The problem
Although scientific knowledge to respond to outbreaks of infectious diseases has increased, deficiencies remain in the ability of health authorities to communicate the need for large-scale measures such as vaccination and antiviral therapy and increase its acceptance. For effective behavioural and communication strategies, integration is needed of social, behavioural, communication and media sciences.
Our goal
In the Ecom project, we bring together various disciplines to go beyond the current knowledge to develop an evidence-based behavioural and communication package for health professionals and agencies throughout Europe in case of major outbreaks of infectious diseases.
Our approach
Our goal is reached through the following specific objectives:
- To assess the time-dependent influences of epidemiology and risk communication including media content on human behaviour during the A/H1N1 pandemic;
- To analyse, using social marketing principles, vaccination behaviour, audience segmentation, and vaccination service delivery;
- To analyse knowledge, attitudes, risk perception, vaccination non-response and reasons for resistance during past epidemics;
- To apply Discrete Choice Experiments to determine acceptance of preventive measures in the case of epidemic outbreaks;
Coordinator : Erasmus University Medical Center Rotterdam, the Netherlands
Web-link : http://ecomeu.info
