A Call to Action: Supporting Black Maternal and Infant Health Using the Collective Impact Model.

This commentary advocates for a comprehensive approach to addressing the Black maternal and infant health crisis, utilizing the collective impact model with health equity at its center. Black women in the United States face alarmingly high rates of maternal morbidity and mortality compared to white women. Black women are twice as likely to have premature and low birthweight babies than white women, exposing both the expectant woman and child to various health risks.

Digital Volunteers as Trusted Public Health Communicators.

Background: Social media influencers are increasingly being positioned by health campaigns as trusted messengers who can share public health information with their communities. There is also an opportunity for campaigns to work with unpaid, digital volunteers (DVs) who want to use their platforms for good, despite not being compensated. DVs are a cost-effective way of supplementing an influencer-driven messaging campaign.

Examining engagement and responses to a digital binge drinking campaign for young males in Florida.

This study evaluates Drunken Rewind, an animated digital media campaign designed to reduce binge drinking. The campaign was targeted to white males aged 18-34, who are at the highest risk of binge drinking. The intervention consisted of an animated series that merged health communications approaches with marketing strategies to disseminate health messages.

Persuasive COVID-19 vaccination campaigns on Facebook and nationwide vaccination coverage in Ukraine, India, and Pakistan.

Social media platforms have a wide and influential reach, and as such provide an opportunity to increase vaccine uptake. To date, there is no large-scale, robust evidence on the offline effects of online messaging campaigns. We aimed to test whether pre-tested, persuasive messaging campaigns from UNICEF, disseminated on Facebook, influenced COVID-19 vaccine uptake in Ukraine, India, and Pakistan.

Opioid Use Disorder Stigma and Support for Harm Reduction in Rural Counties.

The opioid crisis is a public health emergency in the United States, particularly in rural Pennsylvania. Stigma in rural communities is a treatment barrier and impacts harm reduction programming availability. The current study utilized an observational, cross-sectional design to examine latent subgroups of stigma and differences in support for harm reduction strategies (i.

Lessons Learned From Monitoring Spanish-Language Vaccine Misinformation During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

COVID-19 vaccine misinformation is a global threat, and digital and social media support its spread. Addressing Spanish-language vaccine misinformation is critical. In 2021, we began a project to increase vaccine confidence and uptake in the United States by assessing and opposing Spanish-language COVID-19 vaccine misinformation circulating in the United States.

The Association Between Receiving the Flu and COVID-19 Vaccines and Related Factors, Data from the StopFlu Campaign in Eight States and the District of Columbia, 2022.

Given the evolving nature of the COVID-19 pandemic and the importance of vaccines, it is imperative to understand the relationships between receiving the COVID-19 vaccine and other vaccines, such as the flu vaccine. Data were obtained from a survey as part of an evaluation of the StopFlu Kaiser Permanente media campaign, promoting the flu and COVID-19 vaccines in communities of color across eight states and the District of Columbia. The outcome considered was receiving the COVID-19 vaccine.

A multi-site intervention using influencers to communicate about syringe service programmes.

Introduction: In the USA, syringe services programmes (SSPs) provide a range of harm reduction services and have numerous benefits for communities. However, stigma, misconceptions about SSPs and changing policies/legislation remain a challenge to effective implementation. This study reviews the implementation of two digital interventions, Appalachian Influence and Shared Influence, which used social media influencers and digital volunteers to communicate positive information about harm reduction and SSPs.

A Multifaceted Campaign to Combat COVID-19 Misinformation in the Hispanic Community.

At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Public Good Projects, Hispanic Communications Network and World Voices Media joined forces to launch a nationwide, multifaceted campaign which aimed to increase vaccine confidence and decrease misinformation on social media within Hispanic communities. We created a Spanish vaccine misinformation tracking system to detect and assess misinformation circulating in online Spanish conversations. We used our media monitoring findings to work with Hispanic social media (SM) influencers, volunteers, and celebrities to spread pro-vaccine messaging online.

An evaluation of the Just Five program, a flexible digital approach to adult substance use education.

Substance use is a steadily worsening crisis, yet there is limited evidence on the effectiveness of brief educational programs related to substance use disorders (SUD). To address this, the Just Five digital program launched in 2019 with six educational lessons about SUD, each five minutes long. Just Five is delivered through various organizations, including employers as part of workplace wellness, health plans that offer it to members, and to community-based organizations and populations they serve.

Mental Health Stigma Reduction in the Midwestern United States: Evidence from a Digital Campaign Using a Collective Impact Model.

Addressing mental stigma is a key component of improving mental health outcomes. A digital media campaign was implemented to reduce mental health stigma in the Omaha Metropolitan area. The campaign used evidence-based approaches within a collective impact framework.

The Opioid Epidemic and the State of Stigma: A Pennsylvania Statewide Survey.

The opioid epidemic is a public health crisis. Among initiatives surrounding treatment and prevention, opioid use disorder (OUD) stigma has emerged as a subject for intervention. This study examines overall results and demographic differences of three subscales of a public stigma survey instrument: general attitudes, social distance, and treatment availability and effectiveness.

