Two-page document that defines risk communication and risk perception and summarizes key studies relating to effective risk communication in the public health context.
This study reviews resources and limitations and suggests future directions for integrating diverse communities into related strategies (including risk communication). It documents research and interventions, including promising models and practices that address preparedness for minorities. However, findings reveal a general lack of focus on diversity and suggest that future preparedness efforts need to fully integrate factors related to race, culture, and language into risk communication, public health training, measurement, coordination, and policy at all levels.
This report analyzes state experiences during the 2009 H1N1 pandemic response in the U.S and comments on possible avenues to address communication challenges that local health agencies encounter when responding to an outbreak.
Communication is an essential part of sustainable preparedness and long-term global health security. The 2014 Ebola epidemic demonstrated that tailored, culturally appropriate communication is one of the first activities responders use as new threats emerge, especially when public fear outpaces information that persons can use to protect themselves. This report summarizes the risk communication and health promotion activities and lessons learned in West Africa and the United State
This literature review was conducted to identify promising risk communication approaches and messaging strategies that address the communication limitations or barriers facing vulnerable populations before, during, and after a public health emergency. It offers insights into ways of improving public health emergency risk communication with vulnerable populations and suggestions as to how subsequent project tasks can further inform efforts to address vulnerable populations in emergency preparedness, response, and recovery.
The authors of this Comment question the assumption that messaging based only biomedical facts can always correct local logic, concerns, and rumors. It is argued that most effective approaches to managing an Ebola-like crisis are likely to be diverse, locally sustainable and developed with respect for local cultures and beliefs.
This publication provides a review of the best practices in public health emergency risk communication. It offers guidelines for accepting and involving stakeholders in risk communication, as well as listening to individuals during a crisis.
This article grapples with the challenges of crisis and emergency risk communication with special populations during a pandemic. Recognizing that targeting messages to specific groups poses significant difficulties at that time, this article proposes a model of community engagement, disaster risk education, and crisis and emergency risk communication to prepare minority communities and government agencies to work effectively in a pandemic, build the capacity of each to respond, and strengthen the trust that is critical at such moments.
Dalrymple KE, Young R, Tully M. (2016). “Facts, Not Fear”. Science Communication, 38, 442-67.
Trust in many government organizations is low, creating a challenging environment for communication during outbreaks of emerging infectious diseases, like Ebola. This paper presents a thematic analysis of 1,010 tweets and four Twitter chats during the 2014-2015 Ebola outbreak. The authors argue that an emphasis on certainty in a rapidly changing situation leaves organizations vulnerable to charges of unpreparedness or obfuscation.
This annex document to the U.S National Response Framework focuses on describing the communication infrastructures and strategies required during an emergency response.
This article puts forward a new risk communication evaluation framework in the context of infectious diseases outbreaks, using measurable performance parameters link to the disease’s dynamics and epidemic curve.
This ECDC guidance document aims to provide public health organizations and agencies with practical recommendations on how to integrate social media into their communication strategies, in particular in the context of infectious disease prevention, response and outbreak risk communication.
This ECDC literature review analyses the existing literature and knowledge on risk communication related to infectious diseases, in particular focusing on current risk communication definitions, methodologies & guidelines, as well as insights and past lessons learned.
Using data from the 2014-2016 Ebola crisis in Liberia, this study models the spread of the Ebola virus with and without behavior change. This research highlights the importance of risk communication and awareness induced behavior changed in curbing the Ebola outbreak in Liberia.
This report describes a comparative study across Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea exploring the intersection between radio, gender and information communication technologies.
This review defines crisis risk communication, traces its origins to a number of applied fields, and then shows how basic principles have become incorporated into emergency preparedness and risk communication for public health. Literature from four different disciplines that inform crisis risk communications are reviewed. These are (i) environmental risk communication, (ii) disaster management, (iii) health promotion and communication, and (iv) media and communication studies.
This essay argues for greater emphasis on risk communication to help people keep their fears in perspective. Effective communication, not only through what the government says but implicit in the actions it takes, empowers people to make wiser choices in their own lives, and to support wise choices by society in applying limited resources to maximize public and environmental health.
This study explores the role of the internet in managing risk communication in the context of a bioterrorist attack. While the results of this study are nested in the context of a deliberate event, they can be extrapolated to broad range infectious diseases related crises.
The Institute of Medicine held a number of workshops to gather lessons learned from the vaccination campaigns during the 2009 H1N1 pandemic in the United States. The participants’ past experiences, strategies, and recommendations are summarized in this report.
