Machi Suka
Department of Public Health and Environmental Medicine, The Jikei University School of Medicine
The Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare of Japan developed a humorous appeal poster to raise public awareness about advance care planning (ACP). This is a very unique approach to public health communication. To examine the effectiveness of humorous appeals in public health persuasion, three different types of ACP promotion messages (visual messages in poster form to encourage engagement in ACP conversations) were tested with the target audience. The humorous appeal message successfully attracted more attention than messages that did not use humor (text-only and non-humorous visuals) but simultaneously induced more resistance. Further studies are needed to identify the best way of using humorous appeals in public health communication.
Miho Iwakuma1), Tomomi Funaki2)
1)Department of Medical Communication, Kyoto University School of Public Health, 2) Department of Nursing for Health Care Science, Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine
In recent years, social media posts have been studied to analyze the information needs of social media users. Meanwhile, people with disabilities (PWDs) face various physical and psychological barriers, and computer-mediated communication (CMC) and information and communication technology (ICT) are especially important tools for them to acquire information. As no research exists on Yahoo! Chiebukuro, a Japanese Q&A posting website, related to disabilities, the present study undertook a quantitative text analysis of 4438 questions posted on Yahoo! Chiebukuro between 2004 and 2009, using the KH Coder quantitative content analysis software to analyze information needs concerning disabilities. We obtained the 30 most-used words and created a co-occurrence network, from which we extracted the following five themes: “pregnancy, child-rearing, and feelings toward parents,” “procedures for applying for disability booklets, subsidies obtainable upon acquiring disability booklets, and information related to pensions,” “decisions regarding medical consultation, expected recovery time, and additional concerns upon diagnosis,” “concerns regarding the impact on relationships with coworkers due to a disability,” and “collection of information on sequelae and insurance procedures after an accident.” The study identified disability-related information needs that immediate family or non-disabled acquaintances did not easily fulfill, and suggested that CMC plays significant roles in addition to being an information-gathering tool.
Eij Taira1), Ai Minakawa2), Kota Takayama3), Yumi Kagawa4), Chikako Yamaki5)
1)Sign Language Research Center, Kwansei Gakuin University, 2)Center for Deaf Health Equity, Gallaudet University, 3)Department of Social Work, Gallaudet University, 4)Department of Health Communication, School of Public Health, The University of Tokyo, 5)Institute for Cancer Control, National Cancer Center
There is a dearth of research on the challenges that sign language interpreters experience in the healthcare field, which is the most common setting. The purpose of this study was to identify the challenges and strategies of sign language interpreters in healthcare settings. Qualitative interviews were conducted with 16 sign language interpreters, and a thematic analysis was employed to study the challenges and empirical practices from the interpreters’ perspective. The following four themes, which were consistent with the demand-control theory, were extracted from 224 episodes: (A) difficulty in translation in healthcare settings, (B) dilemma between healthcare providers and Deaf patients, (C) challenge of building relationships between healthcare providers and sign language interpreters, and (D) response to situations where interpretation cannot function. The results indicate that sign language interpreters experienced difficulties in responding to the language and nonlanguage aspects of interpreting assignments due to healthcare providers’ limited understanding of sign language, Deaf people, and the interpreter’s role. Furthermore, a collaboration between healthcare providers and sign language interpreters is essential for Deaf patients’ safety and health, and can be promoted through interprofessional education and training, which would enable both groups to demonstrate their expertise to each other.
Nami Tanaka
Department of Medical Interpreting, Graduate School of Medicine, Juntendo University
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