Dyson School of Design Engineering, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom.
Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom.
Front Public Health. 2020 Oct 27;8:573397. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2020.573397. eCollection 2020.
The current COVID-19 pandemic requires sustainable behavior change to mitigate the impact of the virus. A phenomenon which has arisen in parallel with this pandemic is an infodemic-an over-abundance of information, of which some is accurate and some is not, making it hard for people to find trustworthy and reliable guidance to make informed decisions. This infodemic has also been found to create distress and increase risks for mental health disorders, such as depression and anxiety. To propose practical guidelines for public health and risk communication that will enhance current recommendations and will cut through the infodemic, supporting accessible, reliable, actionable, and inclusive communication. The guidelines aim to support basic human psychological needs of autonomy, competence, and relatedness to support well-being and sustainable behavior change. We applied the Self-Determination Theory (SDT) and concepts from psychology, philosophy and human computer interaction to better understand human behaviors and motivations and propose practical guidelines for public health communication focusing on well-being and sustainable behavior change. We then systematically searched the literature for research on health communication strategies during COVID-19 to discuss our proposed guidelines in light of the emerging literature. We illustrate the guidelines in a communication case study: wearing face-coverings. We propose five practical guidelines for public health and risk communication that will cut through the infodemic and support well-being and sustainable behavior change: (1) create an autonomy-supportive health care climate; (2) provide choice; (3) apply a bottom-up approach to communication; (4) create solidarity; (5) be transparent and acknowledge uncertainty. Health communication that starts by fostering well-being and basic human psychological needs has the potential to cut through the infodemic and promote effective and sustainable behavior change during such pandemics. Our guidelines provide a starting point for developing a concrete public health communication strategy.
当前的 COVID-19 大流行要求人们改变可持续的行为方式，以减轻病毒的影响。与这一大流行同时出现的一个现象是信息泛滥——过量的信息，其中有些是准确的，有些则不是，这使得人们很难找到值得信赖的可靠指导，从而做出明智的决策。这种信息泛滥也被发现会给心理健康带来困扰，并增加抑郁和焦虑等精神健康障碍的风险。
为了提出公共卫生和风险沟通的实用指南，以增强当前的建议，并克服信息泛滥，支持可访问、可靠、可操作和包容的沟通。这些指南旨在支持自主、能力和关联性等基本人类心理需求，以支持福祉和可持续的行为改变。
我们应用了自我决定理论（SDT）和来自心理学、哲学和人机交互的概念，以更好地理解人类行为和动机，并提出公共卫生沟通的实用指南，重点关注福祉和可持续的行为改变。然后，我们系统地搜索了 COVID-19 期间健康沟通策略的文献，根据新兴文献讨论我们提出的指南。我们在一个沟通案例研究中说明了这些指南：戴口罩。
我们提出了公共卫生和风险沟通的五项实用指南，以克服信息泛滥，支持福祉和可持续的行为改变：（1）营造自主支持的医疗保健氛围；（2）提供选择；（3）采用自下而上的沟通方法；（4）建立团结；（5）保持透明并承认不确定性。
从促进福祉和基本人类心理需求出发的健康沟通有可能克服信息泛滥，并在这种大流行期间促进有效和可持续的行为改变。我们的指南为制定具体的公共卫生沟通策略提供了一个起点。
