EPPM and willingness to respond: the role of risk and efficacy communication in strengthening public health emergency response systems. Health Commun 2014;29(6):598-609
Date
06/27/2013Pubmed ID
23799806DOI
10.1080/10410236.2013.785474Scopus ID
2-s2.0-84897973236 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site) 33 CitationsAbstract
This study examines the attitudinal impact of an Extended Parallel Process Model (EPPM)-based training curriculum on local public health department (LHD) workers' willingness to respond to representative public health emergency scenarios. Data are from 71 U.S. LHDs in urban and rural settings across nine states. The study explores changes in response willingness and EPPM threat and efficacy appraisals between randomly assigned control versus intervention health departments, at baseline and 1 week post curriculum, through an EPPM-based survey/resurvey design. Levels of response willingness and emergency response-related attitudes/beliefs are measured. Analyses focus on two scenario categories that have appeared on a U.S. government list of scenarios of significant concern: a weather-related emergency and a radiological "dirty" bomb event (U.S. Department of Homeland Security, 2007). The greatest impact from the training intervention on response willingness was observed among LHD workers who had low levels of EPPM-related threat and efficacy perceptions at baseline. Self-efficacy and response efficacy and response willingness increased in intervention LHDs for both scenarios, with greater response willingness increases observed for the radiological "dirty" bomb terrorism scenario. Findings indicate the importance of building efficacy versus enhancing threat perceptions as a path toward greater response willingness, and suggest the potential applicability of such curricular interventions for boosting emergency response willingness among other cadres of health providers.
Author List
Barnett DJ, Thompson CB, Semon NL, Errett NA, Harrison KL, Anderson MK, Ferrell JL, Freiheit JM, Hudson R, McKee M, Mejia-Echeverry A, Spitzer J, Balicer RD, Links JM, Storey JDAuthor
Jennifer M. Freiheit PhD Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Institute for Health and Equity department at Medical College of WisconsinMESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold
AdultAttitude of Health Personnel
Data Collection
Disaster Planning
Disasters
Emergencies
Female
Health Communication
Health Personnel
Humans
Male
Public Health Administration
Risk Assessment
Self Efficacy
Terrorism
United States
