate over mask-wearing in the U.S. during the COVID-19 pandemic. We explore how psychological reactance and conflict orientation are related to self-reported mask-wearing, and how these same predispositions are correlated with political beliefs. We then assess how favorability towards President Trump in the context of the 2020 Election was uniquely correlated with these traits and how Trump favorability both mediated and moderated the effects of conflict orientation and psychological reactance on individuals' likelihood of wearing masks. Results from a national survey of U.S. adults from Nov-Dec 2020 suggest that Trump favorability was positively associated with trait reactance, negatively associated with conflict aversion, and negatively associated with self-reported mask-wearing. The opposite was true of favorability towards Joe Biden. Moderation analyses indicate that conflict-approaching Biden detractors were especially unlikely to report wearing masks, while mediation analyses show that political preferences significantly mediated the relationships between both psychological traits and self-reported mask-wearing. Implications for the politicization of health messaging and health behavior are discussed.

Patients' Engagement in Early Detection of COVID-19 Symptoms: An Observational Study in the Very Early Peak of the Pandemic in Italy in 2020

COVID-19 exerted a strong impact on the Italian healthcare systems, which in turn resulted in a reduction in the citizens’ trust towards healthcare authorities. Moreover, the focused attention on the typical COVID-19 symptoms (fever, cough) has also impacted the social representation of health priorities, potentially reducing the perceived importance and severity of other symptoms. This study aimed to determine the association of general-practitioner (GP) contact with various symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic in Cremona, an Italian city at the very epicentre of the pandemic. Between April and June 2020, an anonymous survey was completed by 2161 respondents. Logistic-regression analyses were used to examine the associations of GP contact with sociodemographic characteristics and the presence of symptoms. Of the 2161 respondents (43.5% female, 75.0% aged less than 55 years), 959 (44.4%) reported experiencing various symptoms and 33.3% contacted a GP. GP contact was significantly associated with poor appetite (OR, 2.42; 95% CI 1.63 to 3.62; p < 0.001), taste dysfunctions (OR 1.67; 95% CI 1.20 to 2.34; p < 0.001) and sleepiness during the day (OR 4.15; 95% CI 2.13 to 8.09; p = 0.002). None of the gastrointestinal symptoms resulted in significantly increasing the likelihood of contacting a GP. This study offers a unique observation of citizens’ attitudes and behaviours in early symptom communication/detection during the initial peak of the Italian COVID-19 pandemic.

COVID-19 Study on Scientific Articles in Health Communication: A Science Mapping Analysis in Web of Science

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to cause a collapse in the health systems and econo-mies of many countries around the world, after 2 years of struggle and with the number of cases still growing exponentially. Health communication has become as essential and necessary for control of the pandemic as epidemiology. This bibliometric analysis identifies existing contributions, jointly studying health communication and the pandemic in scientific journals indexed. A systematic search of the Web of Science was performed, using keywords related to COVID-19 and health communication. Data extracted included the type of study, journal, number of citations, number of authors, country of publication, and study content. As the number of scientific investigations has grown, it is necessary to delve into the areas in which the most impactful publications have been generated. The results show that the scientific community has been quick to react by generating an extraordinary volume of publications. This review provides a comprehensive mapping of contributions to date, showing how research approaches have evolved in parallel with the pandemic. In 2020, concepts related to mental health, mass communication, misinformation and communication risk were more used. In 2021, vaccination, infodemic, risk perception, social distancing and telemedicine were the most prevalent keywords. By highlighting the main topics, authors, manuscripts and journals since the origin of COVID-19, the authors hope to disseminate information that can help researchers to identify subsisting knowledge gaps and a number of future research opportunities.

Evaluation of a Social Media Campaign in Saskatchewan to Promote Healthy Eating During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Social Media Analysis and Qualitative Interview Study

BACKGROUND

The beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic presented many sudden challenges regarding food, including grocery shopping changes (eg, reduced store hours, capacity restrictions, and empty store shelves due to food hoarding), restaurant closures, the need to cook more at home, and closures of food access programs. Eat Well Saskatchewan (EWS) implemented a 16-week social media campaign, #eatwellcovid19, led by a dietitian and nutrition student that focused on sharing stories submitted by the Saskatchewan public about how they were eating healthy during the COVID-19 pandemic.

OBJECTIVE

The goal of this study was to describe the implementation of the #eatwellcovid19 social media campaign and the results from the evaluation of the campaign, which included campaign performance using social media metrics and experiences and perspectives of campaign followers.

METHODS

Residents of Saskatchewan, Canada, were invited to submit personal stories and experiences to EWS about how they were eating healthy during the COVID-19 pandemic from April to August 2020. Each week, one to three stories were featured on EWS social media platforms-Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter-along with evidence-based nutrition information to help residents become more resilient to challenges related to food and nutrition experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic. Individuals who submitted stories were entered into a weekly draw for a Can $100 grocery gift card. Social media metrics and semistructured qualitative interviews of campaign followers were used to evaluate the #eatwellcovid19 campaign.

RESULTS

In total, 75 stories were submitted by 74 individuals on a variety of topics (eg, grocery shopping, traditional skills, and gardening), and 42 stories were featured on social media. EWS shared 194 #eatwellcovid19 posts across social media platforms (Facebook: n=100; Instagram: n=55; and Twitter: n=39). On Facebook, #eatawellcovid19 reached 100,571 followers and left 128,818 impressions, resulting in 9575 engagements. On Instagram, the campaign reached 11,310 followers, made 14,145 impressions, and received 823 likes and 15 comments. On Twitter, #eatwellcovid19 made 15,199 impressions and received 424 engagements. Featured story submission posts had the best engagement on Facebook and the most likes and comments on Instagram. The EWS social media pages reported increases in their following during the campaign (Instagram: +30%; Facebook: +14%; and Twitter: +12%). Results from the interviews revealed that there were two types of campaign followers: those who appreciated hearing the stories submitted by followers, as it helped them to feel connected to the community during social isolation, and those who appreciated the evidence-based information.

CONCLUSIONS

Numerous stories were submitted to the #eatwellcovid19 social media campaign on various topics. On Instagram and Facebook, posts that featured these stories had the highest engagement. During this campaign, EWS's social media following increased by more than 10% on each platform. The approach used for the #eatwellcovid19 campaign could be considered by others looking to develop health promotion campaigns.