TY - JOUR

T1 - Communicating Uncertainty During Public Health Emergency Events

T2 - A Systematic Review

AU - Sopory, Pradeep

AU - Day, Ashleigh

AU - Novak, Julie

AU - Eckert, Stine

AU - Wilkins, Lillian

AU - Padgett, Donyale

AU - Noyes, Jane

AU - Barakji, Fatima

AU - Liu, Juan

AU - Fowler, Beth N.

AU - Guzman-Barcenas, Javier

AU - Nagayko, Anna

AU - Nickell, Jacob J.

AU - Donahue, Damecia

AU - Daniels, Kimberley

AU - Allen, Thomas

AU - Alexander, Nyka

AU - Vanderford, Marsha L.

AU - Gamhewage, Gaya M.

N1 - doi: 10.12840/ISSN.2255-4165.019

PY - 2019

Y1 - 2019

N2 - To answer the question, What are the best ways to communicate uncertainties to public audiences, at-risk communities, and stakeholdersduring public health emergency events? we conducted a systematic review of published studies, grey literature, and media reportsin English and other United Nations (UN) languages Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian, and Spanish. Almost 2900 Englishand 8600 other UN languages titles and abstracts were scanned of which 33 English and 13 other UN languages data-basedprimary studies were selected, which were classified into four methodological streams: Quantitative-comparison groups;Quantitative-descriptive survey; Qualitative; and Mixed-method and case-study. Study characteristics (study method,country, emergency type, emergency phase, at-risk population) and study findings (in narrative form) were extracted fromindividual studies. The findings were synthesized within methodological streams and evaluated for certainty and confidence.These within-method findings were next synthesized across methodological streams to develop an overarching synthesisof findings. The findings showed that country coverage focused on high and middle-income countries in Asia, Europe,North America, and Oceania, and the event most covered was infectious disease followed by flood and earthquake. Thefindings also showed that uncertainty in public health emergency events is a multi-faceted concept with multiple components.There is universal agreement, with some exceptions, that communication to the public should include explicit informationabout event uncertainties, and this information must be consistent and presented in an easy to understand format. Additionally,uncertainty related to events requires a distinction between uncertainty information and uncertainty experience. At-riskpopulations experience event uncertainty in lives full of uncertainties from other sources. Event uncertainty is experiencedand uncertainty information may be understood and misunderstood in the same general ways by the public, experts, andpolicy makers. Experience of event uncertainty may be a defining feature for media professionals as well due to contradictoryand inconsistent information in the environment.

AB - To answer the question, What are the best ways to communicate uncertainties to public audiences, at-risk communities, and stakeholdersduring public health emergency events? we conducted a systematic review of published studies, grey literature, and media reportsin English and other United Nations (UN) languages Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian, and Spanish. Almost 2900 Englishand 8600 other UN languages titles and abstracts were scanned of which 33 English and 13 other UN languages data-basedprimary studies were selected, which were classified into four methodological streams: Quantitative-comparison groups;Quantitative-descriptive survey; Qualitative; and Mixed-method and case-study. Study characteristics (study method,country, emergency type, emergency phase, at-risk population) and study findings (in narrative form) were extracted fromindividual studies. The findings were synthesized within methodological streams and evaluated for certainty and confidence.These within-method findings were next synthesized across methodological streams to develop an overarching synthesisof findings. The findings showed that country coverage focused on high and middle-income countries in Asia, Europe,North America, and Oceania, and the event most covered was infectious disease followed by flood and earthquake. Thefindings also showed that uncertainty in public health emergency events is a multi-faceted concept with multiple components.There is universal agreement, with some exceptions, that communication to the public should include explicit informationabout event uncertainties, and this information must be consistent and presented in an easy to understand format. Additionally,uncertainty related to events requires a distinction between uncertainty information and uncertainty experience. At-riskpopulations experience event uncertainty in lives full of uncertainties from other sources. Event uncertainty is experiencedand uncertainty information may be understood and misunderstood in the same general ways by the public, experts, andpolicy makers. Experience of event uncertainty may be a defining feature for media professionals as well due to contradictoryand inconsistent information in the environment.

KW - Uncertainty

KW - Risk communication

KW - Disaster communication

KW - Public health emergency events

U2 - 10.12840/ISSN.2255-4165.019

DO - 10.12840/ISSN.2255-4165.019

M3 - Review article

VL - 7

SP - 67

EP - 108

JO - Review of Communication Research

JF - Review of Communication Research

SN - 2255-4165

ER -