TY - JOUR

T1 - A Systematic Review of Literature on Effectiveness of Training in Emergency Risk Communication

AU - Miller, Ann Neville

AU - Sellnow, Timothy

AU - Neuberger, Lindsay

AU - Todd, Andrew

AU - Freihaut, Rebecca

AU - Noyes, Jane

AU - Allen, Tomas

AU - Alexander, Nyka

AU - Vanderford, Marsha

AU - Gamhewage, Gaya

N1 - This project was funded by the World Health Organization, Department of Communications (Contract PO 201393190 WHO Registration 2016/645053-0 and Contract PO 201539532).

PY - 2017/7/6

Y1 - 2017/7/6

N2 - Although disaster preparedness training is regularly conducted for a range of health-related professions, little evidence-based guidance is available about how best to actually develop capacity in staff for conducting emergency risk communication. This article presents results of a systematic review undertaken to inform the development of World Health Organization guidelines for risk communication during public health and humanitarian emergencies. A total of 6,720 articles were screened, with 24 articles identified for final analysis. The majority of research studies identified were conducted in the United States, were either disaster general or focused on infectious disease outbreak, involved in-service training, and used uncontrolled quantitative or mixed method research designs. Synthesized findings suggest that risk communication training should include a focus on collaboration across agencies, training in working with media, and emphasis on designing messages for specific audience needs. However, certainty of findings was at best moderate due to lack of methodological rigor in most studies.

AB - Although disaster preparedness training is regularly conducted for a range of health-related professions, little evidence-based guidance is available about how best to actually develop capacity in staff for conducting emergency risk communication. This article presents results of a systematic review undertaken to inform the development of World Health Organization guidelines for risk communication during public health and humanitarian emergencies. A total of 6,720 articles were screened, with 24 articles identified for final analysis. The majority of research studies identified were conducted in the United States, were either disaster general or focused on infectious disease outbreak, involved in-service training, and used uncontrolled quantitative or mixed method research designs. Synthesized findings suggest that risk communication training should include a focus on collaboration across agencies, training in working with media, and emphasis on designing messages for specific audience needs. However, certainty of findings was at best moderate due to lack of methodological rigor in most studies.

U2 - 10.1080/10810730.2017.1338802

DO - 10.1080/10810730.2017.1338802

M3 - Article

C2 - 28682192

VL - 22

SP - 612

EP - 629

JO - Journal of Health Communication

JF - Journal of Health Communication

SN - 1081-0730

IS - 7

ER -