"The Part Played by People" in Times of COVID-19: Interpersonal Communication about Media Coverage in a Pandemic Crisis.

The study presented in this article examined individuals' interpersonal communication about media coverage during the COVID-19 pandemic. In times of a severe public health crisis, people rely heavily on media coverage to stay informed. Communicating with others about this coverage can help them gain deeper insights and evaluate pandemic-related information. According to the two-step flow of communication, opinion leaders, such as health experts, play an important role in interpersonal communication by disseminating information, influencing others, and providing orientation. To examine the nature of interpersonal communication about pandemic-related media coverage, we conducted 22 semi-structured interviews. We explored: a) the communicative roles within the informal social network, b) the functions of the communication for the individual, and c) the potential transformations in the trajectory of the pandemic. Findings show that communication with close and more distant social contacts occurred largely on an equal basis, while the rare opinion leaders mainly emerged as information brokers. Communication about media coverage serves the functions of information sharing and retrieving, information validation, and coping with negative emotions. Finally, communication partners, roles, and conversational topics partly changed over time. Our study extends existing research on interpersonal communication about health topics, as well as on the COVID-19 pandemic.

Lieber professionell als spirituell. Die Kommunikation von Angeboten der Achtsamkeitsförderung im Hochschulsetting

ZusammenfassungHintergrundAngebote zur Achtsamkeitsförderung durch Stressbewältigung sind zunehmend ein wichtiger Teil des Gesundheitsmanagements in Hochschulen geworden. Der Bedarf dafür hat sich gerade in der COVID-19-bedingten („coronavirus disease 2019") Pandemiesituation deutlich verstärkt. Allerdings werden die Angebote von den Studierenden bislang noch sehr zögerlich in Anspruch genommen, obwohl die positiven Effekte von Achtsamkeitstrainings bereits vielfach belegt sind.Ziel der ArbeitZiel unserer Untersuchung war es daher, Vorstellungen der Achtsamkeitspraxis sowie Zugangsbarrieren zu erfassen, um daraus zielgruppenspezifische Kommunikationsstrategien abzuleiten.MethodeEs wurden männliche und weibliche Studierende (mit wenig und mit viel Erfahrung in Achtsamkeitstrainings) qualitativ interviewt.ErgebnisseEs zeigt sich, dass die Studierenden eine weltanschaulich neutrale und evidenzbasierte Rahmung der Angebote bevorzugen. Eine Betonung des spirituellen Hintergrunds der Achtsamkeitstrainings scheint v. a. den Einsteigern den Zugang zu erschweren (auch wenn sie für die Fortgeschrittenen ein relevanter Bestandteil ist). Zudem ist es den Interviewten wichtig, dass die Kommunikation die Relevanz für die Bewältigung akademischer und beruflicher Herausforderungen aufzeigt, ohne die Angebote als Maßnahme zur Leistungssteigerung zu bewerben.SchlussfolgerungAuch wenn die Achtsamkeitspraktiken spirituell verankert sind, stehen Einsteiger diesen Aspekten eher skeptisch gegenüber. Dies deckt sich mit allgemeineren Diskussionen zur Einführung von Achtsamkeitsangeboten an Hochschulen. Darüber hinaus lassen sich Hinweise zur Auswahl von Multiplikator:innen (authentische Vermittler:innen) und Botschaftsstrategien (vielseitige Fallbeispiele) ableiten.

#Covid, Sanitary Report und Pesttraktate: Gesundheitskommunikation in Pandemiezeiten von "Corona" zurück bis ins Mittelalter

