A Population Study on COVID-19 Information Sharing: Sociodemographic Differences and Associations with Family Communication Quality and Well-Being in Hong Kong

Family support through the sharing of information helps to shape and regulate the health and behaviours of family members, but little is known about how families are sharing COVID-19-related information, or about its associations with family communication quality and well-being. We examined the associations of COVID-19 information sharing methods with sociodemographic characteristics, the perceived benefits of information communication and technology (ICT) methods, and family communication quality and well-being in Hong Kong. Of 4852 respondents (53.2% female, 41.1% aged over 55 years), the most common sharing method was instant messaging (82.3%), followed by face-to-face communication (65.7%), phone (25.5%) and social media (15.8%). Female sex (adjusted prevalence ratio (aPR) 1.09), older age (aPRs 1.14-1.22) and higher household income (aPR 1.06) (all p ≤ 0.04) were associated with instant messaging use, while post-secondary education was associated with face-to-face (aPR 1.10), video call (aPR 1.79), and email (aPR 2.76) communications (all p ≤ 0.03). Each ICT sharing method used was associated with a higher likelihood of both reported benefits (aPRs 1.26 and 1.52), better family communication quality and family well-being (adjusted βs 0.43 and 0.30) (all p ≤ 0.001). We have first shown that COVID-19 information sharing in families using both traditional methods and ICTs, and using more types of methods, was associated with perceived benefits and better family communication quality and well-being amidst the pandemic. Sociodemographic differences in COVID-19 information sharing using ICTs were observed. Digital training may help enhance social connections and promote family well-being.

Designing Effective eHealth Interventions for Underserved Groups: Five Lessons From a Decade of eHealth Intervention Design and Deployment

Despite the proliferation of eHealth interventions, such as web portals, for health information dissemination or the use of mobile apps and wearables for health monitoring, research has shown that underserved groups do not benefit proportionately from these eHealth interventions. This is largely because of usability issues and the lack of attention to the broader structural, physical, and psychosocial barriers to technology adoption and use. The objective of this paper is to draw lessons from a decade of experience in designing different user-centered eHealth interventions (eg, web portals and health apps) to inform future work in leveraging technology to address health disparities. We draw these lessons from a series of interventions from the work we have done over 15 years in the Viswanath laboratory at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, focusing on three projects that used web portals and health apps targeted toward underserved groups. The projects were the following: Click to Connect, which was a community-based eHealth intervention that aimed to improve internet skills and health literacy among underserved groups by providing home access to high-speed internet, computer, and internet training classes, as well as a dedicated health web portal with ongoing technical support; PLANET MassCONECT, which was a knowledge translation project that built capacity among community-based organizations in Boston, Lawrence, and Worcester in Massachusetts to adopt evidence-based health promotion programs; and Smartphone App for Public Health, which was a mobile health research that facilitated both participatory (eg, surveys) and passive data (eg, geolocations and web-browsing behaviors) collection for the purpose of understanding tobacco message exposure in individuals’ built environment. Through our work, we distilled five key principles for researchers aiming to design eHealth interventions for underserved groups. They are as follows: develop a strategic road map to address communication inequalities (ie, a concrete action plan to identify the barriers faced by underserved groups and customize specific solutions to each of them), engage multiple stakeholders from the beginning for the long haul, design with usability—readability and navigability—in mind, build privacy safeguards into eHealth interventions and communicate privacy–utility tradeoffs in simplicity, and strive for an optimal balance between open science aspirations and protection of underserved groups.

Tuning in and catching on? Examining the relationship between pandemic communication and awareness and knowledge of MERS in the USA

Background

Large-scale influenza outbreaks over the last decade, such as SARS and H1N1, have brought to global attention the importance of emergency risk communication and prompted the international community to develop communication responses. Since pandemic outbreaks are relatively infrequent, there is a dearth of evidence addressing the following questions: (i) Have the resources invested in strategic and routine communication for past pandemic outbreaks yielded public health preparedness benefits? (ii) Have past efforts sensitized people to pay attention to new pandemic threats? The Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) that was followed closely by major media outlets in the USA provides an opportunity to examine the relationship between exposure to public communication about epidemics and public awareness and knowledge about new risks.

Methods

In December, 2013, we surveyed a nationally representative sample of 627 American adults and examined the associations between people's awareness to prior pandemics and their awareness of and knowledge about MERS.

Results

Awareness of prior pandemics was significantly associated with awareness and knowledge of MERS. The most common sources from which people first heard about MERS were also identified.

Conclusions

Communication inequalities were observed between racial/ethnic and socioeconomic positions, suggesting a need for more effective pandemic communication.

Perceptions of cancer controllability and cancer risk knowledge: the moderating role of race, ethnicity, and acculturation

Literature suggests racial/ethnic minorities, particularly those who are less-acculturated, have stronger fatalistic attitudes toward cancer than do non-Latino Whites. Knowledge of cancer prevention is also lower among racial/ethnic minorities. Moreover, low knowledge about cancer risk factors is often associated with fatalistic beliefs. Our study examined fatalism and cancer knowledge by race/ethnicity and explored whether race/ethnicity moderate the association of fatalism with knowledge of cancer prevention and risk factors. We analyzed data from the Health Information National Trends Survey (2008), a national probability survey, to calculate population estimates of the associations among race/ethnicity, fatalistic beliefs, and knowledge about cancer from multivariable logistic regression. Racial/ethnic minorities had higher odds of holding fatalistic beliefs and lower odds of having knowledge of cancer risk factors than non-Hispanic Whites, and important differences by acculturation among Latinos were observed. Limited evidence of the moderating effect of race/ethnicity on the relationship between fatalistic beliefs and cancer risk factor knowledge was observed. Knowledge of cancer risk factors is low among all race/ethnicities, while fatalistic beliefs about cancer are higher among racial/ethnic minorities compared with non-Hispanic Whites. Implications for cancer education efforts are discussed.

Recruitment and Retention for Community-Based eHealth Interventions with Populations of Low Socioeconomic Position: Strategies and Challenges

Given persistent communication inequalities, it is important to develop interventions to improve Internet and health literacy among underserved populations. These goals drove the Click to Connect (C2C) project, a community-based eHealth intervention that provided novice computer users of low socioeconomic position (SEP) with broadband Internet access, training classes, a Web portal, and technical support. In this paper, we describe the strategies used to recruit and retain this population, the budgetary implications of such strategies, and the challenges and successes we encountered. Results suggest that personal contact between study staff and participants and provision of in-depth technical support were central to successful recruitment and retention. Such investments are essential to realize the promise of eHealth with underserved populations.

The communications revolution and health inequalities in the 21st century: implications for cancer control

The radical and transformative developments in information and communication technologies (ICT) offer unprecedented opportunities to promote cancer control and enhance population and individual health. However, the current context in which these technologies are being deployed--where cancer incidence and mortality and communication are characterized by inequalities among different racial/ethnic and socioeconomic status groups--raises important questions for cancer communication research, policy, and practice. Drawing on illustrative data, this essay characterizes the communications revolution and elucidates its implications for cancer control, with a particular focus on communication inequalities and cancer disparities.