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Impact of Communication Measures Implemented During a School Tuberculosis Outbreak on Risk Perception among Parents and School Staff, Italy, 2019

Risk perception has a significant impact on decisions people make when facing a threat: a mismatch between actual hazard and perceived risk can lead to inappropriate behaviours and suboptimal compliance to recommended public health measures. The present study was conducted in the aftermath of a tube...

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Autores principales: Gentili, Davide, Bardin, Andrea, Ros, Elisa, Piovesan, Cinzia, Ramigni, Mauro, Dalmanzio, Maria, Dettori, Marco, Filia, Antonietta, Cinquetti, Sandro
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7037209/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32024183
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17030911
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author Gentili, Davide
Bardin, Andrea
Ros, Elisa
Piovesan, Cinzia
Ramigni, Mauro
Dalmanzio, Maria
Dettori, Marco
Filia, Antonietta
Cinquetti, Sandro
author_facet Gentili, Davide
Bardin, Andrea
Ros, Elisa
Piovesan, Cinzia
Ramigni, Mauro
Dalmanzio, Maria
Dettori, Marco
Filia, Antonietta
Cinquetti, Sandro
author_sort Gentili, Davide
collection PubMed
description Risk perception has a significant impact on decisions people make when facing a threat: a mismatch between actual hazard and perceived risk can lead to inappropriate behaviours and suboptimal compliance to recommended public health measures. The present study was conducted in the aftermath of a tuberculosis (TB) outbreak that occurred in 2019 in a primary school in Italy. The aim was to evaluate the impact of communication measures implemented by local health authorities (including face-to-face meetings between LHAs and the local population, weekly press announcements, implementation of a telephone hotline and of an information desk, and social media communication), on risk perception among parents of schoolchildren and school staff, and to identify factors related to a change in risk perception before and after the said activities. An anonymous questionnaire was administered to parents of schoolchildren (n = 846) and to school staff (n = 70). Participants were asked about the level of risk they had perceived at two distinct times: when they first became aware of the outbreak and following implementation of communication activities. A significant reduction of perceived risk was found in both groups (p < 0.001) following the communication activities. The largest reduction was found among participants who reported having appreciated the meetings with the LHA healthcare staff. Our findings suggest that keeping an open approach, explaining the actual threat to the population and adapting communication to different listening skills, are essential for health authorities to successfully manage a public health emergency.
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spelling pubmed-70372092020-03-11 Impact of Communication Measures Implemented During a School Tuberculosis Outbreak on Risk Perception among Parents and School Staff, Italy, 2019 Gentili, Davide Bardin, Andrea Ros, Elisa Piovesan, Cinzia Ramigni, Mauro Dalmanzio, Maria Dettori, Marco Filia, Antonietta Cinquetti, Sandro Int J Environ Res Public Health Article Risk perception has a significant impact on decisions people make when facing a threat: a mismatch between actual hazard and perceived risk can lead to inappropriate behaviours and suboptimal compliance to recommended public health measures. The present study was conducted in the aftermath of a tuberculosis (TB) outbreak that occurred in 2019 in a primary school in Italy. The aim was to evaluate the impact of communication measures implemented by local health authorities (including face-to-face meetings between LHAs and the local population, weekly press announcements, implementation of a telephone hotline and of an information desk, and social media communication), on risk perception among parents of schoolchildren and school staff, and to identify factors related to a change in risk perception before and after the said activities. An anonymous questionnaire was administered to parents of schoolchildren (n = 846) and to school staff (n = 70). Participants were asked about the level of risk they had perceived at two distinct times: when they first became aware of the outbreak and following implementation of communication activities. A significant reduction of perceived risk was found in both groups (p < 0.001) following the communication activities. The largest reduction was found among participants who reported having appreciated the meetings with the LHA healthcare staff. Our findings suggest that keeping an open approach, explaining the actual threat to the population and adapting communication to different listening skills, are essential for health authorities to successfully manage a public health emergency. MDPI 2020-02-01 2020-02 /pmc/articles/PMC7037209/ /pubmed/32024183 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17030911 Text en © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Gentili, Davide
Bardin, Andrea
Ros, Elisa
Piovesan, Cinzia
Ramigni, Mauro
Dalmanzio, Maria
Dettori, Marco
Filia, Antonietta
Cinquetti, Sandro
Impact of Communication Measures Implemented During a School Tuberculosis Outbreak on Risk Perception among Parents and School Staff, Italy, 2019
title Impact of Communication Measures Implemented During a School Tuberculosis Outbreak on Risk Perception among Parents and School Staff, Italy, 2019
title_full Impact of Communication Measures Implemented During a School Tuberculosis Outbreak on Risk Perception among Parents and School Staff, Italy, 2019
title_fullStr Impact of Communication Measures Implemented During a School Tuberculosis Outbreak on Risk Perception among Parents and School Staff, Italy, 2019
title_full_unstemmed Impact of Communication Measures Implemented During a School Tuberculosis Outbreak on Risk Perception among Parents and School Staff, Italy, 2019
title_short Impact of Communication Measures Implemented During a School Tuberculosis Outbreak on Risk Perception among Parents and School Staff, Italy, 2019
title_sort impact of communication measures implemented during a school tuberculosis outbreak on risk perception among parents and school staff, italy, 2019
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7037209/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32024183
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17030911
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