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Observational Study
. 2016 Jun 14;34(28):3225-8.
doi: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2016.04.044. Epub 2016 May 11.

Effective vaccine communication during the disneyland measles outbreak

David A Broniatowski  1 , Karen M Hilyard  2 , Mark Dredze  3
Affiliations
Observational Study

Effective vaccine communication during the disneyland measles outbreak

David A Broniatowski et al. Vaccine. .

Abstract

Vaccine refusal rates have increased in recent years, highlighting the need for effective risk communication, especially over social media. Fuzzy-trace theory predicts that individuals encode bottom-line meaning ("gist") and statistical information ("verbatim") in parallel and those articles expressing a clear gist will be most compelling. We coded news articles (n=4581) collected during the 2014-2015 Disneyland measles for content including statistics, stories, or bottom-line gists regarding vaccines and vaccine-preventable illnesses. We measured the extent to which articles were compelling by how frequently they were shared on Facebook. The most widely shared articles expressed bottom-line gists, although articles containing statistics were also more likely to be shared than articles lacking statistics. Stories had limited impact on Facebook shares. Results support Fuzzy Trace Theory's predictions regarding the distinct yet parallel impact of categorical gist and statistical verbatim information on public health communication.

Keywords: Facebook; Fuzzy-trace theory; MMR; Measles; Social media; Twitter.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interest Statement

No other financial disclosures were reported by the authors of this paper.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Proportion of articles shared at least one, ten, 100, and 1,000 times on Facebook. Error bars reflect one standard error.
Figure 2
Figure 2
“Gist Communication Framework” emphasizing the link between evidence-based findings and the bottom-line meaning to the patient
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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