Communicating to the Public during Large Scale Emergencies: A Review of the Literature

The purpose of this study was to conduct a systematic review of the literature relevant to Public Health Emergency Preparedness (PHEP) Communication in order to identify the key factors affecting communication to the public during disasters. Articles were searched in Medline, Embase, and in sources of Gray Literature. Articles published in the past 10 years were selected if they met pre-established inclusion criteria. Experts in the area classified the articles according to their study design, population studied, sampling methodology, type of emergency and variables being studied such as: social determinants (e.g. socio-economic status, ethnicity, immigrant status), mediating/moderating conditions (e.g. socio-demographics, social capital, attitude), communication outcomes (e.g. information access, exposure, processing, utilization, trust), and preparedness outcomes (e.g. awareness/knowledge, risk perception, behaviors). Five hundred and fifty-two articles were identified in PubMed and eighty-nine in Embase. Preliminary results from the content analysis of the PubMed articles showed: commentaries/editorials were the most common study types (54.95%). One-third were qualitative studies and 11% quantitative analysis. Few (4.40%) were supported by clear and validated communication models. Through the examination of the manuscripts, the authors were able to identify the most studied social determinants, mediating/moderating conditions affecting communication outcomes in PHEP. Such results can be used by policy makers to develop communication campaigns that improve communication outcomes during large scale emergencies according to the characteristics of the population they serve.