I've been teaching a class on health communication in the media this fall for freshmen at UT. It's a really fun class that I enjoy teaching, due both to the topic and the energy the freshmen bring to the class. Tomorrow are final presentations for the class, for a project where I ask students to pick a health topic that interests them and then (1) make the case for their health issue as an important one and (2) how communication/advertising might be used in addressing the problem.
One of the teams picked use of Adderall by college students, both for recreational purposes and to help in academic performance. I've talked to them about this project numerous times since they selected it, but I'm going to be very interested in one they present tomorrow. I know they've been doing surveys/interviews with a convenience sample of their friends and peers, and it's looking like use of Adderall (and similar drugs) is common and relatively socially acceptable. They were going to be digging further into primary research over the holiday weekend to see what else they could uncover, and then come up with their final recommendations for how effective health communication might help address this problem.
The other groups picked stress/lack of sleep, concerns about over-exercising, and stress in the Greek rush/pledge system, which should also be interesting. It's always fascinating to see what the student teams uncover in their research, given that it could be argued they're more apt to get honest answers than more official surveys and research.
So really this post is just about my excitement to see what all these students present tomorrow... More to come.
Monday, November 30, 2009
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Hans Rosling: Asia's Rise
On this Thanksgiving, I'll just post a short note about the most recent TED talk from Hans Rosling on Asia's rise, which looks at income and life expectancy trends over time. As always, Rosling's presentation is a great example of how visuals can tell a compelling story - his TED talks are certainly among the best.
Monday, November 23, 2009
CAHPS Item Set for Addressing Health Literacy
I ran across this yesterday when poking around for health literacy stuff, and I wanted to share it. Right from the CAHPS website:
The primary goal of the CAHPS Item Set for Addressing Health Literacy is to measure, from the patients’ perspective, how well health information is communicated to them by health care professionals. This work on promoting health literacy is part of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s continuing efforts to encourage a greater emphasis in the provider community on patient-centered care.While I don't have any immediate need for this, because I'm not doing anything related to patients' perceptions of providers, I thought this might be of interest to a lot of people out there. Full information on the CAHPS Item Set for Addressing Health Literacy is here, which includes items about communication with doctors, communication about medicines, communication about tests, communication about forms, etc.
Sunday, November 22, 2009
New Breast Cancer Guidelines
Healthcare in the news always has me thinking of new studies I'd love to do, given time and an army of graduate students. (Some day...)
The new breast cancer screening guidelines has brought on a particularly interesting bout of media coverage. Just off the top of my head this week I listened to long discussions on NPR: Talk of the Nation, On Point, NBC: Meet the Press, NPR: Your Health, and Slate's Political Gabfest. (All great podcasts, by the way.)
It's been especially interesting to listen to the debate on shows like Talk of the Nation or On Point where callers are part of the discussion. Almost every one of these shows has featured at least one call from a woman reporting that her life was saved by a mammogram in her early 40s. Some of the healthcare professionals involved have then tried to explain that there's no way to know what would have happened if that cancer wasn't detected - it might have been slow growing and never caused problems, it might have been safely detected and dealt with when the woman turned 50, etc. To say that most callers don't find this to be a particularly compelling argument would be an understatement.
The whole issue is even more complicated when it's politicized, with some claiming that these new guidelines are just a sign of the rationing to come with nationalized healthcare. But that's a different story.
In any event, what I find really interesting is the persuasive impact and understanding of stats, personalized anecdotes, and everything else going on with the proposed mammogram guidelines. I don't know that I'll have a chance to do anything with this soon, but there are a lot of interesting things going on here.
The new breast cancer screening guidelines has brought on a particularly interesting bout of media coverage. Just off the top of my head this week I listened to long discussions on NPR: Talk of the Nation, On Point, NBC: Meet the Press, NPR: Your Health, and Slate's Political Gabfest. (All great podcasts, by the way.)
It's been especially interesting to listen to the debate on shows like Talk of the Nation or On Point where callers are part of the discussion. Almost every one of these shows has featured at least one call from a woman reporting that her life was saved by a mammogram in her early 40s. Some of the healthcare professionals involved have then tried to explain that there's no way to know what would have happened if that cancer wasn't detected - it might have been slow growing and never caused problems, it might have been safely detected and dealt with when the woman turned 50, etc. To say that most callers don't find this to be a particularly compelling argument would be an understatement.
The whole issue is even more complicated when it's politicized, with some claiming that these new guidelines are just a sign of the rationing to come with nationalized healthcare. But that's a different story.
In any event, what I find really interesting is the persuasive impact and understanding of stats, personalized anecdotes, and everything else going on with the proposed mammogram guidelines. I don't know that I'll have a chance to do anything with this soon, but there are a lot of interesting things going on here.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Flu Shots and YouTube
A week or two ago I asked all my freshmen to send me TV clips that were related to health. I intended this to be vague, so I could see how they would interpret health on TV. They sent me Hulu and YouTube clips related to House, Grey's Anatomy, Private Practice, Scrubs, etc. I also had several clips related to H1N1 coverage in the news; I supplemented those with my own selection of Jon Stewart tearing into CNN regarding their coverage of healthcare reform and H1N1. (That was immediately one of my favorite clips from The Daily Show ever. It's here. It's brilliant.)
