What’s the best way to craft public health messages? Elizabeth Tracey reports
Update: 2025-09-23
Description
Healthcare screenings should be targeted to those who are likely to benefit, and conveying information about that needs to be crafted carefully so people can make informed choices. That’s according to research by Nancy Schoenborn, a geriatrics expert at Johns Hopkins.
Schoenborn: This survey we specifically tested but if they read this information, a news story or from our radio, what if they heard it from a friend? We have a lot of lay health educators in our community, we have senior centers and public health agents trying to get information out about health, so how can we leverage some of these channels? Because we found that people who heard the message once had some response but it was a lot more impactful when they heard it over time from different sources. :31
Schoenborn says public health messages themselves should be run by groups they are intended for to see how they are received, and that employing different language for different groups is important. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.
Schoenborn: This survey we specifically tested but if they read this information, a news story or from our radio, what if they heard it from a friend? We have a lot of lay health educators in our community, we have senior centers and public health agents trying to get information out about health, so how can we leverage some of these channels? Because we found that people who heard the message once had some response but it was a lot more impactful when they heard it over time from different sources. :31
Schoenborn says public health messages themselves should be run by groups they are intended for to see how they are received, and that employing different language for different groups is important. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.
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