(Globale) Pandemien stellen das Gesundheitshandeln und die Gesundheitskommunikation von Gesellschaften seit jeher vor enorme Herausforderungen. Obgleich sich Pandemien im Laufe der Geschichte stark unterschieden haben und sich in divergierenden historischen Kontexten ereigneten, so ähnelt sich dennoch der Umgang mit und die Kommunikation zu pandemischen Krisen zu unterschiedlichen historischen Zeitpunkten. In diesem Beitrag blicken wir auf die Gesundheitskommunikation rund um pandemische Krisen in verschiedenen Epochen und unterschiedlichen Medien- und Kommunikationslandschaften und fokussieren auf die historischen Gemeinsamkeiten der Pandemiekommunikation. Auf Basis einer inhaltlichen Strukturierung und in Anlehnung an die Lasswell-Formel arbeiten wir dabei die historischen Analogien der Pandemiekommunikation mit Blick auf die Kommunikator*innen, Medieninhalte, Medien- und Kommunikationskanäle, das Publikum sowie deren Medienwirkungen heraus und identifizieren spezifische überzeitliche Phänomene und Muster der pandemischen Kommunikation. (Global) pandemics have always posed enormous challenges to societies' health actions and health communication. Although pandemics have varied greatly throughout history and have occurred in divergent historical contexts, the way pandemic crises have been handled and communicated at different historical stages is nevertheless similar. In this chapter, we look at health communication about pandemic crises in different eras and within different media and communication landscapes and focus on the historical commonalities of pandemic communication. On the basis of a content-based structuring and following Lasswell's formula, we delineate the historical analogies of pandemic communication with regard to communicators, media content, media and communication channels, the audience as well as media effects, and identify specific overarching phenomena and patterns of pandemic communication.

Embracing challenging complexity: exploring handwashing behavior from a combined socioecological and intersectional perspective in Sierra Leone.

BACKGROUND: Handwashing with soap is a cost-effective, efficient health behavior to prevent various diseases. Despite its immense health benefits, the lowest prevalence of handwashing is found in low-income countries. Here, its practice is not only determined by individual behavior, but also heavily shaped by deprivations in the social and structural ecology. Moreover, handwashing barriers are not equally experienced as overlapping social identities (e.g., age and gender) intersect and create inequities between members of different social groups. To embrace the complexities of handwashing beyond individual-level behavior and singular social identities, a combined socioecological and intersectional perspective is employed. This multi-level approach with regards to intersecting privileges and disadvantages serves as a basis to promote this highly important health behavior. METHODS: This study used a qualitative, theory-based approach and combined data from two samples: experts in health promotion (n = 22) and local citizens stratified by gender and rural/urban location (n = 56). Data was collected in face-to-face interviews in Sierra Leone between November 2018 and January 2019 and analyzed using thematic analysis and typology of the qualitative data. RESULTS: The conceptualization of multi-level determinants of handwashing within a socioecological model showed the high relevance of inhibiting social and structural factors for handwashing practice. By establishing seven distinguishing social identity dimensions, data demonstrates that individuals within the same social setting yet with distinct social identities experience strikingly differing degrees of power and privileges to enact handwashing. While a local leader is influential and may also change structural-level determinants, a young, rural wife experiences multiple social and structural constraints to perform handwashing with soap, even if she has high handwashing intentions. CONCLUSION: This study provides a holistic analytical framework for the identification of determinants on multiple levels and accumulating intersections of socially produced inequalities for handwashing and is applicable to other health topics. As the exploration of handwashing was approached from a solution-focused instead of a problem-focused perspective, the analysis can guide multi-level intervention approaches (e.g., using low-cost, participatory activities at the community level to make use of the available social capital).

Sauerbruch, STARPAHC, and SARS: Historical Perspectives on Readiness and Barriers in Telemedicine.

Aim: Telemedicine is a promising solution to extend traditional health care services. Even though mainly discussed during the past two decades, its roots go back into the past century and even further, considering the use of bonfires to warn other villages of diseases. Insights from historical cases can therefore be useful for the ongoing discussion regarding the successful implementation of telemedicine. Subject and Methods: We analyzed three historical telemedicine cases (varying regarding time and place) and extracted their success factors and barriers as well as assessed their maturity by using the Telemedicine Community Readiness Model (TCRM). Evidence-based categories of success factors and barriers as well as the TCRM's dimensions were used as deductive categories to analyze the study material's content. Results: The analysis showed that the readiness for telemedicine is higher when the technology is the only option to access health care services. In all three cases, core readiness played a central role. However, the health sector, existing technology, and finance were barriers present at all times, while during pandemics, some barriers are only temporarily removed, for example, by putting legal issues on hold. The analyzed cases were all on lower levels of maturity as they mainly represent pilot tests or exceptional circumstances. Conclusion: Results indicate the important core functions in telemedicine initiatives as well as the diversity of their circumstances. Insights from such historical meta-perspectives can, for example, help to strengthen the sustainability of the increased use of telemedicine during the COVID-19 pandemic and scale up current telemedicine projects.