Growing and Glowing: A Digital Media Campaign to Increase Access to Pregnancy-Related Health Information for Black Women During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Background: Low birthweight is a health issue disproportionately experienced by Black women. In Hillsborough County, Florida, Black women experience higher rates of low birthweight compared to the rest of Florida. This study examines the feasibility of a second attempt to use a digital low birthweight campaign to increase knowledge about low birthweight and pregnancy among Black women in Hillsborough.

Social media influencers can be used to deliver positive information about the flu vaccine: findings from a multi-year study.

Large-scale digital flu vaccine campaigns have experienced difficulty increasing vaccination coverage among African Americans and Hispanics, and are routinely inundated by negative responses from vaccine opponents. A digital campaign employing user-generated content from social media 'micro' influencers who are predominantly followed by African Americans and Hispanics was implemented during the 2018-19 and 2019-20 flu seasons to disseminate positive information about the flu vaccine. At the time, this constituted the largest influencer-driven health campaign focused on these communities in the United States.

[Content Themes and Influential Voices Within Vaccine Opposition on Twitter, 2019].

Objectives: To report on vaccine opposition and misinformation promoted on Twitter, highlighting Twitter accounts that drive conversation.

Methods: We used supervised machine learning to code all Twitter posts. We first identified codes and themes manually by using a grounded theoretical approach and then applied them to the full data set algorithmically.

Building Strong Futures: The Feasibility of Using a Targeted Digital Media Campaign to Improve Knowledge About Pregnancy and Low Birthweight Among Black Women.

Objective: Low birthweight is one of the main causes of poor health outcomes among newborns, with Black women having a disproportionately high prevalence. A digital intervention targeted Black women in Orange County, Florida with information on positive pregnancy-related knowledge and attitudes related to low birthweight. This paper reports on campaign methods for the first 2.

Using social media influencers to increase knowledge and positive attitudes toward the flu vaccine.

Seasonal influenza affects millions of people across the United States each year. African Americans and Hispanics have significantly lower vaccination rates, and large-scale campaigns have had difficulty increasing vaccination among these two groups. This study assessed the feasibility of delivering a flu vaccination promotion campaign using influencers, and examined shifts in social norms regarding flu vaccine acceptability after a social media micro influencer campaign.

Content Themes and Influential Voices Within Vaccine Opposition on Twitter, 2019.

To report on vaccine opposition and misinformation promoted on Twitter, highlighting Twitter accounts that drive conversation. We used supervised machine learning to code all Twitter posts. We first identified codes and themes manually by using a grounded theoretical approach and then applied them to the full data set algorithmically.

Evaluation of a campaign to reduce consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages in New Jersey.

Obesity is a leading cause of premature death in the U.S., in part due to consumption of sugar sweetened beverages (SSBs).

Alcohol use in fishing communities and men's willingness to participate in an alcohol, violence and HIV risk reduction intervention: qualitative findings from Rakai, Uganda.

Alcohol use, intimate partner violence (IPV) and HIV infection are associated, but few programmes and interventions have addressed their synergistic relationship or been evaluated for effectiveness and acceptability. This is a critical gap in populations with high rates of alcohol use, HIV and IPV, such as Uganda's fishing communities. This study examined drinking norms, barriers and facilitators to engagement in a risk reduction programme, and ideas for tailoring.

Process evaluation of the SHARE intervention for preventing intimate partner violence and HIV infection in Rakai, Uganda.

The Safe Homes And Respect for Everyone (SHARE) intervention introduced an intimate partner violence (IPV) prevention approach into Rakai Health Sciences Program, an established HIV research and service organization in Uganda. A trial found exposure to SHARE was associated with reductions in IPV and HIV incidence. This mixed methods process evaluation was conducted between August 2007 and December 2009, with people living in SHARE intervention clusters, to assess awareness about/participation in SHARE, motivators and barriers to involvement, and perceptions of how SHARE contributed to behavior change.

Perceptions of Adolescent Pregnancy Among Teenage Girls in Rakai, Uganda.

The leading causes of death and disability among Ugandan female adolescents aged 15 to 19 years are pregnancy complications, unsafe abortions, and childbirth. Despite these statistics, our understanding of how girls perceive adolescent pregnancy is limited. This qualitative study explored the social and contextual factors shaping the perceptions of adolescent pregnancy and childbirth among a sample of 12 currently pregnant and 14 never pregnant girls living in the rural Rakai District of Uganda.

A Multistate Asian-Language Tobacco Quitline: Addressing a Disparity in Access to Care.

Objectives: We conducted a dissemination and implementation study to translate an intervention protocol for Asian-language smokers from an efficacy trial into an effective and sustainable multistate service.

Methods: Three state tobacco programs (in California, Colorado, and Hawaii) promoted a multistate cessation quitline to 3 Asian-language-speaking communities: Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese. The California quitline provided counseling centrally to facilitate implementation.

Four hundred and sixty brands of e-cigarettes and counting: implications for product regulation.

Introduction: E-cigarettes are largely unregulated and internet sales are substantial. This study examines how the online market for e-cigarettes has changed over time: in product design and in marketing messages appearing on websites.

Methods: Comprehensive internet searches of English-language websites from May-August 2012 and December 2013-January 2014 identified brands, models, flavours, nicotine strengths, ingredients and product claims.