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COVID-19 presents a serious and unprecedented challenge around the globe. Street vendors are the most vulnerable group during this pandemic regarding livelihood loss and contagion risk. This research aims to examine the roles of risk communication work in enhancing COVID-19 risk perceptions and adoption of COVID-19 preventive behaviors among street vendors.

The data were collected from the street vendors in urban Vietnam. A binary probit model was used for analyzing the relationships among exposure to risk communication, risk perception and adoption of preventive behaviors.

The analysis reveals the outreach of risk communication work to the street vendors. A rather large proportion of the respondents perceive high risks associated with COVID-19. All respondents adopt COVID-19 preventive behaviors; however, the proportion of regular adoption is moderate and even very low for most behaviors. Their frequent exposure to risk communication significantly raises their risk perceptions and encourages their regular adoption of preventive behaviors, particularly regarding the measures that are affordable and less detrimental to their livelihood.

This research is among the first attempts to examine risk communication to the vulnerable group, how they perceive risks and the extent to which they adopt preventive behaviors during a public health crisis. This research draws some implications for risk communication and social welfare policies to obtain sustainable development goals.

The purpose of this study is to assess the effectiveness of a disaster preparedness communication curriculum for public health graduate students' understanding and use of communication strategies for reaching vulnerable groups with preparedness messages.

A training module was piloted in a health communication seminar in 2008 (n=9 students) and 2009 (n=15 students). The interactive module included lectures, videos, case study discussions, and disaster plan and message development. Students gave presentations to a panel of risk communication specialists from the university and state health department.

Analysis of Likert‐type pre/post‐survey items showed significant improvement in students' knowledge about disaster communication and confidence regarding use of communication principles to develop clear messages (p<0.05). In response to open‐ended questions, students reported enjoying the “practical experience of developing messages” and learning the “importance of media and health professionals working together”.

This pilot evaluation involved a relatively small sample of students. Although students were assured that all survey responses would remain anonymous, social desirability may have played a role in their written responses.

The educational module appears to be effective in engaging public health students in disaster communication strategies for reaching vulnerable populations. Studying effective communication strategies well before a disaster situation occurs will help to anticipate community‐specific communication needs and reduce concern.

The instructional approach and content developed could be adapted for training health care and public health professionals to communicate effectively in planning for and responding to disaster situations.

Purpose: Risk is a multifaceted concept, and its identification requires complex approaches that are often misunderstood. The consequence is that decisions are based on limited perception rather than the full value and meaning of what risk is, as a result, the way it is being tackled is incorrect. The individuals are often limited in their perceptions and ideas and do not embrace the full multifaceted nature of risk. Regulators and individuals want to follow norms and checklists or overuse models, simulations, and templates, thereby reducing responsibility for decision-making. At the same time, the wider use of technology and rules reduces the critical thinking of individuals. We advance the automation process by building robots that follow protocols and forget about the part of risk assessment that cannot be programed. Therefore, with this study, the objective of this study was to discover how people define risk, the influencing factors of risk perception and how they behave toward this perception. The authors also determine how the perception differed with age, gender, marital status, education level and region. The novelty of the research is related to individual risk perception during COVID-19, as this is a new and unknown phenomenon. Methodology: The research is based on the analysis of the self-administered purposely designed questionnaires we distributed across different social media platforms between February and June 2020 in Europe and in some cases was carried out as a interview over communication platforms such as “Skype,” “Zoom” and “Microsoft Teams.” The questionnaire was divided into four parts: Section 1 was designed to collect demographic information from the participants; Section 2 included risk definition statements obtained from literature and a preliminary discussion with peers; Section 3 included risk behavior statements; and Section 4 included statements on risk perception experiences. A five-point Likert Scale was provided, and participants were required to answer along a scale of “1” for “Strongly Agree” to “5” for “Strongly Disagree.” Participants also had the option to elaborate further and provide additional comments in an open-ended box provided at the end of the section. 466 valid responses were received. Thematic analysis was carried out to analyze the interviews and the open-ended questions, while the questionnaire responses were analyzed using various quantitative methods on IBM SPSS (version 23). Findings: The results of the analysis indicate that individuals evaluate the risk before making a decision and view risk as both a loss and opportunity. The study identifies nine factors influencing risk perception. Nevertheless, it must be emphasized that we can continue to develop models and rules, but as long as the risk is not understood, we will never achieve anything.