This article provides a list of actions items and research priorities the global community can take to improve preparedness for future infectious disease crisis, including strengthening risk communication capacities by engaging with local social scientists, as well as better understanding the role of social media in effective communication.
This papers explore the success of the Ebola outbreak response in Nigeria, highlighting the importance of effective risk communication and contact tracing strategies and of a robust EOC to coordinate emergency management activities and information sharing.
This report by the Milken Institute School of Public Health provides insights into the channels, types, and reliability of information shared with the Liberian population during the 2014-2016 Ebola crisis. The data analyzed in this report reveal ways and areas to improve with regard to future crisis communication strategies.
This book chapter outlines the evolution of the definition of risk communications and explains how the biology of fear and the psychology of risk perception can provide insight into developing better risk communications strategies while using real life events and crises.
This paper explores the challenges of communicating uncertainty without generating fear during an infectious disease outbreak, using real examples like the 2001 anthrax crisis, the 2003 SARS epidemic, and the 2014-2016 Ebola crisis.
This systematic literature review to describe current research in the area of communication to the public in public health emergency preparedness, focusing on the association between sociodemographic and behavioral factors and communication as well as preparedness outcomes. A total of 131 articles were included for final review. The results show the need for empirical research to determine what type of communication messages can be effective in achieving preparedness outcomes across various population groups. They suggest that a real-time analysis of the information environment is valuable in knowing what is being communicated to the public and could be used for course correction of public health messages during a crisis.
This letter to the Editor of the International Journal of Preventive medicine explains the importance of risk communication is preventing and responding to public health crises.
This 2015 USAID blog post describes the innovative way USAID’s Health Communication Capacity Collaborative (HC3) initiative designed the DeySay SMS system, which used local healthcare workers and text messages to monitor, track and report rumors about Ebola across Liberia, allowing for more effective rumor tracking and debunking.
A rapid review of gray literature from 2015 to 2016 was conducted to identify the lessons learned for emergency risk communication from recent outbreaks of Ebola, Zika, and yellow fever. Gray literature databases and key websites were searched and requests for documents were posted to expert networks. A total of 83 documents met inclusion criteria, 68 of which are cited in this report. A rapid content analysis of included sources was undertaken with relevant text either extracted verbatim or summarized and mapped against the questions. A database subset was created for each question and citations were assigned to the subset(s) for which they contained relevant information. Multiple designations per document were common. Database subsets were used to synthesize the results into a coherent narrative.
This CDC document outlines the key crisis and emergency risk communication actions that need to be performed during the first 48 hours of an emergency.
This CDC document is a tool to assess special populations and help identify subgroups that may require different messages or different communication channels.
A Risk Communication Action Planned developed by CDC following the 2014-2016 Ebola crisis outlining steps for the implementation of a national risk communication specifically for Ebola.
The consequences of pandemic influenza for vulnerable populations will depend partly on the effectiveness of health risk communications. Strategic planning should fully consider how life circumstances, cultural values, and perspectives on risk influence behavior during a pandemic. These authors summarize recent scientific evidence on communication challenges and examine how sociocultural, economic, psychological, and health factors can jeopardize or facilitate public health interventions that require a cooperative public.
This report was developed after the SARS epidemic. The first half of the report focuses on past outbreak experiences and describes the communication challenges. The second half turns these past experiences into best practices and recommendations for communication during an outbreak.
This document was developed by WHO following an extensive literature review on risk communications during infectious disease outbreaks – the results of this review are summarized here in a step by step list of best practices.
Book chapter developed by WHO describing best practice in risk communication in the context of mass gathering. The recommendation provided in this chapter can be applied to many public health emergency situations, including infectious disease outbreaks.
This document developed by WHO provides interim step by step guidance for communicating risk around Zika virus, its transmission channels and the potential implications of infection.
These guidelines provide overarching, evidence-based guidance on how risk communication should be practiced in an emergency. The recommendations also guide countries on building capacity for communicating risk during health emergencies.
This document was developed by the World Health Organization’s Health Emergencies Programme as a resource for the response to the Ebola Virus Disease (Ebola) outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in May 2018. It is intended to be used to guide risk communication and community engagement (RCCE) work which is central to stopping the outbreak and preventing its further amplification.
Article reviewing the importance of responsible reporting and the role of the media in informing the public and alleviating its fears during a bioterrorism crisis.
This issue of the ASSET paper series, titled Risk Communication in Times of an Epidemic or Pandemic, is dedicated to the discussion of risk communication. Specifically, topics include Communicating about uncertainty, Communicating Risk in an Epidemic or Pandemic, and a brief comment about the role of new technologies such as social media, and their advantages and disadvantages in risk communication.
