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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
Diane Ruth Lauver, PhD RN FAAN and Judith Egan, MS RN. University of Wisconsin-Madison, K6/350 CSC Sch of Nsg, 600 Highland Ave, Madison, WI 53792-2455, 608-263-5286, drlauver@facstaff.wisc.edu
To improve the efficacy of health messages in promoting recommended health behaviors, many researchers and clinicians have designed innovative, tailored health messages based on selected, individual characteristics. Tailored messages are one type of patient-centered messages. The overall purpose of this paper is to increase knowledge about the design and effects of tailored messages. In this paper, the characteristics of tailored health messages will be clarified in relation to targeted and individualized messages. The effects of tailored messages on women's use of professional breast cancer screening (i.e., mammography and clinical breast examination) will be reviewed briefly. In one study, for example, messages were delivered by advanced practice nurses and tested in a randomized clinical trial with 797 women. The tailored messages promoted professional breast screening most effectively in the longer, rather than the shorter, term. Consistent with some other studies, the tailored messages promoted breast screening among vulnerable participants who reported high external barriers to screening, rather than among populations without such barriers. The development of such tailored health messages will be described fully, and examples of the text of our tailored messages will be shared. Designing and testing tailored messages can provide new knowledge about the efficacy of messages to promote health behaviors in practice.
Learning Objectives:
Keywords: Health Communications, Health Behavior
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.