Anyway, one of the students submitted this YouTube clip of a news story reporting on a cheerleader who received the flu shot which "destroyed her chances of happiness."
Of course the reaction in the classroom was shock, horror, etc. Despite the fact it was described as one in a million, the students' primary takeaway message was that the flu shot can cause major problems.
I didn't know enough to make any claims about the accuracy of the diagnosis of this woman, but the reporting on this seemed pretty poor. And then this video was passed along by my TA a couple days ago...
I'll be showing that second video to them in class today, and we'll be discussing some of those user comments which suggest that (perhaps) the problem wasn't related to the flu shot at all. I'm wondering if all the news outlets that covered the original story will now cover her cure... Or dig into whether or not the problem was really caused by the flu shot to begin with...
To me, this is a fascinating intersection of mass media, new media, and how poor reporting can lead people to take the (extremely) wrong message away from a news story. Or "news" story, as the case may be.
Anyway, one of the students submitted this YouTube clip of a news story reporting on a cheerleader who received the flu shot which "destroyed her chances of happiness."
Of course the reaction in the classroom was shock, horror, etc. Despite the fact it was described as one in a million, the students' primary takeaway message was that the flu shot can cause major problems.
I didn't know enough to make any claims about the accuracy of the diagnosis of this woman, but the reporting on this seemed pretty poor. And then this video was passed along by my TA a couple days ago...
I'll be showing that second video to them in class today, and we'll be discussing some of those user comments which suggest that (perhaps) the problem wasn't related to the flu shot at all. I'm wondering if all the news outlets that covered the original story will now cover her cure... Or dig into whether or not the problem was really caused by the flu shot to begin with...
To me, this is a fascinating intersection of mass media, new media, and how poor reporting can lead people to take the (extremely) wrong message away from a news story. Or "news" story, as the case may be.
Sunday, November 8, 2009
NCA Health Communication Division Business Meeting
For those attending NCA in Chicago this week who may not have seen the e-mail, the Health Communication Division Business Meeting will be on Friday the 13th, 12:30-1:45pm in the Boulevard B room at the Hilton. Apparently that was a change from the original location, just trying to help spread the word.
Saturday, November 7, 2009
Military Stress and Dogs
One of my favorite news programs is KCRW To The Point. It's almost always a great show which covers relevant news in a comprehensive fashion. Two thumbs up.
Yesterday they had a show on Stress in the Military, of course brought on by the events at Ft. Hood. This particular show focused on the role dogs can play in helping relieve that stress - how dogs help soldiers in war zones, the history of dogs in the military, etc.
I was particularly intrigued by the segment with Joan Esnayra, who was talking about training dogs to help soldiers cope with PTSD. This included everything from recognizing when their owners are having a nightmare (and waking them up) to helping them maintain personal space in crowds (by positioning themselves to keep strangers from bumping up against their owners as much). Right now they're apparently doing a clinical trial to establish the efficacy of this model before trying to roll it out on a larger scale. Very cool work.
In any event, it was a good show with some interesting notes related to dogs and mental health - certainly worth a listen over the weekend.
Yesterday they had a show on Stress in the Military, of course brought on by the events at Ft. Hood. This particular show focused on the role dogs can play in helping relieve that stress - how dogs help soldiers in war zones, the history of dogs in the military, etc.
I was particularly intrigued by the segment with Joan Esnayra, who was talking about training dogs to help soldiers cope with PTSD. This included everything from recognizing when their owners are having a nightmare (and waking them up) to helping them maintain personal space in crowds (by positioning themselves to keep strangers from bumping up against their owners as much). Right now they're apparently doing a clinical trial to establish the efficacy of this model before trying to roll it out on a larger scale. Very cool work.
In any event, it was a good show with some interesting notes related to dogs and mental health - certainly worth a listen over the weekend.
Monday, November 2, 2009
Social Undermining of Healthy Eating and Exercise Behaviors
I didn't realize this was officially out, so consider this a bit of belated self-promotion... An article I wrote with one of our doctoral students, Dixie Stanforth, came out a few months ago in ACSM's Health and Fitness Journal. The article, "Social Undermining of Healthy Eating and Exercise Behaviors," was a look at the "darker side" of social support and its impact on healthy eating and exercise behaviors.
It was a neat study which helped lay a bit of the groundwork for part of Dixie's dissertation. I don't know if I'll be doing anything quite like this in the near future, but it was an interesting project nonetheless.
Stanforth, D. & Mackert, M. (2009) Social Undermining of Healthy Eating and Exercise Behaviors. ACSM’s Health & Fitness Journal, 13 (3), 14-19.
It was a neat study which helped lay a bit of the groundwork for part of Dixie's dissertation. I don't know if I'll be doing anything quite like this in the near future, but it was an interesting project nonetheless.
Stanforth, D. & Mackert, M. (2009) Social Undermining of Healthy Eating and Exercise Behaviors. ACSM’s Health & Fitness Journal, 13 (3), 14-19.
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