Communicating during a pandemic: information the public wants about the disease and new vaccines and drugs.
To prepare for pandemics, countries are creating pandemic preparedness plans. These plans frequently include crisis communication strategies that recommend conducting pre-crisis audience research to increase the effectiveness and relevance of communication with the public. To begin understanding the communication needs of the public and health care workers, 11 focus groups were conducted in Vancouver, Canada, in 2006 and 2007 to identify what information people want to receive and how they want to receive it. In the event of a pandemic, participants want to know their risk of infection and how sick they could become if infected. To make decisions about using vaccines and drugs, they want information that enables them to assess the risks of using the products. The public prefers to receive this information from family doctors, the Internet, and schools. Health care workers prefer to receive information in e-mails and in-services.
Centre for Health Evaluation and Outcome Sciences, St. Paul's Hospital, 620B-1081 Burrard Street, Vancouver, BC, Canada. natalie.henrich@gmail.com
Natalie
N
Henrich
Bev
B
Holmes
D001955:British Columbia; D003142:Communication; D005260:Female; D006282:Health Personnel; D006801:Humans; D033181:Information Dissemination; D008297:Male; D058873:Pandemics; D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations; D011634:Public Health; D011639:Public Opinion; D014612:Vaccines
D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations; D014612:Vaccines