Covid-19 is a worldwide pandemic disease that changed the government communication to citizens about the health emergency. This study aims to provide in-depth research about regional Italian government communication through social media (SM) and its effects on citizens' engagement.

The study uses a case analysis, focusing on the Italian context. In detail, the authors analyse the more involved Italian regions in Covid-19 pandemic (Lombardy, Veneto, Piedmont, Emilia Romagna and Tuscany) applying the Crisis and Emergency Risk Communication (CERC) model.

The results reveal that SM is a powerful tool for communication during a health emergency and for facilitating the engagement with stakeholders. However, results also highlight a different perception about the timing of the Covid-19 crisis.

Findings suggest a gap between the answer of the public government compared to the citizens' needs that are clear since the first earlier stage of the pandemic event. The engagement level is very high since the first phase of the pandemic event; however, to be adequately developed, it requires specific and timing information that are not always in line with the citizens’ communication needs.

This is the first research that aims to study the citizens' engagement in the Italian regions during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The current pandemic and ongoing climate risks highlight the limited capacity of various systems, including health and social ones, to respond to population-scale and long-term threats. Practices to reduce the impacts on the health and well-being of populations must evolve from a reactive mode to preventive, proactive and concerted actions beginning at individual and community levels. Experiences and lessons learned from the pandemic will help to better prevent and reduce the psychosocial impacts of floods, or other hydroclimatic risks, in a climate change context.

The present paper first describes the complexity and the challenges associated with climate change and systemic risks. It also presents some systemic frameworks of mental health determinants, and provides an overview of the different types of psychosocial impacts of disasters. Through various Quebec case studies and using lessons learned from past and recent flood-related events, recommendations are made on how to better integrate individual and community factors in disaster response.

Results highlight the fact that people who have been affected by the events are significantly more likely to have mental health problems than those not exposed to flooding. They further demonstrate the adverse and long-term effects of floods on psychological health, notably stemming from indirect stressors at the community and institutional levels. Different strategies are proposed from individual-centered to systemic approaches, in putting forward the advantages from intersectoral and multirisk researches and interventions.

The establishment of an intersectoral flood network, namely the InterSectoral Flood Network of Québec (RIISQ), is presented as an interesting avenue to foster interdisciplinary collaboration and a systemic view of flood risks. Intersectoral work is proving to be a major issue in the management of systemic risks, and should concern communities, health and mental health professionals, and the various levels of governance. As climate change is called upon to lead to more and more systemic risks, close collaboration between all the areas concerned with the management of the factors of vulnerability and exposure of populations will be necessary to respond effectively to damages and impacts (direct and indirect) linked to new meteorological and compound hazards. This means as well to better integrate the communication managers into the risk management team.

This study aims to examine the effects of risk disclosure and call to action (i.e. encouraging individuals to consult a health provider before they make any purchase decision) on young adults’ cognitive and behavioral responses to dietary supplement advertising.

A 2 (risk disclosure: absence vs presence) × 2 (call to action: absence vs presence) between-subjects online experiment was conducted with 124 college-attending young adults.

Including risk disclosure in probiotic supplement advertising increased young adults’ perceived message credibility, intentions to ask a medical doctor and sense of confidence in decision-making. The addition of call to action in probiotic supplement advertising improved perceived message credibility, trust in advertised brand, favorable attitude toward brand, intention to ask a medical doctor and purchase intention; however, a significant joint effect was not found between risk disclosure and call to action.

