Toward harm reduction as a metatheory for health communication campaigns: An empirical study of harm reduction metatheory and the Reconceptualized Health Belief Model addressing motorcycle safety
Abstract
This harm reduction-oriented health communication project advances the design of health communication campaign messages by utilizing the five tenets of harm reduction theory (HRT) as a metatheoretical framework to guide health communication theories in research and application with target audiences. A comprehensive, communication-oriented definition of HRT seeks to ask, listen, and inform individuals and groups in an effort to understand why and how they engage in risky behaviors. Subsequently, HRT provides guidance for reducing the health risks associated with those behaviors by communicating with individuals to develop a hierarchy of goals that, over time helps protect the health of individuals and of those in their sphere of influence. The five tenets of HRT identified through a literature review include humanistic value, pragmatism, immediacy and goal setting, empowerment, and community collaboration. These five tenets guided the five components of the Reconceptualized Health Belief Model (RHBM) (Mattson, 1999) to inform motorcyclists' perceived safety behaviors while they drive a motorcycle. Qualitative methods consisting of in-depth interviews with risky motorcyclists were conducted to answer seven research questions about ways HRT, in tandem with the RHBM, could inform realistic motorcycle safety messages. Implications for developing motorcycle safety messages include being non-critical of motorcyclists' safety behaviors while communicating with them, being realistic about motorcyclists' ability to overcome perceived barriers and change behaviors, develop messages that build efficacy to accomplish and sustain short-term safety behaviors and eventually progress to additional safety behaviors, utilize graphic images to increase perceived susceptibility and severity of motorcycle accidents, and work with a variety of community partners to disseminate credible messages. Utilizing HRT as a metatheoretical framework to guide the RHBM revealed support for considering HRT as a metatheory for health communication campaigns. Considering HRT as a metatheory in the field of health communication may inform the development of more realistic health messages for target audiences. Suggestions for future research include plans for further testing of HRT as a metatheory through the use of quantitative research methods and exploring how the tenets of HRT function as a metatheoretical framework while guiding other communication theories focused on a variety of health behaviors. Limitations of this research project also are presented.
Degree
Ph.D.
Advisors
Mattson, Purdue University.
Subject Area
Communication|Public health
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