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Hand hygiene posters: motivators or mixed messages?
E A Jenner1, F Jones, B C Fletcher
1School of Nursing and Midwifery, University of Hertfordshire, College Lane, Hatfield, Herts AL10 9AB, UK. e.a.jenner@herts.ac.uk
The Journal of Hospital Infection
|June 14, 2005
Summary
Hand hygiene posters often fail to effectively motivate behavior change. Improving poster design using message-framing principles could enhance hand hygiene compliance.
Area of Science:
- Infection Control
- Health Communication
- Behavioral Science
Background:
- Poster campaigns are common for improving hand hygiene.
- Limited understanding exists regarding the theoretical basis of these campaigns.
Purpose of the Study:
- To analyze the content of hand hygiene posters using message-framing theory.
- To assess the extent to which posters utilize research-based message framing.
Main Methods:
- Content analysis of 69 hand hygiene posters and 75 messages.
- Application of message-framing theory to evaluate poster content.
Main Results:
- Posters rarely employed effective message-framing techniques.
- Many posters "told" rather than "sold" information, leading to confusion.
- Most posters lacked motivational elements and some presented mixed messages.
Conclusions:
- Hand hygiene posters could be more impactful with improved message framing.
- Suggestions include using gain-framed messages, which require empirical testing.
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