Knowing Your Audience: A Typology of Smoke Sense Participants to Inform Wildfire Smoke Health Risk Communication

Abstract

Central to public health risk communication is understanding the perspectives and shared values among individuals who need the information. Using the responses from a Smoke Sense citizen science project, we examined perspectives on the issue of wildfire smoke as a health risk in relation to an individual's preparedness to adopt recommended health behaviors. The Smoke Sense smartphone application provides wildfire-related health risk resources and invites participants to record their perspectives on the issue of wildfire smoke. Within the app, participants can explore current and forecasted daily air quality, maps of fire locations, satellite images of smoke plumes, and learn about health consequences of wildfire smoke. We used cluster analysis to identify perspective trait-clusters based on health status, experience with fire smoke, risk perception, self-efficacy, access to exposure-reducing resources, health information needs, and openness to health risk messaging. Differences between traits were examined based on demographics, health status, activity level and engagement with the app. We mapped these traits to the Precaution Adoption Process Model (PAPM) to indicate where each trait lies in adopting recommended health behaviors. Finally, we suggest messaging strategies that may be suitable for each trait. We determined five distinct perspective traits which included individuals who were Protectors and have decided to engage on the issue by adopting new behaviors to protect their health; Cautious, Proactive, and Susceptible individuals who were at a Deciding stage but differed based on risk perceptions and information needs; and the Unengaged who did not perceive smoke as a health issue and were unlikely to change behavior in response to messaging. Across all five traits, the level of engagement and information needs differed substantially, but were not defined by demographics. Individuals in the Susceptible trait had the highest level of engagement and the highest information needs. Messaging that emphasizes self-efficacy and benefits of reducing exposure may be effective in motivating individuals from the deciding stage to taking health protective action. Shared perspectives define an individual's propensity for acting on recommended health behaviors, therefore, health risk message content should be tailored based on these perspectives.

Public Health Messaging for Wildfire Smoke: Cast a Wide Net

“…Twenty-four household interviews conducted during a wildfire emergency in Australia found that smoke exposure messages were not timely or practical enough, and that they competed with fire risk messages ( 7 ). Analyses of SmokeSense (a mobile phone application) user data in the US found that message uptake depended more on individual receptiveness than on demographic factors ( 8 ). Lastly, a case report from the 2007 San Diego fires revealed that non-English speaking communities, including migrant and undocumented individuals are less likely to receive or understand messages; moreover, fear of deportation was considered more risky than the fires or smoke ( 9 ).…”

Visualizing the Invisible: Visual-Based Design and Efficacy in Air Quality Messaging

“…Another possible explanation for the non-significant findings around high-efficacy language and message comprehension could be due to the subject of air quality information itself. In the United States, the comprehension of air quality varies by previous experience with wildfire smoke, health status, risk perceptions, and various other factors [49]. In this study, more information about access to exposure-reducing resources from the university as well as from students' previous hometowns could elaborate on the baseline comprehension this sample has for air quality information.…”

Priming close social contact protective behaviors enhances protective social norms perceptions, protection views, and self-protective behaviors during disasters

“…Indeed, previous studies suggest that efficacy, risk perceptions, and worry are more resistant to change given greater familiarity and experience [ 82 , 86 , 87 ]. [ 88 ] suggested that enhancing perceived self-efficacy may be one fruitful way to motivate people who are at the “deciding stage” (cautious, proactive, and susceptible) to take action, potentially coinciding with lower levels of threat familiarity. Future study could explore how malleable these factors are for less familiar threats, and more explicit risk communications targeting efficacy could enhance perceptions of self- and response-efficacy.…”