Accepted for/Published in: Journal of Medical Internet Research
Date Submitted: Sep 7, 2022
Date Accepted: May 26, 2023
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Assessing the effect of non-visual information factors in pandemic video communication: a randomized controlled between-subjects experiment
ABSTRACT
Background:
Video has been an important medium for providing health and risk communication to the public during the COVID-19 pandemic. Public health officials, healthcare professionals and policymakers have used video to communicate pandemic-related content to large parts of the population. Evidence regarding the outcomes of such communication, along with their determinants, is however limited.
Objective:
The aim of this study was to test the impact of non-visual information factors of video communication on four outcomes: trust, comprehension, intentions, and behavior.
Methods:
Twelve short health communication videos related to pandemics were produced and shown to a large sample of subjects, applying a randomized controlled between-subjects design. Three factors were included in the creation of the videos: the topic (exponential growth, handwashing, and burden of pandemics on the healthcare system), the source (expert and non-expert) and a call to action (present or absent). Participants were randomly assigned to one video intervention and 1194 valid replies were collected. The data was analyzed using factorial ANOVA.
Results:
The three pandemic related topics did not affect trust, comprehension, intentions, or behavior. Trust was positively influenced by an expert source (2.5%), while a non-expert source instead had a positive effect on the proxy for behavior (5.7%) compared to the expert one. The inclusion of a call to action had a positive effect on both trust (4.1%) and comprehension (15%).
Conclusions:
Trust and comprehension in pandemic video communication can be enhanced by using expert sources and by including a call to action, irrespectively of the topic being communicated. Intentions and behavior appear to be little affected by the three factors tested in this study.
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