Mirjam A. Jenny’s research while affiliated with University of Erfurt and other places

Zusammenfassung Public Health-Maßnahmen sollen oft den Menschen gesundheitsförderliche Verhaltensweisen erleichtern, z. B. indem die sozialen und materiellen Lebensbedingungen dafür verändert werden. Die Weltgesundheitsorganisation (WHO) hat mit dem Konzept der „Behavioural and Cultural Insights“ (BCI, deutsch etwa „verhaltens- und sozialwissenschaftliche Erkenntnisse“) einen Ansatz etabliert, der darauf abzielt, gesundheitsbezogene Verhaltensweisen besser zu verstehen und entsprechende Public Health-Interventionen gezielter entwickeln zu können. Im Zentrum steht dabei die systematische Erfassung individueller wie auch z. B. kultureller, sozialer und umgebungsbezogener Barrieren und Förderfaktoren von Gesundheitsverhalten. Der BCI-Ansatz soll helfen, präventive Maßnahmen stärker evidenzbasiert und bedarfsgerecht zu planen. Dazu werden einige Grundzüge von BCI skizziert, die berücksichtigt werden sollten, um das Konzept in ein zeitgemäßes „New Public Health“-Verständnis zu integrieren; dazu gehört, gesellschaftliche und individuelle Einflussfaktoren auf Gesundheit und Krankheitsentstehung und sozial bedingte gesundheitliche Ungleichheit zu beachten. Im Artikel erfolgt zunächst eine Abgrenzung des BCI-Konzepts vom verhaltensökonomischen Ansatz (z. B. Nudging). Zur Illustration des Potenzials von BCI für Bevölkerungsgesundheit und Chancengleichheit wird herausgearbeitet, das auf BCI basierende Maßnahmen (a) Verhalten und Verhältnisse im Blick haben, (b) auf gesundheitliche Chancengleichheit abzielen, (c) partizipativ entwickelt und implementiert werden, und (d) in ihrer Logik dem sog. Public Health Action Cycle folgen. Dazu müssen Einflussfaktoren auf menschliches Verhalten systematisch erfasst werden. Verhaltens- und sozialwissenschaftliche Erkenntnisse müssen zudem die Eigenschaften komplexer Interventionen berücksichtigen und auf lokale Gegebenheiten und die kulturelle Vielfalt bestimmter Bevölkerungsgruppen zugeschnitten werden. Der BCI-Ansatz hat viele Übereinstimmungen mit anderen Ansätzen qualitätsgesicherter und bedarfsorientierter Prävention. Der Fokus auf systematische Erfassung von Barrieren und Förderfaktoren bietet bei der Planung von Public Health-Maßnahmen einen wichtigen Mehrwert. Forschung zu verhaltens- und sozialwissenschaftlichen Erkenntnissen und ihre Nutzung in der Prävention sollten in Deutschland ausgebaut werden.

Background Doubts regarding vaccine effectiveness may prompt people to decide against a seasonal influenza vaccination. While fact boxes show the effectiveness in terms of cases prevented, people often lack knowledge about important contextual factors, for example, why the vaccine formulation needs to be updated annually, the vaccine mechanism and relevance of the antigen–virus match. Adding such contextual information could improve effectiveness perceptions. Objective In a preregistered online experiment, we tested whether explaining the seasonality's relevance and mechanisms behind influenza vaccine effectiveness affects people's perceptions of influenza vaccination. We compared two means of explanation (an additional expository text vs. a narrative offering an analogy to improve understanding of vaccine effectiveness) with a control condition simply providing effectiveness information. Design Unvaccinated participants ( N = 1554) were assigned to one of three conditions: (1) fact box only (providing the influenza vaccine's benefit–risk profile; control group), (2) fact box plus informational expository text or (3) fact box plus narrative analogy. Methods After the experimental manipulations, participants rated the vaccine's effectiveness in preventing influenza disease and answered knowledge questions. Effects on perceived risk of vaccination and intention to get vaccinated were also explored. Results Reading the expository text increased the perceived vaccine effectiveness and overall knowledge, while reading the narrative analogy only increased the perceived vaccine effectiveness compared with the control condition. All other dependent variables were similar in both text conditions. Conclusions Extended explanations of vaccine effectiveness can increase perceived vaccine effectiveness. The text format chosen can affect outcomes, such as vaccine‐related perceptions or knowledge.

