Empowerment in the process of health messaging for rural low-income mothers: an exploratory message design project.
Rural, low-income mothers face challenges to their health equal to or greater than those of low-income mothers from urban areas. This study put health message design into the hands of low-income rural mothers. The current study filled a research gap by analyzing a participatory process used to design health messages tailored to the everyday lives of rural low-income mothers. A total of forty-three mothers participated in nine focus groups, which were held from 2012 to 2013, in eight states. The mothers were from different racial and ethnic backgrounds. Participants discussed food security, physical activity, and oral health information. They created messages by considering several elements: visuals, length of message, voice/perspective, self-efficacy and personal control, emotional appeals, positive and negative reinforcements, and steps to health behavior change. This study was innovative in its focus on empowerment as a key process to health message design.
a Department of Behavioral & Community Health, School of Public Health , University of Maryland , College Park , Maryland , USA.
Linda
L
Aldoory
Bonnie
B
Braun
Elisabeth Fost
EF
Maring
Mili
M
Duggal
Rowena Lynn
RL
Briones
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D055812:Community-Based Participatory Research; D005260:Female; D017144:Focus Groups; D006266:Health Education / Q000379:methods*; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D009035:Mothers / Q000193:education / Q000523:psychology*; D011203:Poverty; D011209:Power, Psychological; D019035:Rural Health Services; D012424:Rural Population; D020377:Self Efficacy; D013664:Teaching Materials
health messages; mothers; rural health