Providing Health Information to the Public: Analysis of National Audience Data for Public Health Communication Planning

• Activity Number: 536
• Type: Contributed
• Date/Time: Thursday, August 10, 2006 : 10:30 AM to 12:20 PM
• Sponsor: Section on Health Policy Statistics
• Author(s): William Pollard*+
• Companies: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
• Keywords: health surveys ; audience segmentation methods ; health communication

Abstract

A number of new health challenges have emerged at the beginning of 21st century including: new infectious diseases with global impact, bioterrorism, environmental threats, an aging population, and serious lifestyle-related illnesses. Providing information on these issues to the general public has become an increasingly important function of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This presentation focuses on analysis of factors related to public awareness and use of the CDC as a source of information based on the Porter Novelli Styles Surveys with national samples of over 4,000 adults annually 1999 - 2005. The surveys address health topics and other topics such as media habits, lifestyle activities, and internet use. Techniques for identifying and characterizing different audience segments are described and implications for health communication are discussed.