Advancing health risk Literacy about Antimicrobial Resistance through the use of Metaphors (ALARM): An international comparative study

通过使用隐喻提高健康风险素养（ALARM）：一项国际比较研究

• 批准号: ES/X001652/1
• 负责人: Eva Krockow
• 金额: $ 33.21万
• 依托单位: University of Leicester
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2023 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=ES%2FX001652%2F1
• 关键词: Advancing; health; risk; Literacy; about

Research contextThere is an urgent need for social science methods to improve risk communication materials and raise awareness about global health threats. An important context for risk communication is the 'silent pandemic' of antimicrobial resistance. This refers to germs such as bacteria, which have developed stronger genes that mean they no longer respond to existing drugs such as antibiotics. Antimicrobial resistance can result in drug-resistant infections, which are illnesses that cannot be cured with current medication. The rise of drug-resistant infections is a problem with a scope similar to climate change. It is predicted to cause 10 million annual deaths by 2050-more than all types of cancer combined. All use of antibiotics contributes to the development of antimicrobial resistance. In other words, each time we use antibiotics, they lose some of their effectiveness for treating future infections. To conserve existing antibiotics and ensure they keep working for longer, a united public effort is needed. We must reduce the use of antibiotics when they are not necessary. Unfortunately, many members of the public know little about the way antibiotics work. They are also often unaware of the risks associated with antibiotic overuse. This lack of knowledge may lead them to disregard doctors' advice or engage in inappropriate behaviours such as hoarding of antibiotics.Aims and objectivesThis project aims to develop new scientific methods for effective risk communication. It will test these methods in the context of antimicrobial resistance and address public misunderstandings about antibiotic use. The project spans two different healthcare contexts-the UK and South Africa-to gain international insights and compare countries with different disease burdens. The goal is to develop new, global information materials that radically change the way the public think about antimicrobial resistance. Psychological knowledge on how to communicate risks efficiently is the foundation of our research. Specifically, we focus on the communication tool of metaphors, i.e. figures of speech that compare abstract concepts such as antimicrobial resistance to other topics that are better known and understood. Working closely with doctors, patients, healthcare experts and creative writing facilitators from the UK, South Africa and internationally, we aim to develop a set of new metaphors that communicate information about antibiotics to audiences with little medical knowledge. We will test these metaphors in large, cross-cultural experiments, which will involve presenting participants from the UK and South Africa with the new metaphors and checking if they improve people's knowledge about antimicrobial resistance. Potential applications and benefitsThe main project outcome will be a carefully designed, tried and tested set of metaphors that can be used by governments, health organisations, charities, media and doctors internationally to raise awareness about antimicrobial resistance, inform patients how antibiotics work, and change the way we use antibiotics. A large range of stakeholders will benefit from the project. Health communicators will receive improved contents for their public health messages. Doctors will benefit from more efficient communication tools in their consultations with patients. The public will increase its health knowledge and make better choices relating to medication. All of this will help to reduce overuse of antibiotics, conserve effective drugs, and fight antimicrobial resistance. The project is therefore likely to benefit overall society and future generations of patients. Finally, even though this project focuses on communication about antimicrobial resistance, the newly developed insights and methods for metaphor design will be applicable to many other areas of risk communication and could help to transform other information campaigns about pandemics or climate change.

研究背景迫切需要社会科学方法来改善风险沟通材料，提高对全球健康威胁的认识。风险沟通的一个重要背景是抗菌素耐药性的“无声流行”。这指的是细菌等细菌，它们已经发展出更强大的基因，这意味着它们不再对抗生素等现有药物产生反应。抗生素耐药性可能导致耐药性感染，这是目前药物无法治愈的疾病。抗药性感染的增加是一个范围类似于气候变化的问题。据预测，到2050年，它每年将导致1000万人死亡-超过所有类型癌症的总和。所有抗生素的使用都有助于抗生素耐药性的发展。换句话说，每次我们使用抗生素，它们都会失去一些治疗未来感染的有效性。为了保护现有的抗生素，并确保它们能更长时间地发挥作用，需要公众的共同努力。我们必须在不必要的情况下减少抗生素的使用。不幸的是，许多公众对抗生素的作用方式知之甚少。他们也经常不知道与抗生素过度使用相关的风险。缺乏这方面的知识，可能导致他们不理会医生的忠告，或作出不适当的行为，例如囤积抗生素。目的与目标本计划旨在发展新的科学方法，以有效地传达风险。它将在抗菌素耐药性的背景下测试这些方法，并解决公众对抗生素使用的误解。该项目跨越两个不同的医疗保健背景-英国和南非-以获得国际见解，并比较不同疾病负担的国家。目标是开发新的全球信息材料，从根本上改变公众对抗菌素耐药性的看法。如何有效地沟通风险的心理学知识是我们研究的基础。具体来说，我们专注于隐喻的沟通工具，即比较抽象概念（如抗菌素耐药性）与其他更好地了解和理解的主题的修辞格。与来自英国，南非和国际的医生，患者，医疗保健专家和创意写作促进者密切合作，我们的目标是开发一套新的隐喻，向几乎没有医学知识的观众传达有关抗生素的信息。我们将在大型的跨文化实验中测试这些隐喻，这将涉及向来自英国和南非的参与者展示新的隐喻，并检查它们是否能提高人们对抗菌素耐药性的认识。潜在的应用和益处主要项目成果将是一套精心设计、经过试验和测试的隐喻，可供各国政府、卫生组织、慈善机构、媒体和医生在国际上使用，以提高人们对抗生素耐药性的认识，告知患者抗生素的工作原理，并改变我们使用抗生素的方式。众多利益攸关方将从该项目中受益。卫生传播者将收到改进的公共卫生信息内容。医生将受益于更有效的沟通工具，在他们的咨询与病人。市民会增加健康知识，更好地选择药物。所有这些都将有助于减少抗生素的过度使用，保护有效药物，并对抗抗生素耐药性。因此，该项目可能会使整个社会和未来几代患者受益。最后，尽管该项目的重点是关于抗菌素耐药性的沟通，但新开发的隐喻设计的见解和方法将适用于风险沟通的许多其他领域，并可能有助于改变有关流行病或气候变化的其他信息活动。