“#I-Am-Engaged”: Conceptualization and First Implementation of a Multi-Actor Participatory, Co-designed Social Media Campaign to Raise Italians Citizens’ Engagement in Preventing the Spread of COVID-19 Virus

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic forced health authorities around the world to introduce public health measures to contain the risks of contagion. This greatly impacted on citizens' quality of life, often raising concerns and reactance. There is an ongoing urgent need to promote and sustain behavioral changes and adherence to preventive measures. Based on the theoretical framework of the Patient Health Engagement Model and a participatory co-design process, a social media campaign aimed at improving citizens' health engagement toward behavioral change for preventing the spread of COVID-19 was promoted in Italy in the early months of the pandemic. In this paper, we describe the methodological process adopted to develop the campaign, its characteristics, and the first results-in terms of audience reach and engagement in its early implementation. The discussion of this grounded-up and citizen-centered approach to social campaign development highlights key ways of promoting learning, engaging citizens, and supporting their participation in the co-production of educational interventions for behavioral change toward preventive actions.

The politics of mask-wearing: Political preferences, reactance, and conflict aversion during COVID

“…If individuals who enjoy conflict and arguments are the same people whose political preferences encourage opposition to public health mandates and recommendations, then public health practitioners will need to find creative ways to engage conservative citizens and public officials. Such strategies might include inviting community engagement from the start (see Graffigna et al, 2020 ), or using proven communication strategies like dramatic narratives ( Quick et al, 2013 ) and even humor to reduce psychological reactance and backlash to health messaging ( Moyer-Gusé et al, 2018 ).…”

Modeling the COVID-19 transmission in Italy: The roles of asymptomatic cases, social distancing, and lockdowns in the first and the second waves

“…However, at the best author knowledge, no available study have successfully modelled two different notified policies in tackling the COVID-19: the behavior policy and the lockdown policy . This is important as other studies (Carlucci et al, 2020; Graffigna et l., 2020; Meier et al, 2020; Pagnini et al, 2020) highlighted the importance the first and the second policies in minimizing the COVID-19 flow in Italy. Hence, this study compares the efficacy two different measures in the Italian COVID-19 cases.…”

Modeling the Effect of Asymptomatic Cases, Social Distancing, and Lockdowns in the First and Second waves of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Case Study of Italy

“…However, to the best author's knowledge, no available study has successfully modeled two different notified policies in tackling the COVID-19: the behavior policy and the lockdown policy. This is important as other studies [11][12][13][14] highlighted the importance of the first and the second policies in minimizing the COVID-19 flow in Italy. Hence, this study compares the efficacy of the two different measures in the Italian COVID-19 cases.…”