Real Health: Innovative Health Media Service to Increase Visual Image Diversity

描述(申请人提供)：作为一家健康传播、多媒体和平面设计公司，我们和许多其他公司一样，是健康教育材料的高质量免版税库存摄影的消费者。不幸的是，缺乏描述健康状况和行为的现成图像，这些图像与由种族、社会经济地位、年龄、体重、医疗条件和身体残疾定义的目标受众的特征相匹配。这一缺陷是健康教育的一个理论和实践问题，因为指导成功的健康干预的几个常见理论预测，当来源和模式具有吸引力并与目标受众相似、产生认同感和感知相关性时，沟通更有效。在第一阶段，我们的团队展示了开发一组照片的可行性，这些照片描述了不同的环境、健康行为、健康状况和人口统计数据，称为真实健康，卫生和媒体专业人员可以使用它来通过纳入类似的图像参照物来提高健康传播的有效性。在这个第二阶段的项目中，我们的团队计划全面开发Real Health企业，这是一个用于健康传播的在线图像库。首先，我们将制作Real Health，并用在第一阶段拍摄的照片和在第二阶段拍摄的240个人(非洲裔美国人、西班牙裔、印第安人、亚洲人、非西班牙裔白人和GLBT；儿童/青少年、成年人和老年人；超重和行动不便的人)的其他照片填充它。潜在最终用户(摄影师和公共卫生从业者)将评估Real Health电子商务网站和商业模式的效率、实用性、用户参与度和满意度。Real Health网站在推出之前将接受测试版和可用性测试。接下来，我们将评估来自Real Health的照片在随机前测-后测三组设计中提高健康教育信息有效性的能力。将创建三个实验条件，即，具有1)与目标受众匹配的所有真实健康照片、2)一半真实健康照片和3)所有不匹配照片(从现有商业库存照片库获得)的健康教育消息。健康教育信息将倡导增加体力活动和改善饮食，以减少慢性病。照片将根据与目标受众的仔细预测试进行选择。将从Knowledge Networks，Inc.维护的互联网小组中招募非洲裔美国人、西班牙裔美国人、美洲原住民、超重/肥胖、65岁或以上、行动不便(n=510；总共n=3060)的个体作为样本。参与者将被预先测试，被分配在其中一种情况下阅读健康教育信息，并进行后测试。分析将评估真实健康照片对初级(意向)和次级(积极结果和自我效能预期)结果的影响，测试潜在影响调节因素，并探索健康教育信息中感知的相关性、适当性、相似性和认同感的理论中介。KB是唯一有资格创建Real Health股票摄影企业并将其商业化的公司。 公共卫生相关性：被描绘成有吸引力且与接受者相似的来源和模式可以通过吸引注意力、提高理解、产生人格主义和文化适当性的感觉以及使接受者认同它们来增加健康信息的影响。制作改变健康行为的健康传播需要获得比目前商业库存艺术公司提供的更多种类的照片，以便利用身体活动和类似来源/模型的力量。这一SBIR第二阶段项目的目的是充分开发和测试一组照片的有效性，这些照片描述了各种不同的环境、活动、健康状况和人口统计数据，可用于提高健康传播的有效性。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): As a health communication, multimedia and graphic design firm, we, like many others, are consumers of high quality royalty-free stock photography for health education materials. Unfortunately, there is a dearth of readily-available images depicting health conditions and behaviors that match characteristics of target audiences defined by race, socio-economic status, age, weight, medical conditions, and physical disabilities. This shortcoming is a theoretic and practical problem for health education, as several common theories guiding successful health interventions predict that communication is more effective when sources and models are attractive and similar to target audiences, producing identification and perceived relevance. In Phase I, our team demonstrated the feasibility of developing a collection of photographs depicting diverse settings, health behaviors, health conditions and demographics, called Real Health, which can be used by health and media professionals to increase effectiveness of health communication by incorporating similar image referents. In this Phase II project, our team proposes to fully-develop the Real Health enterprise, an online image library for use in health communication. First, we will produce Real Health and populate it with photographs taken in Phase I and additional photographs of 240 individuals (African American, Hispanic, Native American, Asian, non-Hispanic white, and GLBT; children/teens, adults, and seniors; overweight and with mobility challenges) taken in Phase II. Potential end users (photographers and public health practitioners) will evaluate the Real Health e-commerce site and business model for efficiency, utility, user participation, and satisfaction. The Real Health website will be subjected to beta and usability testing prior to launch. Next, we will evaluate the ability of photos from Real Health to improve health education message effectiveness in a randomized pretest-posttest 3-group design. Three experimental conditions will be created, i.e., a health education message with 1) all Real Health photos that match the target audience, 2) half Real Health photos, and 3) all mismatched photos (obtained from existing commercial stock photo libraries). The health education message will advocate increased physical activity and improved diet to reduce chronic disease. Photos will be selected based on careful pretesting with target audiences. A sample of individuals who are African Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans, overweight/obese, 65 years of age or older, and with mobility challenges (n=510 per subgroup; n=3060 total) will be recruited from an Internet panel maintained by Knowledge Networks, Inc. Participants will be pretested, assigned to read a health education message in one of the conditions, and post-tested. Analyses will evaluate the effect of Real Health photos on primary (intention) and secondary (positive outcome and self-efficacy expectations) outcomes, test potential effect moderators, and explore theoretical mediators of perceived relevance, appropriateness, similarity and identification in the health education messages. KB is uniquely qualified to create and commercialize the Real Health stock photography enterprise. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Sources and models depicted as attractive and similar to recipients can increase the impact of health messages by capturing attention, improving comprehension, engendering feelings of personalism and cultural appropriateness, and causing recipients to identify with them. Producing health communication that changes health behavior requires access to a much wider variety of photographs than currently available from commercial stock art companies in order to capitalize on the power of physically active and similar sources/models. The purpose of this Phase II SBIR project is to fully develop and test the effectiveness of a collection of photographs depicting diverse settings, activities, health conditions, and demographics called "Real Health" that can be used to increase the effectiveness of health communication.