The Effectiveness of Narrative Versus Didactic Information Formats on Pregnant Women’s Knowledge, Risk Perception, Self-Efficacy, and Information Seeking Related to Climate Change Health Risks

Adebayo, Adebanke L.; Davidson Mhonde, Rochelle; DeNicola, Nathaniel; Maibach, Edward

doi:10.3390/ijerph17196969

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The Effectiveness of Narrative Versus Didactic Information Formats on Pregnant Women’s Knowledge, Risk Perception, Self-Efficacy, and Information Seeking Related to Climate Change Health Risks

Adebanke L. Adebayo

^1,*,

Rochelle Davidson Mhonde

¹,

Nathaniel DeNicola

² and

Edward Maibach

Department at George Mason University, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA 22030, USA

School of Medicine and Health Sciences, The George Washington University, Washington, DC 20052, USA

Center for Climate Change Communication, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA 22030, USA

Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2020, 17(19), 6969; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17196969

Received: 17 July 2020 / Revised: 7 September 2020 / Accepted: 17 September 2020 / Published: 23 September 2020

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Impacts of Climate Change on Women's Health)

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Abstract

Climate change is a global threat that poses significant risks to pregnant women and to their developing fetus and newborn. Educating pregnant women about the risks to their pregnancy may improve maternal and child health outcomes. Prior research suggests that presenting health information in narrative format can be more effective than a didactic format. Hence, the purpose of this study was to test the effectiveness of two brief educational interventions in a diverse group of pregnant women (n = 151). Specifically, using a post-test only randomized experiment, we compared the effectiveness of brief information presented in a narrative format versus a didactic format; both information formats were also compared to a no information control group. Outcome measures included pregnant women’s actual and perceived knowledge, risk perception, affective assessment, self-efficacy, intention to take protective behaviors, and subsequent information seeking behavior. As hypothesized, for all outcome measures, the narrative format was more effective than the didactic format. These results suggest the benefits of a narrative approach (versus a didactic approach) to educating pregnant women about the maternal and child health threats posed by climate change. This study adds to a growing literature on the effectiveness of narrative-based approaches to health communication. View Full-Text

Keywords: climate change; pregnant women; narrative communication; risk perception; information-seeking; self-efficacy

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited

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MDPI and ACS Style

Adebayo, A.L.; Davidson Mhonde, R.; DeNicola, N.; Maibach, E. The Effectiveness of Narrative Versus Didactic Information Formats on Pregnant Women’s Knowledge, Risk Perception, Self-Efficacy, and Information Seeking Related to Climate Change Health Risks. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2020, 17, 6969. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17196969

AMA Style

Adebayo AL, Davidson Mhonde R, DeNicola N, Maibach E. The Effectiveness of Narrative Versus Didactic Information Formats on Pregnant Women’s Knowledge, Risk Perception, Self-Efficacy, and Information Seeking Related to Climate Change Health Risks. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2020; 17(19):6969. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17196969

Chicago/Turabian Style

Adebayo, Adebanke L., Rochelle Davidson Mhonde, Nathaniel DeNicola, and Edward Maibach. 2020. "The Effectiveness of Narrative Versus Didactic Information Formats on Pregnant Women’s Knowledge, Risk Perception, Self-Efficacy, and Information Seeking Related to Climate Change Health Risks" International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 17, no. 19: 6969. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17196969

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The Effectiveness of Narrative Versus Didactic Information Formats on Pregnant Women’s Knowledge, Risk Perception, Self-Efficacy, and Information Seeking Related to Climate Change Health Risks

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