RAPID: An Evolving Risk Communication Challenge: The Risk Salience of Zika Virus Infection in an Environment of Shifting Scientific, Social, and Policy Uncertainty and Discourse

RAPID：不断变化的风险沟通挑战：在科学、社会和政策不确定性和话语不断变化的环境中寨卡病毒感染的风险显着性

• 批准号: 1638545
• 负责人: David Abramson
• 金额: $ 19.92万
• 依托单位: New York University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2016-05-01 至 2018-04-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1638545&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: RAPID; Evolving; Risk; Communication; Challenge

Threats are all around us: from the mundane, such as auto accidents, to the existential, such as global pandemics or nuclear war. How we perceive and manage these threats is related to a number of factors including how "real" the threat feels (its risk salience), our confidence in the sources of information alerting us to the threat and its potential consequences, our faith in the effectiveness of an intervention and in our ability to employ it, and our reliance upon psychological leanings that propel us to being risk-tolerant or risk-averse. The newly emerging Zika virus is a window into many of these facets, and a critically-important opportunity for those engaged in public health risk communication. This research examines how social, scientific, and policy cues influence the U.S. public's appreciation of the risk of Zika virus over time, as well as the public's receptivity to clinical, environmental, and behavioral interventions. By collecting a series of four cross-sectional population surveys over the course of a year, this research illustrates how risk salience evolves, and the extent to which it may be influenced by specific communication and information channels. Analyses reveal how social, scientific, and policy discourse contribute to public understandings of risk and further our understandings of communication strategies. Understanding how messaging changes with evolving scientific knowledge improves risk communication for future threats. These findings contribute to the literature of risk communication, which is often comprised of retrospective analyses of messages, rather than prospective studies of messaging in times of uncertainty. It also helps develop more refined and effective risk communication strategies when populations are faced with the threat of a novel pathogen. Overall, this research contributes to several disciplinary perspectives, notably those of risk assessment, hazard-related decision making, and public health risk communication.The rising attention to the Zika virus offers an opportunity to examine how risk salience evolves in real-time as the threat approaches. Currently, there are no vaccines or therapies for the Zika viral infection, and there is still limited scientific understanding of the virus itself, the vectors, the disease pathogenesis, or even the epidemiology. The opportunity to measure and chart the U.S. public's perception of this threat - and how it is influenced by social, scientific, and policy cues - is time-bound, as the geographic exposure to the virus expands over time, and the data are ephemeral. This research examines how social, scientific, and policy cues influence the US public's perception of the risk over time, as well as the public's receptivity to clinical, environmental, and behavioral interventions. The specific aims of the research are to: (1) chart the trajectory of risk salience as exposure and certainty of the Zika virus increases; (2) identify and analyze the impact of social, scientific, and policy cues and discourse on risk salience; and (3) describe and analyze group differences in the evolving attitudes related to risk perception, as well as receptivity to policy, programmatic, and clinical interventions. Two data sets are developed to investigate these research aims. The first is a repeated cross-sectional national phone survey with an oversample of women of child-bearing age in the US Southern Tier (selected as a sub-population of particular vulnerability), totaling 1,200 respondents. These data are collected quarterly over a year-long period. In parallel with the primary data, a second data set quantifies the number and type of social, scientific, and policy cues observed in sentinel media sources during the time period immediately preceding the survey work. The research team merges these media data with the primary data and tests for their association with respondents? risk salience. The findings contribute to the overall literature of risk communication, which is often comprised of retrospective analyses of messages, rather than prospective studies of messaging in times of uncertainty. It is possible that messaging will change over time as the number of Zika cases increases in the US, as the number of microcephalic infant births increase, and as dramatic stories are reported with greater frequency in the press. Demonstrating how this messaging changes with evolving scientific knowledge improves risk communication for future threats.

威胁无处不在：从普通的汽车事故，到全球流行病或核战争等生存威胁。我们如何感知和管理这些威胁与许多因素有关，包括威胁的“真实的性”（其风险显著性），我们对警告我们威胁及其潜在后果的信息来源的信心，我们对干预措施有效性的信心以及我们使用它的能力，以及我们对心理倾向的依赖，这些心理倾向促使我们成为风险容忍或风险厌恶者。新出现的寨卡病毒是了解其中许多方面的一个窗口，也是那些从事公共卫生风险沟通的人的一个至关重要的机会。这项研究探讨了社会、科学和政策线索如何影响美国公众对寨卡病毒风险的认识，以及公众对临床、环境和行为干预的接受程度。通过在一年的时间里收集一系列四个横断面人口调查，本研究说明了风险显着性如何演变，以及它可能受到特定沟通和信息渠道影响的程度。分析揭示了社会，科学和政策话语如何有助于公众对风险的理解，并进一步加深我们对沟通策略的理解。了解信息传递如何随着科学知识的发展而变化，可以改善未来威胁的风险沟通。这些研究结果有助于风险沟通的文献，这往往是由信息的回顾性分析，而不是在不确定的时候信息的前瞻性研究。它还有助于在人群面临新病原体威胁时制定更精细和有效的风险沟通策略。总体而言，这项研究有助于几个学科的观点，特别是那些风险评估，灾害相关的决策，和公共卫生风险communication.The日益关注寨卡病毒提供了一个机会，以研究如何风险显着性演变的实时威胁的方法。目前，没有针对寨卡病毒感染的疫苗或疗法，对病毒本身、载体、疾病发病机制甚至流行病学的科学认识仍然有限。衡量和绘制美国公众对这一威胁的看法--以及它如何受到社会、科学和政策线索的影响--的机会是有时间限制的，因为随着时间的推移，受病毒影响的地理范围会扩大，而数据是短暂的。这项研究探讨了社会，科学和政策线索如何影响美国公众对风险的看法，以及公众对临床，环境和行为干预的接受程度。研究的具体目的是：（1）随着寨卡病毒暴露和确定性的增加，绘制风险显著性的轨迹;（2）识别和分析社会，科学和政策线索和话语对风险显著性的影响;（3）描述和分析与风险感知相关的态度演变中的群体差异，以及对政策，计划和临床干预的接受程度。开发了两个数据集来调查这些研究目标。第一个是重复的全国性电话调查，对美国南部地区的育龄妇女（被选为特别脆弱的子人群）进行了过度抽样，共有1 200名受访者。这些数据是在一年的时间内按季度收集的。与原始数据平行，第二个数据集量化了在调查工作之前的时间段内在哨兵媒体来源中观察到的社会，科学和政策线索的数量和类型。研究小组将这些媒体数据与原始数据合并，并测试它们与受访者的关联。风险凸显。研究结果有助于风险沟通的整体文献，这往往是由信息的回顾性分析，而不是在不确定的时候信息的前瞻性研究。随着美国寨卡病例数量的增加，随着小头症婴儿出生数量的增加，以及媒体报道戏剧性故事的频率越来越高，信息可能会随着时间的推移而改变。展示这种信息传递如何随着科学知识的发展而变化，可以改善未来威胁的风险沟通。

项目成果

How the US Population Engaged with and Prioritized Sources of Information about the Emerging Zika Virus in 2016

2016 年美国民众如何参与并优先考虑有关新出现的寨卡病毒的信息来源

• DOI: 10.1089/hs.2017.0107
• 发表时间: 2018
• 期刊: Health Security
• 影响因子: 3.3
• 作者: Piltch-Loeb, Rachael;Merdjanoff, Alexis A.;Abramson, David M.
• 通讯作者: Abramson, David M.