New Edition of Health Communication Digest just released

New Edition of Health Communication Digest just released

New Edition of Health Communication Digest just released

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) sent this bulletin at 01/22/2013 04:55 PM EST

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Dear colleagues,

The December issue of Health Communication Science Digest (HCSD or Digest) is now available at http://www.cdc.gov/healthcommunication/ScienceDigest/index.html

This month in the Digest you’ll find:

• Emerging ideas on health literacy are presented in several studies. Gazmararian et al. observe a positive association between health literacy skills and Text4baby (SMS) program self-enrollment. Kaphingst et al. present a new tool for evaluating the health literacy demands of health information materials. Manafo & Wong detail a systematic review of health literacy programs for older adults. And, Sentell & Braun examine health literacy, English proficiency, and health status among diverse racial/ethnic groups. Many of these studies are from a new special issue of the Journal of Health Communication entitled “Advancing Research in Health Literacy” (http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/uhcm20/17/sup3).
• Health communication evaluation and research are the focus of four reports. Bazzo et al. evaluate the impact of imagery used in an alcohol-awareness during pregnancy campaign. Coulon et al. summarize formative evaluation of community-based walking programs. Kim et al. examine the viability of internet panel studies to assess online tobacco cessation exposure. Tait et al. evaluated the effectiveness of computer-animated depictions of health risks and benefits. 
• Four papers considered the needs of particular target audiences. Anderson & McCabe explore adolescent socialization on the internet with potential linkages to beneficial and risky behaviors. Gelb et al. discuss the role of gender in health promotion frameworks. Moran et al. examine how adolescent peer group identity impacts health campaign effectiveness. Shah et al. report an initiative targeting public broadcasting audiences. 
•  Aspects of health message design and delivery are reported in six publications. Both de Droog et al. and McAlister & Cornwell examine influences on children’s responses to toys and characters promoting healthy foods. Duhachek et al., working on alcohol awareness, and Latimer-Cheung et al., working on smoking cessation, study health message framing. Garbers et al. find that health message tailoring improves contraceptive continuation and adherence. And, Peter & Honea identify several emotional states associated with different stages of behavior change.
• New media intervention designs and/or outcomes are the focus of four reports. Short message service (i.e., texting) interventions are detailed by de Niet et al., who outline a childhood obesity randomized controlled trial, and Whittaker et al., who summarize development and implementation of the Text4baby national health information service. Guse et al. provide a systematic review of interventions using new media to improve adolescent sexual health. And Hong examines factors influencing internet health information searching.

Please remember that you can access all issues of the “Health Communication Science Digest” series online via the searchable Health Communication Science Digest Archive.

We hope that you find the Health Communication Science Digest useful and invite you to provide us with feedback for improvement. Please send us articles that you would like to share with others—articles you or your colleagues have published or found useful.

Please send your comments and questions to HCSD@cdc.gov.

Enjoy!

Doğan Eroğlu

Associate Director for Communication Science

Office of the Associate Director for Communication

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA