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Introduction: This paper presents a theoretical concept and methodological approach for identifying critical determinants for behavior change interventions. The approach is based on established theories and constructs but represents them in an intervention- instead of questionnaire-oriented form. Six discriminant and targetable dimensions of behavior determinants are proposed: Consideration, feasibility, instrumental evaluation, norms and goals, affective evaluation, and needs and tension states. Methods: For estimating the importance of these dimensions for a specific behavior to be changed in a specific situation and population, a quasi)experimental approach is proposed, in which interventions are designed to have effects on one of these dimensions but none on the other dimensions. By measuring changes of the target behavior or its consequences, the impact of each dimension on changing the behavior can be estimated in-situ without questionnaires. The approach was applied to develop a campaign for reducing picnic littering in an urban park in Zurich (Switzerland). In 2019, posters targeting four dimensions were set up during three waves in up to four zones with two control zones without posters. Before, between, and after the intervention waves, for at least 2  weeks, no interventions were in place. The volume of litter was measured on 119  days at 55 points. Results: In some cases, the amount of litter was too small for effects to be detected, but where enough littering occurred, posters providing information, inducing positive emotions, or activating reciprocity norms—as well as providing the option of separating fractions of waste for recycling as a structural measure— reduced litter significantly. Interventions targeting the tension state of disgust had no effect. Posters targeting descriptive and injunctive norms increased the amount of litter. Discussion: Based on the results of the preparative study, a large-scale campaign was designed, implemented, and evaluated in 2022, which led to promising effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: In the global strategy to eliminate leprosy, there remains a need for early case detection to successfully interrupt transmissions. Poor knowledge about leprosy and leprosy-related stigma are key drivers of delayed diagnosis and treatment. Sensitization campaigns to inform and increase awareness among the general population are an integral part of many national neglected tropical disease programs. Despite their importance, the effectiveness of such campaigns has not been rigorously studied in the West African context. A multilingual rural setting with low health literacy in this region presents challenges to the potential impact of sensitization campaigns. Objective: The primary objective of this study is to assess the causal effect of common practice community sensitization campaigns on leprosy-related knowledge and stigma at the community level and among community health volunteers. Additionally, we will test the potential of novel educational audio tools in the 15 most prominent local languages to overcome literacy and language barriers and amplify sensitization campaigns. Methods: We will conduct a cluster randomized controlled trial using a sequential mixed methods approach in 60 rural communities across all regions of Togo, West Africa. The study features 2 intervention arms and 1 control arm, with intervention and control assignments made at the community level through randomization. Communities in intervention arm 1 will receive a sensitization campaign in line with the current Togolese national neglected tropical disease program. Communities in intervention arm 2 will receive the same sensitization campaign along with educational audio tools distributed to community households. The control arm will receive no intervention before data collection. Quantitative outcome measures on knowledge and stigma will be collected from a random sample of 1200 individuals. Knowledge will be assessed using the 9-item standardized Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices Questionnaire. Stigma will be measured using the 7-item Social Distance Scale and the 15-item Explanatory Model Interview Catalogue Community Stigma Scale. We will estimate intention-to-treat effects at the individual level, comparing the outcomes of the intervention and control arms. In an accompanying qualitative component, we will conduct in-depth interviews with community members, community health volunteers, and health care workers in both treatment arms and the control arm to explore intervention and stigma-related experiences. Results: This paper describes and discusses the protocol for a mixed methods cluster randomized controlled trial. Data collection is planned to be completed in June 2024, with ongoing data analysis. The first results are expected to be submitted for publication by the end of 2024. Conclusions: This trial will be among the first to test the causal effectiveness of community-based sensitization campaigns and audio tools to increase knowledge and reduce leprosy-related stigma. As such, the results will inform health policy makers, decision-makers, and public health practitioners designing sensitization campaigns in rural multilingual settings. Trial Registration: German Clinical Trials Register DRKS00029355; https://drks.de/search/en/trial/DRKS00029355 International Registered Report Identifier (IRRID): DERR1-10.2196/52106 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: No population-based data on awareness and knowledge of palliative care currently exist in Austria. We therefore conducted a survey to determine the general awareness and knowledge of palliative care in Styria, a federal state in Austria. We also asked participants to imagine what services they would need as a patient or family member, where they themselves would like to receive such services, and what fears they imagined patients with a terminal illness would have. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional survey consisting of 18 questions that address several aspects of palliative care was carried out in the adult population of Styria, Austria, from October 2019 to March 2020. Results: A total of 419 questionnaires were analyzed, whereby 70.3% of respondents had at least heard of palliative care. Of these, significantly more were female, had a university degree and were aged 50 to 64. The main goal of palliative care was chosen correctly by 67.1% of participants, with the proportion of correct answers increasing in line with education and reaching 82.0% among university graduates. Overall, 73.2% believed that the greatest need of terminally ill persons was a reduction in physical suffering, whereas the greatest perceived need of relatives was the availability of specialist care around the clock. About one-third believed that the greatest fear of palliative patients was that of death, which was chosen significantly more often by men than women. If terminally ill, some 39% of respondents would wish to be looked after at home by professional carers, and women and people that had completed high school chose this answer significantly more often. The most desired service that should be provided to patients and relatives was home pain management at 69.9%, followed by time off for family caregivers at 58.0%. This item was chosen significantly more often by women. Conclusions: To facilitate the care of severely ill patients at home, it would make sense to develop targeted information campaigns. These should also attempt to deliver targeted information to less informed groups of people, such as young, poorly educated men, in order to raise their awareness of the difficulties and challenges of providing care to terminally ill patients and thus increase the acceptance of support options. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a common inflammatory skin disease often associated with a significant impairment in the quality of life of affected patients. The Italian Society of Dermatology and Venereology (SIDeMaST) planned a national information campaign, providing direct access to 27 dermatologic centers dedicated to the management of AD. The aim of this study aimed was to outline critical aspects related to AD in the general population. Overall, 643 adult subjects were included in this study, and in 44.2% (284/643) of cases, a diagnosis of AD was confirmed, whereas about 55% of subjects were affected by other pruritic cutaneous diseases. Higher intensity of pruritus and sleep disturbance, as well as an increased interference in sport, work, and social confidence was reported in the AD group compared to the non-AD group. In the AD subgroup, the mean duration of disease was of 15.3 years, with a mean eczema area and severity index (EASI) score of 11.2, and investigator global assessment (IGA) score of 1.9 and an itch numeric rating scale (NRS) of 6.9. Almost 32% of patients were untreated, either with topical or systemic agents, whereas 44.3% used routine topical compounds (topical corticosteroids and calcineurin inhibitors), and only 7.0% of patients were systemically treated. Only 2.8% of patients reported complete satisfaction with the treatment received for AD to date. This study reveals a profound unmet need in AD, showing a poorly managed and undertreated patient population despite a high reported burden of disease. This suggests the usefulness of information campaigns with the goal of improving patient awareness regarding AD and facilitating early diagnosis and access to dedicated healthcare institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Health information and education campaigns represent essential components of intervention strategies intending to address and solve various public health problems. Therefore, a constant preoccupation of both practitioners and researchers in the field was to determine the most effective ways to optimize campaigns' design and implementation. The results of these efforts materialized in adapting theoretical models from various connected fields: behavioral sciences, communication theory, and marketing. In the last decade, most health education campaigns implemented in Romania demonstrated multiple structural elements following contemporary design and implementation trends. Yet, there is not an organic integration of those new concepts and orientations at the strategic level and, in most campaigns; the emphasis is on the transmission of information while the formative is left in the background. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We use two Almost Ideal Demand Systems models on scanner data to analyze the demand for two food products (milk and coffee). Each demand system is composed of four products varying in the presence of an ecolabel (with or without) and the brand (national brand vs. private label). First, we aim to compare the demand for PL and NB ecolabeled products. While PLs are brands owned and controlled by retailers and specific to each retailer, NBs are owned and controlled by manufacturers and can be offered by several retailers. Second, we aim to assess the impact of information campaigns designed to raise awareness and knowledge of ecolabels. We find that demand is more elastic for ecolabeled goods as in the literature but we find this result only for NB goods (milk and coffee) and not for PL goods. We also find substitutability between ecolabeled and conventional goods as in the literature but only within the NB goods (milk only) and within the PL goods (milk and coffee). We also find complementarity between NB conventional and PL ecolabeled goods (milk and coffee). Finally, we find that information campaigns increase the predicted expenditure shares of PL organic milk by 33% and of NB fair trade coffee by 50%. But these effects are non-lasting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article considers information campaigns and advertising as an element of the system for attracting service members to the armed forces. The role of information and the ways of its presentation are analysed, and their advantages and disadvantages in the current information system are identified. Based on the identified problems, a proposal is made to optimise the current system for providing information in order to improve the awareness of potential candidates for military service and promote the military profession. The results of the theoretical analysis can be used to improve the current model for attracting service members in terms of presenting information and advertising. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study evaluates the effect of the documentary Under the Dome on the concern and responsive behaviors of the public regarding air pollution in China, with two surveys conducted before and after watching the documentary. Employing difference‐in‐differences regression, this study answers two research questions: (1) Does Under the Dome change public concern about air pollution? (2) Does Under the Dome change public behaviors in response to air pollution, including protective behaviors (i.e., wearing face masks) and mitigation behaviors (i.e., reducing car driving)? We find that the information campaign (1) protects against the decline of public concern about air pollution in Beijing and (2) moderates the degree to which people's perceived severity, perceived susceptibility, and sense of self‐efficacy influence protective behaviors and moderates the degree to which people's belief in the cooperative behaviors by others influences mitigation behaviors. This study provides evidence that information campaigns of the Under the Dome type are effective in raising public awareness; however, the information campaign did not directly influence public protective and mitigation behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Ñawi: Arte, Diseño y Comunicación is the property of Escuela Superior Politecnica del Litoral and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Background: People often ignore the usefulness of stroke prevention, the typical onset symptoms, and the efficacy of the new therapies. In order to attempt to correct this situation, we performed an educational campaign addressed to Rotary club associates and their relatives or friends in the Italian Rotary District 2032.Method: The campaign consisted in three phases: (1) Compilation of a simple questionnaire on stroke, followed by a scientific relation on the disease, distribution of didactic materials, and organization of screening sessions on individual stroke risk evaluation; (2) Recompilation by participants of the same previous questionnaire; (3) Statistical evaluation of the improvement of stroke knowledge.Results: The initial percentage of wrong answers (number of subjects 657) was 22.41% ((A) stroke general knowledge 15.45%; (B) stroke risk factors 25.65%; (C) Stroke early symptoms 22.65%). At the end of the campaign, the total percentage of wrong answers (number of subjects 296) attained the 13.18% ((A) stroke general knowledge 8.22%; (B) stroke risk factors 14.98%; (C) stroke early symptoms 13.85%). All these differences were strongly significant at the statistical analysis.Discussion and Conclusion: We demonstrated that our educational campaign obtained an important improvement of stroke awareness in our sample. We hope that the enhanced awareness might induce a more frequent diffusion of primary prevention strategies, an increased capacity of recognizing onset stroke symptoms with shortening of patients' presentation in the Emergency Room of the hospitals when they can undergo thrombolysis/thrombectomy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Introduction: Best medical treatments of ischemic stroke are admission to stroke unit, intravenous thrombolysis and, in selected cases, thrombectomy. Time from symptom onset to interventions is the best predictor of clinical outcome. In order to verify the effectiveness of an active education programme of awareness on the knowledge of stroke, we performed a local campaign "on the field".Subjects and Methods: We selected 101 subjects from the general population who took part in the "stroke awareness campaign" organised by the Italian Association for the fight against stroke (A.L.I.Ce). Mean age was 59 years (50% female; 50% male); 55% of the sample reported a high level of education (> 8 years: high school or university degree). After a short multiple-choice questionnaire, we administered a face-to-face standard educational protocol (15 min). The efficacy of that educational intervention was then verified after a period of 12 months, by telephone interview.Results: There was improvement both in the definition of stroke (66% vs. 92%, p < .001) and in recognizing symptoms and signs (19% vs. 72%, p < .001). Knowledge of the importance of stroke unit in the acute treatment of stroke did not improve, as it was already high on baseline (92% vs. 97%, p: n.s.). The improvement was evident in particular in younger and higher educated people, without difference in gender. There was no difference based on risk factor profiles of participants.Conclusions: Our results suggest that a personalised education can improve knowledge on stroke symptoms and signs, independently of gender and personal risk factors. The results should be verified in larger and less selection population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several factors, such as emotion and uncertainty of the outcome, influence decision-making. We assessed decision-making during a risky event (natural hazard, focusing here on two types of volcanic threats) by manipulating the certainty of lethal threat in an information campaign. We hypothesized that the reduction of uncertainty of lethal threat in an information campaign would improve behavior through more suitable choices by reducing the use of emotional choices. In the scenario that occurred in a familiar place, participants who received information with uncertainty of lethal threat presented more emotional and comfortable choices, such as staying at home, rather than detached ones, such as leaving the area. These were either appropriate (for volcanic ash cloud) or inappropriate (for pyroclastic flow). The certainty hypothesis was partially validated, as certainty influenced the quality of choice in the scenarios that took place at home. Furthermore, participants in the volcanic disaster context presented less suitable decisions compared to those in the neutral context, which was discussed in terms of the presence of emotions, such as fear of volcanic eruption. Our results highlight the importance of controlling the comforting emotional aspect of the home environment in any information communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Swedish health information, conducted by the National Board of Health and Welfare in collaboration with private participants, expanded rapidly in the 1970s. This study examines a controversial bread campaign, which declared that the National Board, in collaboration with the private Bread Institute, wanted citizens to eat six to eight slices of bread every day. Why and how could such a seemingly unholy alliance come about? Contextualizing the collaborations with the industry, with a network governance approach, this article seeks the answers by investigating the organizational conditions behind the various campaigns. Different conflicting dilemmas influenced the campaigns and their outcomes. For example, the desire to maximize the disseminationof information, and at the same time controlling it, as well as the imbedded power dynamics between private and public sector. The result points to a shift from strong to weak interdependence between the government agency and collaborating parties, basically due to the agency’s diminishing campaign resources, which opened up for a stronger commercialization of the bread campaign. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents an analysis of the awareness of the population about the kinds of contagious diseases to which it is exposed, as well as ways to prevent known and applied in everyday life. Presentation exposes results of a survey in the Dambovita county of Romania and tries to explain it by reference to information campaigns on contagious diseases. The empirical study reveals the main contagious diseases known and those less known by people, the favourite sources of information, the main measures of prevention known and applied by individuals. Finally some considerations are made regarding the future organization of information campaigns in this area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of behavioral interventions and nudging in dealing with the food waste problem. In particular, the authors implement an information campaign aiming to increase consumers’ awareness of the food waste problem.Design/methodology/approach In the period of three weeks, the authors observe intentions to prevent food waste and actual food waste of the consumers in a university restaurant serving ready meals. During the intervention period, consumers are exposed to an information campaign, designed to avoid consumers’ insufficient planning problem.Findings Consumers are willing to pay the same price for less food more often during the campaign than before the campaign, but the approximated impact on the food waste is not significant. Social emotions of guilt and shame are linked to consumers’ intentions to prevent food waste, suggesting channels to be included in a successful information campaign nudging consumers toward food waste reduction.Research limitations/implications The authors were not able to measure precisely food waste, but observed consumers in a real-life context. Consumers were not aware of the study, and made daily purchase decisions before and after the information campaign.Social implications Consumer behavior is at the core of the food waste problem in developed countries. It is important to understand how consumers can be nudged at low cost, using an information campaign, to change their attitude to food waste, and to decrease food waste.Originality/value The authors collected an original dataset on the impact of an information campaign, observing behavior of consumers in a real-life context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the application of the theory of salience to consumer policy in health economics. It focuses on the effort of a government to initiate information campaigns that draws on attention of consumer on the healthiness of one item or unhealthiness of another item. It further mentions that comparative assessment is efficient and required for start-up firms to get into established markets.

Unlabelled: Aminoglycoside prescriptions were rarely evaluated in children care facilities. Because of risk of toxicity, these narrow spectrum antibiotics are commonly misused. In this study, we evaluate aminoglycoside prescription and assess the impact of an information campaign on modalities of prescription and monitoring practices in a pediatric hospital. This prospective study, before/after diffusion of local recommendations, has been conducted over 6 months. All computerized prescriptions were analyzed. A semi-passive diffusion of local recommendations to prescribers allowed researchers to differentiate between a pre-intervention (P1) and post-intervention period (P2). Endpoints were the improvement of administered doses (mg/kg), modalities of administration, treatment duration, indications, and the presence of pharmacological monitoring. Three hundred and ten prescriptions were analyzed (P1 = 163, P2 = 147). Most common sites of infection treated were as follows: joint-bone (33 %), urinary tract (17 %) and intra-abdominal (15 %). Among all prescriptions, respectively, 12 and 13 % were avoidable. Short-duration treatment and single daily dosing seem to be widely achieved, but despite an improvement between the two periods, 45 % of prescribed doses in P2 were still below our recommendations (77 % in P1).Conclusion: The semi-passive diffusion of recommendations has not improved significantly medical practices. Active diffusion with a regular monitoring could be useful to improve the use of aminoglycosides.What Is Known: • Misuse of aminoglycosides has been frequently described and evaluated in adult hospitals. • This misuse could be explained by their nephrotoxicity and their low therapeutic index. What is New: • Through this study, conducted in a pediatric hospital, we highlighted that practitioners misunderstand the aminoglycoside pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic targets and 12.3 % of aminoglycoside prescriptions could be avoided. • Finally, we showed that a semi-passive diffusion of local recommendations is not enough to improve aminoglycoside prescriptions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Aim This qualitative study is a sub-study of the early ' Treatment and Intervention in Psychosis Study' ( TIPS-2), a program for early intervention strategies for people experiencing a first episode of psychosis. We aimed to improve knowledge about factors that prevent or delay patients with a long duration of psychosis from accessing psychiatric health-care services at an earlier illness stage and their personal views on the impact of ongoing informational campaigns (ICs) on help-seeking behaviour. Method Following an interpretative-phenomenological approach, eight consecutive TIPS-2 patients with duration of untreated psychosis lasting for more than 6 months were interviewed. The interviews were analysed using a meaning condensation procedure. Results Five main themes were identified: (i) participants' failure to recognize symptoms of psychosis; (ii) difficulties expressing their experiences; (iii) concerns about stigma; (iv) poor psychosis detection skills among health-care professionals; and (v) participants' lack of awareness or understanding of ICs. Conclusions The five themes identified may suggest that despite exposure to the targeted ICs, participants were unable to recognize or understand the severity of their symptoms. Further, although family members or others sometimes recognized the initial symptoms of psychosis development, these symptoms were attributed to reasons other than psychosis. Participants reported that health-care personnel also had trouble identifying emerging signs of psychosis. The ICs need to be carefully crafted to relay information to people who do not consider themselves as currently experiencing signs of psychosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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European Directive 2002/44/EC defines