MICHAEL MACKERT, PH.D.Director, UT Center For Health CommunicationProfessor, UT Stan Richards School of Advertising & Public Relations

Professor, UT Department of Population Health

HEALTH COMMUNICATION:BETTER MESSAGES TO CHANGE BEHAVIOR WORKSHOP

EVIDENCE-BASED HEALTH COMMUNICATION

AGENDA

• What is health communication?

• An approach to problem solving

• Three cases of health communication practice and research

WHAT ISHEALTH

COMMUNICATION

Health communication is the science

and art of using communication to

advance the health and well-being of

people and populations.

EVIDENCE-BASED HEALTH COMMUNICATION

Our people have broad and deep communication expertise that allows our Center to lead the creation of evidence-based health communication scholarship, education, and practice.

Our interdisciplinary group of scholars embraces opportunities to use communication to improve the health of people around the globe.

OURMISSION

Give me six hours to chop down a tree, and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.

-Abraham Lincoln

HOW DO WE THINK

ABOUT SOLVING

PROBLEMS?

EVIDENCE-BASED HEALTH COMMUNICATION

A CHANGE IN APPROACH

EVIDENCE-BASED HEALTH COMMUNICATION

THE MESSAGE DESIGN “PROCESS”

Research

Insight

Strategy

Tactics

EVIDENCE-BASED HEALTH COMMUNICATION8

FRAMING YOUR PROBLEM

EVIDENCE-BASED HEALTH COMMUNICATION

PERSONAS

Target audience: Members of sororities on the UT-Austin campus who are 18-22 years old who use tanning beds

EVIDENCE-BASED HEALTH COMMUNICATION

SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT THING

GO

Your audience is one single reader. I have found that sometimes it helps to pick out one

person – a real person you know, or an imagined person – and write to that one.

-John Steinbeck

ENGAGING HEALTH

COMMUNICATION IN

RESEARCH AND PRACTICE

EVIDENCE-BASED HEALTH COMMUNICATION

Father’s Playbook• Develop content for (potentially low health literate) dads-to-be to help them prepare for the

arrival of their child

• Targeting a “non-traditional” audience requires formative research and ample pilot testing

• Think about both content and style

EVIDENCE-BASED HEALTH COMMUNICATION

FATHER’S PLAYBOOK: WEB

EVIDENCE-BASED HEALTH COMMUNICATION

FATHER’S PLAYBOOK: WEB

EVIDENCE-BASED HEALTH COMMUNICATION

FATHER’S PLAYBOOK: MOBILE

EVIDENCE-BASED HEALTH COMMUNICATION

√ Tobacco-Free• Simple visual identity

• Can relate to prevention, cessation, and policy

• Focus on benefits ranging from physical to social to financial

• Lets each campus implement the idea in ways that make sense locally

EVIDENCE-BASED HEALTH COMMUNICATION

BRAND AND MATERIALS

EVIDENCE-BASED HEALTH COMMUNICATION

HEALTH COMMUNICATION TOOLKIT

EVIDENCE-BASED HEALTH COMMUNICATION

TEXAS PRESCRIPTION MONITORING PROGRAM (PMP)

• Part of the statewide response to the opioid epidemic

• Texas PMP is a tool for prescribers to make the appropriate prescribing decision

• Use by prescribers is currently optional

EVIDENCE-BASED HEALTH COMMUNICATION

TEXAS PRESCRIPTION MONITORING PROGRAM

EVIDENCE-BASED HEALTH COMMUNICATION

TEXAS PRESCRIPTION MONITORING PROGRAM

EVIDENCE-BASED HEALTH COMMUNICATION

AN APPROACH THAT WORKS

ACROSS HEALTH CONTEXTS

• Better health communication comes from insights into what drives behavior

• Focus on changing health behavior and outcomes

• Lessons learned in one health context can be useful in other settings

EVIDENCE-BASED HEALTH COMMUNICATION

MICHAEL MACKERT, PH.D.Director, UT Center for Health Communicationmackert@utexas.edu | @mackert | @UThealthcomm | UThealthcomm.org

If the highest aim of a captain were to preserve his ship, he would keep it in port forever.-Thomas Aquinas