Development and Evaluation of a University Campus-Based Food Safety Media Campaign for Young Adults

Abstract

Food safety information campaigns are more likely to be most effective if the messages are tailored to the needs of a specific audience. Designing effective campaigns involves careful study of the target population and working with them using a community-based participatory research model. Thus, the development of the campaign materials for a university campus-based food safety media campaign for young adults followed intense efforts of working with the target audience to gather the baseline data needed to characterize this audience, to identify the most salient messages for college students, and to create materials and events that would resonate with them. This campaign was implemented and evaluated on eight university campuses in the United States. The results indicate that the campaign significantly increased self-ratings of food safety knowledge and skill, actual food safety knowledge, food safety self-efficacy, stage of change for safe food handling, and reported hand washing behaviors of a geographically and racially diverse group of college students. The positive study outcomes support the value of engaging in these research and development efforts and reflect the usefulness of the audience-specific materials and activities developed for the campaign. The findings also demonstrate the versatility and utility of the materials on different campuses. Developing health media campaigns specifically for unique populations is key to ensuring health messages reach the target audience and, even more importantly, appeal to them. The detailed overview of the development of a food safety media campaign aimed at young adults presented in this article illustrates how health professionals can work with their target population to develop a focused, effective health promotion campaign.

Journal of Applied Communications, 2017, vol. 101, no. 2 Full Issue

“…The researchers recognize respondents' self-reported food safety behaviors may not completely represent actual food safety behavior engagement (Abbot et al, 2012;Clayton et al, 2002;Mayer & Harrison, 2012) and serves as a limitation. Recognizing this, several interesting findings provided insight into consumers' self-reported food safety behaviors, preferred communication styles, and critical thinking styles, even though no substantial relationship between Florida residents' critical thinking style and food safety behaviors was found.…”

“…YouTube, Facebook, videos, and the internet were not only found as the preferred method of receiving food safety information, but researchers found these mediums contributed to an increase in food safety knowledge among participants (Mayer & Harrison, 2012). Abbot et al (2012) similarly found that print media, electronic media, and interactive events improved participants' food safety behaviors: self-ratings of food safety knowledge and skills, actual food safety knowledge, food safety self-efficacy, stage of change for safe food handling, and reported hand washing behaviors.…”

“…Health campaigns, like those that address food safety, ultimately target changing people's behaviors (Abbot, Policastro, Bruhn, Schaffner, & Byrd-Bredbenner, 2012). People are more receptive to changing their behaviors as the result of food safety educa-…”

“…Ellis, Arendt, Strohbehn, and Paez (2010) found that communication, reward-punishment, and informational sources were additional motivators that had the most impact on consumers' food safety behaviors. But in order for individuals to process and store information for future behavioral use, messages must be relevant and personalized (Abbot et al, 2012;Petty, Barden, & Wheeler, 2009). …”

“…The diversity of these mediums allows them to be personalized and more relevant for engagers, which can aid in promoting the processing and storage of information for future behavioral use (Abbot et al, 2012;. Seekers desire new information while considering multiple viewpoints on topics and acknowledging their own biases with an objective perspective.…”