employers' responsibilities in the risk management of hand--arm vibration (HAV). However, the directive is still not completely implemented in all risk industries. The aim of our study was to determine whether it is possible to improve the recognition and management of the risks of HAV at workplaces with a one-year information campaign. A questionnaire on opinions and measures for controlling HAV exposure at workplaces was sent to all occupational safety representatives and occupational safety managers in the construction and metal industry in Finland (n = 1887) and once again to those who responded to the first questionnaire (n =961) one year after the campaign. The campaign increased recognition of HAV in risk assessment from 57.0% to 68.3% (p =.001), increased measures to decrease exposure to HAV from 54.6% to 64.2% (p =.006) and increased the number of programmes to control the risks due to HAV (p <.001). The information campaign, which focuses on the construction and metal industries, proved to be effective in increasing the awareness of the risks of HAV and the measures needed to control exposure to HAV. A similar campaign can be recommended in the case of risks specific to certain occupations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The excessive use of water is damaging European groundwater and rivers: their environmental conditions are often below the "good status" that—according to Water Framework Directive 2000/60—should be reached by 2015. The already critical situation is tending to get worse because of climate change. Even in water rich countries, urban wastewater is still one of the main sources of water pollution. Currently, urban soil sealing and "conventional" rainwater management, which were planned to quickly move rainwater away from roofs and streets, are increasing the flood risk. "Green" technologies and approaches would permit a reduction in water abstraction and wastewater production while improving urban hydrological response to heavy rains. The Life+ WATACLIC project has been implemented to promote such sustainable technologies and approaches in Italy, however the results show huge difficulties: apparently water saving and sustainable urban water management have only low interest amongst the general public and even with public administrations and the relevant industrial sectors. In such a cultural and technical context, the project is bringing a new point of view to public debate. In the long term, the project will certainly have a positive impact, but most likely it will require more time than initially expected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within the new European space of identity, attitude and action challenges, syntagms such as "unity in diversity" or "equal pay for work of equal value" have become identitarian brands for social groups with a high-level of self-awareness. Having the social semiotics (Kress, van Leeuwen [1996] 2006) as theoretical background, we focused our analysis on the gender equality paradigm. The empirical data were provided by four visual texts of the Gender Pay Gap campaign, initiated by the European Commission in March 2009, in order to map the new European "puzzle-space". The analysis showed the importance of compositional, representational and interactive meanings within the European discourse on equality of chances and gender. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: To discuss how health-care systems can achieve early detection of patients with first-episode psychosis. Methods: A selective literature review was conducted. Results: The optimal design of health-care systems to promote early detection of psychosis had received considerable attention. Primary and specialist care both had important roles to play. Referral from primary care was a key pathway for patient identification. However, the recognition of emerging psychosis in the primary care setting can be challenging, and there was a need for educational initiatives to support primary care in performing this essential function. Rapid access to specialist care should be available when required. However, patients with early psychosis may not seek help from primary care for a variety of reasons, such as social withdrawal, lack of insight or fear of stigmatization. With this in mind, a number of assertive outreach programmes had been established that permit self-referral, rapid assessment and fast access to treatment. There was some evidence that these rapid detection units were successful in identifying ‘harder-to-reach’ patients. Finally, information campaigns aimed at the general public can raise awareness and promote help-seeking behaviours, and this appeared to be an important factor in reducing the duration of untreated psychosis. Conclusions: To promote the rapid identification of patients with psychosis, health-care systems require a range of measures that recognize the different ways in which psychosis can be presented to the medical services. Education of general practitioners, assertive outreach, low-threshold detection teams and general information campaigns are all important elements of early detection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Can democratic processes favour conservation outcomes in the tropics? This study focuses on local viewpoints within a forested landscape of high conservation significance