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.

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).

[Organ donations in Algeria: restrictions and perspectives]

Le but de cet article est de mettre en exergue la nécessité et l´obligation d´associer au don d´organes provenant des vivants, celui issu des personnes décédées, une source de greffon dont l´apport est inégalable, un plaidoyer avec un triple objectif: 1) analyser l´apport du don issu des vivants, en termes de chiffre, à travers deux éléments: le degré d´implication de nos compétences médico-chirurgicales et nos dispositions réglementaires qui lui sont relatives. 2) Montrer que, ce don issu des vivants, même optimisé, restera toujours en deçà des besoins de nos malades et il n´apporte qu´une partie de la solution. 3) L´autre partie se trouve dans les services de réanimation, le donneur décédé, une source de don qui ne peut être substituée par celle des vivants et qui concerne nos malades ne disposant d'aucun donneur vivant et surtout ceux en attente d´un organe vital: cœur, poumon, foie, ou un rein pour ceux n'ayant plus la possibilité de faire la dialyse. Des patients condamnés à mourir s´ils ne sont pas transplantés dans les semaines à venir. A cet égard, seuls le professionnalisme et l´entière disponibilité du personnel dédié à cette activité, sont capables de nous débarrasser des préjugés qui accablent, à ce jour, injustement et systématiquement l´implication de notre société vis-à-vis de ce type de don, salvateur. Les pays ayant su promouvoir et se servir de cette source de don, un programme national lui a été priorisé et déployé en réseaux. Un programme aux résultats sûrs, fondé sur des normes universelles d´éthique de recrutement, de formation et organisationnelles. Pour les autorités sanitaires de ces mêmes pays, il est irrationnel et déraisonnable que ces greffons soient partageables avec les malades des autres pays: tant que cette source de don demeure l´unique à permettre la seule modalité thérapeutique salvatrice pour ce type de malades graves et tant que ce type de greffons resteront insuffisants pour satisfaire les besoins de tous leurs patients.

Attitudes, knowledge, and preferences of the Israeli public regarding the allocation of donor organs for transplantation

Background

There is a stark disparity between the number of patients awaiting deceased-donor organ transplants and the rate at which organs become available. Though organs for transplantation are assumed to be a community resource, and the organ supply depends on public willingness to donate, current allocation schemes do not explicitly incorporate public priorities and preferences. This paper seeks to provide insights regarding the Israeli public’s preferences regarding criteria for organ (specifically, kidney) allocation, and to determine whether these preferences are in line with current allocation policies.

Methods

A market research company administered a telephone survey to 604 adult participants representing the Jewish-Israeli public (age range: 18–95; 50% male). The questionnaire comprised 39 questions addressing participants’ knowledge, attitudes, and preferences regarding organ donation and criteria for organ allocation, including willingness to donate.

Results

The criteria that respondents marked as most important in prioritizing waitlist candidates were maximum medical benefit (51.3% of respondents) and waiting time (21%). Donor status (i.e., whether the candidate is registered as an organ donor) was ranked by 43% as the least significant criterion. Most participants expressed willingness to donate the organs of a deceased relative; notably, they indicated that they would be significantly more willing to donate if organ allocation policies took their preferences regarding allocation criteria into account. Unlike individuals in other countries (e.g., the UK, the US, and Australia) who responded to similar surveys, Israeli survey respondents did not assign high importance to the candidate’s age (24% ranked it as the least important factor). Interestingly, in some cases, participants’ declared preferences regarding the importance of various allocation criteria diverged from their actual choices in hypothetical organ allocation scenarios.

Conclusions

The findings of this survey indicate that Israel’s citizens are willing to take part in decisions about organ allocation. Respondents did not seem to have a strict definition or concept of what they deem to be just; yet, in general, their preferences are compatible with current policy. Importantly, participants noted that they would be more willing to donate organs if their preferences were integrated into the allocation policy. Accordingly, we propose that allocation systems must strive to respect community values and perceptions while maintaining continued clinical effectiveness.