Comparing Strategies for Health Information Dissemination: Messengers That Can Help or Hinder.

PURPOSE: To test the effects of different messengers on the dissemination of health information.

DESIGN

An experimental study exposed participants to 12 news articles pertaining to 1 of 3 health topics framed from the perspective of 4 generic messengers: religious figures, doctors, celebrity patients, or ordinary patients. Participants select as many of the 12 articles as desired.

SETTING

A cancer clinic within a large, urban hospital serving a sociodemographically diverse patient population.

PARTICIPANTS

Eighty-nine patients with a history of cancer.

MEASURES: The primary outcome was the frequency with which each news story was selected.

ANALYSIS: Summary statistics and a general estimating equation model.

RESULTS

For each health topic, news articles using celebrity messengers were the least likely to be selected; almost half of the participants (36 [41.4%] of 87) rejected all such articles. Articles linked to religious figures were equally unpopular ( P = .59). Articles that used doctors or ordinary patients as the messenger were very likely to be selected: Nearly all women (84 [96.6%] of 87) selected at least one of these. Furthermore, the odds of choosing articles linked to celebrities or religious leaders were statistically significantly lower than the odds of choosing those linked to ordinary patients or doctors ( P < .01).

CONCLUSION

Commonly used generic messengers had large effects on the dissemination of information. Health materials linked to celebrities or religious figures were consistently less likely to be selected than those linked to ordinary patients, or doctors.