Examining Organizational, Cultural, and Individual-Level Factors Related to Workplace Safety and Health: A Systematic Review and Metric Analysis.

One major gap in existing health communication research is that few studies have synthesized findings from the literature to map out what are the key factors related to workplace (a) safety awareness, (b) safety risks, (c) health awareness, and (d) health risks. This study bridges the gap by systematically reviewing what these organizational, cultural, and individual-level factors are, and examine the impact of workplace safety and health publications using traditional and alternative metrics in academic and non-academic settings. Through an iterative process of coding, the results revealed six categories of organizational (management commitment, management support, organizational safety communication, safety management systems, physical work environment, and organizational environment), two cultural (interpersonal support and organizational culture), and four individual-level (perception, motivation, attitude, and behavior) factors. In terms of impact, articles that were most impactful in academia (e.g., high citation count) may not necessarily receive the same amount of online attention from the public. Theoretical and practical implications for health communication were discussed.

Laypeople's ethical concerns about a New Israeli organ transplantation prioritization policy aimed to encourage organ donor registration among the public.

A new policy recently enacted in Israel promises preferred status in receiving organs for transplantation to individuals who register to be organ donors and to their close family members. Proponents believe it will increase the supply of organs for transplantation from the deceased. Ethical issues were raised in government committees appointed to discuss the policy before its approval, but discussions among laypeople were not solicited. This study aimed to elicit laypeople's views about the policy by conducting thirteen group interviews and thirty-six individual interviews. Participants included religious and nonreligious people, immigrants, and Arabs. Some participants thought the law would contribute to fairness by prioritizing those willing to give, but others articulated ethical concerns that were not emphasized by scholars, in particular that the policy would add to the erosion of social solidarity, increase divisiveness, and enable people to abuse the system. Mistrust in the health care system emerged as a prominent reason for not registering as an organ donor. Implications about the importance of transparency in the organ transplantation system as a basis for an information campaign, social norms regarding organ donation, and the public's involvement in policy issues on organ donation are discussed.

Development, design, and conceptual issues of project zero exposure: A program to protect young children from tobacco smoke exposure.

BACKGROUND: Tobacco smoke exposure (TSE) is a serious threat to child health. Roughly 40% of children worldwide are exposed to tobacco smoke, and the very young are often "captive smokers" in homes in which others smoke.The goal of this research project is to develop and evaluate an intervention to reduce young child tobacco smoke exposure. The objective of this paper is to document our approach to building the intervention, to describe the planned intervention, and to explore the conceptual issues regarding the intervention and its evaluation. METHODS/DESIGN: This project is being developed using an iterative approach. We are currently in the middle of Stage 1. In this first stage, Intervention Development, we have already conducted a comprehensive search of the professional literature and internet resources, consulted with experts in the field, and conducted several Design Workshops. The planned intervention consists of parental group support therapy, a website to allow use of an "online/offline" approach, involvement of pediatricians, use of a video simulation game ("Dr. Cruz") to teach parents about child TSE, and personalized biochemical feedback on exposure levels. As part of this stage we will draw on a social marketing approach. We plan to use in-depth interviews and focus groups in order to identify barriers for behavior change, and to test the acceptability of program components.In Stage II, we plan to pilot the planned intervention with 5-10 groups of 10 parents each.In Stage III, we plan to implement and evaluate the intervention using a cluster randomized controlled trial with an estimated 540 participants. DISCUSSION: The major challenges in this research are twofold: building an effective intervention and measuring the effects of the intervention. Creation of an effective intervention to protect children from TSE is a challenging but sorely needed public health endeavor. We hope that our approach will contribute to building a stronger evidence base for control of child exposure to tobacco smoke.