How to effectively communicate health information on social media depending on the audience's personality traits: An experimental study in the context of organ donation in Germany

OBJECTIVE

The shortage of organs donated for transplantation is a global concern. Even though increasing awareness can boost organ donation registration rates (thus leading to a higher number of available organ transplants), public organ donation campaigns lack effectiveness and are rarely tailored to audiences. To further enhance the effectiveness of digital health (i.e., organ donation) communication, we assessed the perception of social media organ donation campaign strategies (i.e., transformational, informational, neutral) as a function of personality traits (i.e., Big Five).

METHOD

Data was collected through an online experiment with 1000 participants (i.e., German citizens between 18 and 70 years) who were recruited via Facebook and Prolific between Jun-Aug 2022. Perceived message effectiveness of the organ donation posts was measured on a 5-point Likert scale applying the AIDA model and consequently analyzed using multiple regression analyses.

RESULTS

Messaging strategy applied in the social media campaigns served as a predictor for message effectiveness depending on the personality traits of the audience when controlling for demographics and donor status. Extraversion was positively associated with higher message effectiveness of the transformational post while neuroticism showed a significant positive association with informational content. Agreeableness was positively correlated with transformational as well as informational post effectiveness. Furthermore, higher perceived post effectiveness increased the likelihood to sign-up for further organ donation information.

CONCLUSION

Our results show that Instagram in Germany is an underleveraged but potentially effective platform to spread organ donation knowledge. Based on our results, we urge public health authorities to revisit and start tailoring their (digital) health (i.e., organ donation) campaigns to audiences (i.e., personality traits) to increase their effectiveness.

Reasons for supply side driven drug shortages - A mixed-methods study on first-level, higher-level, and root causes from the perspective of marketing authorization holders

BACKGROUND

Drug shortages impact multiple stakeholders and are detrimental to patient safety. Additionally, drug shortages are an extensive financial burden. In Germany, drug shortages, according to data from the federal ministry for drug and medical products (BfArM), have been increasing by 18% between 2018 and 2021. Studies show that shortages are most frequently supply side driven and that often reasons remain unknown.

OBJECTIVE

The aim is to develop a holistic understanding of supply side causes for drug shortages in Germany from marketing authorization holders' perspectives and to derive implications for shortage mitigation.

METHODS

A mixed-methods research design, with a grounded theory approach based on a structured literature review, BfArM data analysis, and semi-structured interviews, was used.

RESULTS

Input factor supply issues, manufacturing issues, logistics issues, product recalls, and product discontinuations were identified as first-level causes. Furthermore, a theory on their connection to higher-level causes related to business decision-making, as well as root causes linked to regulations, company values, internal processes, market dynamics, external shocks, and macroeconomic factors, was developed.

CONCLUSION

Actions to mitigate drug shortages in Germany (e.g., improving business processes, diversifying tender criteria) were derived. These may thus increase patient safety and decrease the financial burden on the healthcare system.

Messaging strategies for communicating health-related information in social media-a content and effectiveness analysis of organ donation posts on Instagram in Germany

BACKGROUND

Although organ transplantation is a very effective clinical solution to save the lives of patients suffering from organ failure, the supply of donated organs still cannot meet its growing demand. Educating the society about organ donation is a critical success factor in increasing donation rates, especially in countries that require potential donors to proactively register and opt-in (e.g., Germany). While social media has emerged as an effective tool for disseminating health information, recent evidence suggests that published organ donation content (both online and offline), aimed at raising awareness, still lacks effectiveness. To develop recommendations for optimizing organ donation messaging via social media, this study not only examines the current state of organ donation communication on Instagram, but also identifies factors that contribute to message effectiveness.

METHODS

We conducted a retrospective content analysis to in-depth assess organ donation-related content published on Instagram in Germany between January and March 2022. Systematic coding allowed to identify common themes, sentiments, and communication strategies, which were analyzed for their effectiveness using linear regression analyses.

RESULTS

Of the 500 organ donation posts, 57% were published by institutional authors while the remainder was shared by private accounts. Most content was aimed at the general population and shared neutral (80%) or positive sentiments (17%). Transformative messages, positive emotions, posts published by the transplant recipient and the image of a human served as predictors for post effectiveness measured in terms of likes (p < 0.001) and comments (p < 0.01). Sharing personal experiences (p < 0.01) and highlighting the meaning of organ donations (p < 0.05) resulted in significantly higher audience engagement than any other topic discussed.

CONCLUSION

Our findings highlight the need for health officials to work closely with organ transplant recipients to publicly advocate for organ donations by sharing personal and transformative messages. The high share of posts published by transplant recipients indicates a certain openness to share personal experiences with broad audiences. Different message characteristics served as predictors for message effectiveness (i.e., increased audience engagement) which can likely be extrapolated to other health-related use cases (e.g., cancer screening).

Measurements of H-->D-->(gamma-->,pi) and implications for the convergence of the Gerasimov-Drell-Hern integral

We report new measurements of inclusive pi production from frozen-spin HD for polarized photon beams covering the Delta(1232) resonance. These provide data simultaneously on both H and D with nearly complete angular distributions of the spin-difference cross sections entering the Gerasimov-Drell-Hearn (GDH) sum rule. Recent results from Mainz and Bonn exceed the GDH prediction for the proton by 22 microb, suggesting as yet unmeasured high-energy components. Our pi0 data reveal a different angular dependence than assumed in Mainz analyses and integrate to a value that is 18 microb lower, suggesting a more rapid convergence. Our results for deuterium are somewhat lower than published data, considerably more precise, and generally lower than available calculations.