Embedding Health Messages into Entertainment Television: Effect on Gay Men's Response to a Syphilis Outbreak

Abstract

The entertainment education (EE) approach seeks to impact audiences' health behavior by embedding messages in mass media productions, storylines, and characters that appeal strongly to them. Effect on behavioral intentions was examined following a storyline about syphilis in men who have sex with men (MSM) presented in a popular dramatic series.Five hundred and one MSM drawn from gay Internet chat rooms completed the questionnaire. Differences in item responses between those who did and did not view the syphilis storyline were calculated, and linear regression was used to examine predictors of intentions to take action.Those who viewed the syphilis storyline were more likely to report intention to get screened and to tell others to get screened for syphilis. Seeing the episode was a predictor of these intentions. Education was also a predictor of intention to tell others to get screened.Results suggest that exposure to a storyline about syphilis in gay men had a positive public health outcome on users of Internet chat rooms for MSM. Further studies are warranted to examine the extent to which and how the EE approach can produce health-relevant outcomes for U.S. populations, just as the approach has done in the developing world.In 1999, syphilis cases in the United States reached the lowest rate in more than 40 years. Encouraged by this rate reduction, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) launched a campaign to eliminate syphilis from this country. The

Effectiveness of entertainment education in communicating health information: a systematic review

“…As such, detection behaviors may be viewed to be risky, and prevention health behaviors are often associated with healthy outcomes. In the past, the prevention behaviors investigated in EE studies included those designed to prevent HPV (Brodies et al, 2001), HIV (Do & Kincaid, 2006), heart diseases (Bouman, Maas, & Kok, 1998), obesity , alcohol abuse (Van Leeuwen, Renes, & Leeuwis, 2012), STD (Whittier, Kennedy, Lawrence, Seeley, & Beck 2005), and unplanned pregnancy (Collins et al, 2003). Others, however, examined detection behaviors, mostly related to cancer screening (Hether, Huang, Beck, Murphy, & Valente, 2008;Murphy, Frank, Moran, & Patnoe-Woodley, 2011).…”

Sex Roles in Health Storylines on Prime Time Television: A Content Analysis

“…While many EE messages in US television programs are "one shot" exposures, there are other examples where a health storyline may continue over several episodes or even an entire season (e.g. Kennedy et al 2004;Sharf et al 1996;Valente et al 2007;Whittier et al 2005). The advantage of a storyline that spans several episodes is that "the message is repeated in multiple forms through various positive and negative role models who find themselves in different situations, and not in a singularly repetitive way" (Singhal and Rogers 1999, p. 211).…”

“…In fact, a majority of regular television viewers consider TV as their primary source of health information (Beck and Pollard 2001;Pollard and Beck 2000). Further, a growing body of evidence demonstrates that popular prime time TV programs provide a unique opportunity for the viewing public to learn health-related information and even modify their attitudes and behaviors (Brodie et al 2001;Hether et al 2008;Keller and Brown 2002;Sharf and Freimuth 1993;Sharf et al 1996;Whittier et al 2005).…”

Media reports on dementia: Quality and type of messages in Australian media

“…The media -newspapers, television, radio, magazines and Internet -provide a powerful way to communicate health messages to the general public [4][5][6][7][8]. Yet many ageing-related stories in the media are negative, for example, about nursing homes maltreating residents [9].…”