Introduction Climate change is a paramount global health threat with multifaceted implications. Societal change is required to mitigate the negative effects of climate change, as well as help people adapt to the associated health risks. This requires situation-specific, large-scale data to help scientists and policymakers understand public perceptions and behaviours and identify the levers to increase public readiness to act against climate change and protect health. The Planetary Health Action Survey (PACE) assesses this readiness to act as a regular monitoring of representative samples in Germany. The ongoing monitoring seeks to develop and refine an integrated conceptual model of the trait-like readiness to act, comprising policy acceptance, political participation and individual behaviours as indicators of the trait. It also proposes as set of determinants to explain different levels of readiness to act. This study protocol provides newly developed valid measurement instruments and the methodological details of the monitoring. Method and analysis PACE assesses indicators of the readiness to act and a set of sociocognitive factors predicting the readiness to act in continuous cross-sectional data collections. The latter comprise climate change knowledge, trust in institutions, perceived health risks, self-efficacy, social norms and perceived effectiveness of policy measures. The online questionnaire is updated regularly. Data collection involves non-probabilistic quota samples from Germany (n≈1000 at each collection). Ethics and dissemination The project adheres to the ethical guidelines of the University of Erfurt and the German Research Foundation. Ethical clearance was granted by the University’s Institutional Review Board (No #20220525/No #2024-01). Participants are guaranteed confidentiality and anonymity, and informed consent is obtained before participation. Results will be published in peer-reviewed journals. Additionally, we aim to inform and empower the public and support stakeholders (media, policymakers, climate protection organisations) in preparing climate communication and assisting policymakers through the project website including an interactive tool, detailed reports and short summaries for practitioners.

Background: Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) causes diseases which are dangerous for people over 60 years of age. Following the approval of two vaccines by the European Medicines Agency, the question now arises as to how much the target group knows about RSV.Method: We collected data from people over 60 years of age in a representative online sample from Germany. RSV-awareness was collected. A RSV knowledge scale was used, asking participants about RSV-disease related facts.Results: Only 54% of participants showed RSV-awareness, with higher educated participants being better informed. The knowledge items revealed well-known facts and misconceptions. Discussion: Educational interventions should be conducted when introducing the RSV vaccine, as awareness, particularly regarding the infectiousness of children and the availability of a vaccine, is low within the target group.

Communicating about climate change is challenging. It is multifaceted and requires inter- and transdisciplinary efforts, as well as trusted communicators. Perspectives from an interdisciplinary group of climate experts were used in a mixed methods approach to identify optimal climate change communicators. A sample from the general public (N = 974) was asked to what extent they trusted communicators identified in qualitative analyses of expert interviews. The results show that in addition to communicators previously known to be trusted by the public (e.g., scientists), communicators and channels at the individual (e.g., role models) and institutional level (e.g., public health organizations) were mentioned as trusted. According to experts, the government’s often-limited science communication skills should be increased because institutional-level communicators are among the least trusted, except for public health institutions, which are highly trusted. Utilizing trusted communicators and channels, as well as combining them, can increase the impact of climate change communication.

Conducting high‐quality overviews of reviews (OoR) is time‐consuming. Because the quality of systematic reviews (SRs) varies, it is necessary to critically appraise SRs when conducting an OoR. A well‐established appraisal tool is A Measurement Tool to Assess Systematic Reviews (AMSTAR) 2, which takes about 15–32 min per application. To save time, we developed two fast‐and‐frugal decision trees (FFTs) for assessing the methodological quality of SR for OoR either during the full‐text screening stage (Screening FFT) or to the resulting pool of SRs (Rapid Appraisal FFT). To build a data set for developing the FFT, we identified published AMSTAR 2 appraisals. Overall confidence ratings of the AMSTAR 2 were used as a criterion and the 16 items as cues. One thousand five hundred and nineteen appraisals were obtained from 24 publications and divided into training and test data sets. The resulting Screening FFT consists of three items and correctly identifies all non‐critically low‐quality SRs (sensitivity of 100%), but has a positive predictive value of 59%. The three‐item Rapid Appraisal FFT correctly identifies 80% of the high‐quality SRs and correctly identifies 97% of the low‐quality SRs, resulting in an accuracy of 95%. The FFTs require about 10% of the 16 AMSTAR 2 items. The Screening FFT may be applied during full‐text screening to exclude SRs with critically low quality. The Rapid Appraisal FFT may be applied to the final SR pool to identify SR that might be of high methodological quality.