in East Kalimantan (Indonesian Borneo). Stakeholders received posters displaying results from a previous study; these posters emphasised local priorities and views regarding local biodiversity. We assess local attitudes to this information, and consider some implications. Knowledge of, and agreement with, poster content increased among villagers, townspeople and civil servants after they received posters. All respondents appreciated the posters and all supported some form of forest conservation. All respondents agreed that biodiversity conservation and local views are vital in land-use planning. All agreed that logging companies need to be better controlled, while 80% consider them a "major environmental threat". These results bolster our belief that involving communities is not only an ethically defensible way to achieve conservation outcomes, but also a pragmatic opportunity to do so. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The risk of exposure to hepatitis C virus increases markedly in adolescence, and students are thus a preferential target for information campaigns. The aim of this study was to evaluate the results of a hepatitis C information campaign targeting secondary-school students. Methods: The study was done in 52 classes of 11 general and vocational secondary schools. Before the information meetings and two months afterwards, the students received an anonymous questionnaire to test their knowledge of hepatitis C. The information session was backed up by a comic strip depicting scenarios involving hepatitis C. Results: The students were aged from 14 to 24 years (mean 15.9 years, SD 0.9 years). Respectively 1509 and 1419 questionnaires were completed before and after the information session. Answers to the first questionnaire showed that the students' knowledge of hepatitis C was poor. Scores improved significantly after the information session, from an overall mean of 6.2 (SD 2.0) to 8.5 (SD 1.7) (p≤0.001). The largest score improvement concerned transmission due to illicit drug use, the potential severity of the disease, and lack of a vaccine. The improvement was significantly larger among pupils who said they read the comic strip than among those who did not (p=0.02). Conclusions: General and vocational secondary school students in France have mediocre knowledge of hepatitis C, particularly its modes of transmission and the lack of a vaccine. Knowledge improved significantly when measured two months after an information session, suggesting that subsequent at-risk behaviours might be reduced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: To assess parental risk behaviour before and after a sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) information campaign with special emphasis on associations with maternal age, education, marital status and birth order. Methods: Data from questionnaires sent to all mothers who gave birth in Norway during a period before the campaign were compared with corresponding data obtained after the campaign. Results: Prevalence of non-supine sleeping position decreased from 33.7% to 13.6% while changes in smoking, non-breastfeeding and co-sleeping were disappointing. Risk factors were particularly prevalent in young mothers, but also in mothers with a minimum period of education, non-cohabitation and at birth order 2+. Conclusions: Non-supine sleeping decreased to a level that has never been reported before. In future campaigns, subgroup-specific measures may be needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Health messages are designed to stimulate an active cognitive process in those audiences generally with little involvement. The Elaboration Likelihood Model by Petty and Cacioppo sustains that subjects with high involvement and those with low involvement react differently to the persuasive message to which they are exposed. One efficient way to capture the attention of the low involvement audiences is to insert the messages within an entertainment context. Our study attempted to analyze affective and cognitive processes to explain the impact of these new formats, fictional shorts for HIV/AIDS prevention. A 2×2 factorial design was used, with involvement in the AIDS issue (high/low) and the type of format (musical/dialogue) as independent variables. The finding showed the better the quality of the short (with dialogue style) the more negative affectivity was stimulated, also the more cognitive processing was induced, and a more favorable attitude towards preventive behavior was stimulated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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In May 1989, the Council of Health Ministers of the European Community adopted a joint resolution which urges the 12 member states to adopt legislation restricting smoking in public places. European citizens support this action. A survey in March-April 1987 using a sample of 12,000 Europeans in the 12 member states concluded that 77% of European citizens want measures to ban smoking in public places. The conditions that are necessary to make a smoking policy successful in the workplace and other public places will be discussed. We want to stress that an information and awareness campaign before the enforcement of the smoking ban is the most important condition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]