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Public health communication: Attitudes, experiences, and lessons learned from users of a COVID-19 digital triage tool
Janet Michel1,2, Julia Rehsmann3, Annette Mettler1,2
1Department of Emergency Medicine, Inselspital, Bern University Hospital, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.
Insights
Public health communication during the pandemic is challenging, especially for children. A child-specific COVID-19 online forward triage tool (OFTT) study revealed user attitudes and challenges, highlighting the need for systems thinking.
Area of Science:
- Public Health
- Health Communication
- Pediatric Health
Background:
- The COVID-19 pandemic intensified the need for effective public health communication.
- Communicating guidelines to children and families presents unique challenges.
- An online forward triage tool (OFTT) for child-specific COVID-19 concerns highlighted these communication difficulties.
Purpose of the Study:
- To explore the attitudes and experiences of users of a child-specific COVID-19 OFTT.
- To identify challenges faced by families in adhering to public health recommendations.
- To understand the complexities of public health messaging during a pandemic.
Main Methods:
- Qualitative study involving 20 key informants (parents, teachers, guardians, doctors) who used the child-specific COVID-19 OFTT.
- Video interviews were conducted instead of face-to-face interviews.
- Thematic analysis was performed on transcribed interviews.
Main Results:
- Key themes included: defining high-risk individuals, quarantine challenges, unclear responsibilities between authorities and parents, evolving knowledge of the novel virus, socioeconomic factors, societal divisions, and the interconnectedness of these issues.
- User expectations and understanding of risk varied.
- Navigating public health guidance amidst changing information and societal impacts proved difficult.
Conclusions:
- Public health communication, especially via new channels like OFTTs, is both an art and a science.
- Numerous interconnected factors influence public attitudes towards health recommendations.
- A systems thinking approach is crucial for effective public health communication in dynamic situations.
Background:
The pandemic has made public health communication even more daunting because acceptance and implementation of official guidelines and recommendations hinge on this. The situation becomes even more precarious when children are involved. Our child-specific COVID-19 online forward triage tool (OFTT) revealed some of the public health communication challenges. We aimed to explore attitudes, experiences, and challenges faced by OFTT users and their families, in regard to public health recommendations.
Methods:
We selected key informants (n = 20) from a population of parents, teachers, guardians, as well as doctors who had used the child-specific COVID-19 OFTT and had consented to a further study. Videos rather than face-face interviews were held. Convenience and quota sampling were performed to include a variety of key informants. Interviews were recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed for themes.
Results:
Several themes emerged, namely; (1) definition and expectations of high-risk persons, (2) quarantine instructions and challenges, (3) blurred division of responsibility between authorities and parents, (4) a novel condition and the evolution of knowledge, (5) definition and implications of socioeconomic status, (6) new normal and societal divisions, and (7) the interconnectedness of these factors-systems thinking.
Conclusion:
As the virus is evolving and circumstances are changing rapidly, the communication of public health to the different interest groups becomes, both an art and science, even more so when using a new technological communication channel: an OFTT. A myriad of interconnected factors seems to influence attitudes toward public health recommendations, which calls for systems thinking in public health communication.
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