Vaccine effectiveness and safety concerns can prevent people from receiving their first Covid-19 vaccines or boosters. Understanding the vaccine mechanism may lead people to perceive vaccine effectiveness appropriately. This study tested whether helping people understand the vaccine’s mechanism could improve their perceived vaccine safety and effectiveness. In a preregistered study, N = 1,548 unvaccinated or non-boosted participants were randomly presented with one of three communication formats: a fact box (a benefit-risk profile in tabular format; control condition), an expository text (i.e., a purely factual explanation) plus fact box, or an analogy plus fact box. Participants rated the vaccine’s effectiveness in preventing a Covid-19 disease, their perceived risk of getting vaccinated, and their intention to get vaccinated or boosted (depending on their vaccination status). Reading either additional text about the vaccines’ mechanism increased participants’ effectiveness ratings for the vaccine to prevent Covid-19 but did not affect risk ratings or vaccination intentions. The participants’ vaccine-related perceptions and intentions did not differ between the two text types. Elaborating on the vaccine’s mechanism of protection, in addition to presenting the benefit-risk profile of a vaccine, can lead people to perceive the vaccine effectiveness as slightly higher, yet it is insufficient to increase vaccination intentions.

Background Climate change is a paramount global health threat with multifaceted health implications. Societal change is required to mitigate the negative effects of climate change, as well as help people adapt to the associated health risks. This requires situation-specific, large-scale data that can help identify the relevant areas for policymaking and communication. Such behavioral data can help scientists and policymakers understand public perceptions and behaviors, as well as identify the levers to increase public readiness to act (RTA) against climate change and protect their health. The Planetary Health Action Survey (PACE) explores RTA, integrating individual behavior, policy acceptance, and political participation as its key indicators and determinants. The ongoing survey seeks to develop and refine an integrated conceptual model of RTA, create valid corresponding measurement instruments, and implement them in monitoring. This contribution serves as the study protocol for PACE. Methods In continuous cross-sectional data collections, a comprehensive set of sociocognitive factors, including climate change knowledge, trust in institutions, perceived health risks, self-efficacy, social norms, and perceived effectiveness of policy measures, are assessed. The online questionnaire is updated regularly and involves a nonprobabilistic quota sample from the German population (N ≈ 1,000 at each data collection). Discussion PACE contributes to a comprehensive understanding of tackling climate change and related health risks by considering the different facets relevant to societal change. In addition, it allows for observing changes over time and adjustments to the model, as well as including current topics and debates. It provides a broad foundation for future health and crisis communication. PACE contributes to informing climate change and health communication, policymaking, and interventions by providing insights into the multidimensional factors influencing RTA against climate change.

Until now, behavioural science in the climate change field has focused mainly on understanding and changing individual behaviours. However, in order to broaden the spectrum of behaviours to acknowledge the need for systemic change, this paper introduces a novel model showing that a trait-like ‘readiness to act against climate change’ explains variation in a broad spectrum of behaviours: past individual high-emission behaviour, acceptance of climate change mitigation policies and political participation for societal change to mitigate climate change. The model underwent rigorous validation (N = 6,041) by psychometrically evaluating measurement instruments and testing the explanatory power of a comprehensive set of predictors, including perceived health risks, trust in institutions, social norms, perceived effectiveness of political measures, self-efficacy and knowledge. This contribution offers theoretical advancement, innovative measures bridging climate and social science, and a large dataset allowing recommendations on how to advance climate action.