Co-Designing Communication: A Design Thinking Approach Applied to Radon Health Communication

Abstract

Indoor radon is a natural radioactive gas and is one of the leading causes of lung cancer. Despite multiple policy and communication interventions to increase radon testing and mitigation, the uptake of these measures remains insufficient. A participatory research design was applied in Belgium and Slovenia to probe the barriers and facilitators homeowners experience regarding radon protective behavior on the one hand and co-designing communication tools on the other hand. The results show that there remains a need for interventions on all levels (i.e., policy, economic interventions, and communication). Moreover, results indicated a need for a communication strategy that follows the different steps between awareness and performing mitigation measures. Further, involving the target group in the early stages of intervention design was beneficial. Future research is needed to test the effectiveness of the proposed communication strategies in a controlled setting.

A psycho-social-environmental lens on radon air pollutant: authorities’, mitigation contractors’, and residents’ perceptions of barriers and facilitators to domestic radon mitigation

“…Two focus groups were conducted in the context of a broader study “ Co-Designing Communication: A Design Thinking Approach Applied to Radon Health Communication ,” in which the focus was on discovering barriers and facilitators of mitigation behaviour ( 39 ). Participants in these focus groups had tested their homes and were recruited for this study through local authorities.…”