title: Promoting Help Seeking Among Veteran Households: Associations Between Exposure to Multiple Types of Health Messages and Intentions to Utilize Related Public Health Hotlines.
abstract: This study presents preliminary evidence that exposure to different health campaigns enhance intentions to seek help from telephone hotlines among Veteran households. Data were collected from telephone surveys (N = 8,756) conducted with both Veteran (n = 3,904), and for comparison, non-Veteran households (n = 4,852). Cox proportional hazard models were used to identify associations between message exposure variables ("type" or "number") with a high intent to use different hotlines (e.g., suicide prevention, domestic violence). As the number of types of messages an individual was exposed to increased, reported high intent for hotline use also increased. This remained significant across hotline type and for both Veteran and non-Veterans households. Results underscore the need for further research on dissemination strategies of public messaging and their impact on health behavior among Veteran populations.
authors.affiliation: Department of Veterans Affairs, VISN2 Center of Excellence for Suicide Prevention, 400 Fort Hill Avenue, Canandaigua, NY 14424.
authors.forename: Heather
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Elder
authors.affiliation: Department of Veterans Affairs, VISN2 Center of Excellence for Suicide Prevention, 400 Fort Hill Avenue, Canandaigua, NY 14424.
authors.forename: Elizabeth
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Karras
authors.affiliation: Department of Veterans Affairs, Office of Public Health, Epidemiology Program and Post-Deployment Health Group, 810 Vermont Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20420.
authors.forename: Robert M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Bossarte
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D000066505:Help-Seeking Behavior; D015277:Hotlines / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D033182:Intention; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015995:Prevalence; D011634:Public Health / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014728:Veterans / Q000523:psychology*; D000092864:Suicide Prevention