Although risk disclosure and call to action are significant techniques in pharmaceutical and health-care marketing, they have been overlooked by both research and practice of dietary supplement marketing. This study closes this gap by providing empirical evidence to generate a clear idea about the benefits of including risk disclosure and call to action in dietary supplement advertising.

Successful social marketing campaign to promote COVID-19 vaccination for the unvaccinated relies on increasing positive reactions but also reducing negative responses to persuasive messages. This study aims to investigate the relative effects of narrative vs non-narrative public service announcements (PSAs) promoting COVID-19 vaccination on both positive and negative reactions. Using social media as a tool for disseminating marketing campaigns provides a great opportunity to examine the effectiveness of narrative PSAs on vaccination intention, especially among unvaccinated young adults, who were the target audience of the social marketing. This study explores the role of empathy and psychological reactance as underlying mechanisms.

An experiment involving unvaccinated young adults was conducted with a one-factor, two-condition (message type: narrative vs non-narrative) design.

Results indicated that the narrative (vs non-narrative) PSAs led to greater empathy. While no direct effects of message type emerged on psychological reactance or vaccination intention, results of a serial multi-mediator model confirmed that empathy and psychological reactance mediated the effects of message type on vaccination intention.

The study extends the understanding of narrative persuasion by examining an underlying mechanism behind narrative persuasion in a COVID-19 PSA. This study provides empirical evidence of the important role of empathy in processing narrative PSAs. Moreover, the current study expands narrative persuasion’s applicability to COVID-19 vaccination intervention messages for unvaccinated young adults, highlighting the effectiveness of narrative persuasion as a social marketing communication tool.

The purpose of the study is to provide insights on the COVID-19 pandemic communication from the lessons learned by health communication executives—how they perceived the COVID-19 pandemic and recommend preparing for communication management of future public health crises.

A number of top health communication executives in the United States, who worked in the healthcare industry for at least 25 years and held titles like director, president and chief strategist, were interviewed for their unique perspectives on the COVID-19 pandemic. This study used the contingency theory of strategic conflict management for qualitative deductive analysis of the following segmentations of key factors that drove organizational communication management decision making during the pandemic: organization characteristics, relationship characteristics, general external climate, external publics and the issue under question.

Health communication executives heavily relied on their past health communication experiences, which led to nuanced understandings of the COVID-19 pandemic. Practically, the health communication executives urged future practitioners to constantly assess risks, hire and use diverse and representative decision-makers; set a communication protocol; and keep the communication in perspective. Theoretically, the contingency theory is furthered—there appears to be a theoretical linkage between the construct of general external climate and the construct of the external public.

The unique perspectives of top health communication executives, based in the United States, provided in-depth insights on the COVID-19 pandemic—its nuances, challenges and main influences (e.g. political, racial, etc.). These takeaways and recommendations can be adapted by other organizations and future health communicators in other parts of the world.

The purpose of this paper is to understand how Saudis perceive chemical pollution health risks. Also, it attempts to investigate whether there are gender, age, education, and place of residence differences in health risk perception.

A questionnaire was designed and developed as a descriptive survey of the target population's perceptions of the impact of chemical contaminants on health. Statistical data analysis was conducted to determine the response difference among variables.

The survey demonstrated higher perceptions of health risk among females as compared to males in general and that females are more likely than males to rank items as a high risk. Most gender differences were statistically significant (F(23, 516)=4.906, p<0.001). This is in agreement with some other studies in the world. The older age group is, in general, more likely to consider something as being a high‐health risk. Also, respondents with higher education were more likely to rate more health risks as “high risk” than were other respondents. Meanwhile, there was no difference in health risk perception according to place of residence.

Saudis face increasing health risks due to chemical pollution. Very little is known about chemical pollution concern and health risk perceptions in the Saudi society. Understanding public chemicals health risk perceptions is the basis of an effective strategy for environmental health risk management. The results of this survey will provide useful information to policy makers to improve health risk communication and develop effective health risks management policies.