Mass Media and health promotion. A campaign to promote flu vaccination among helathcare workers

This thesis collects the researches carried out during the three years of PhD course on Multimedia Communication. Its general purpose was to explore and experiment the use of media in health promotion. The first chapter illustrates conceptual assumptions belonging to the research field of the thesis: health promotion. The second chapter presents a literature review about health promotion and mass media. Fifty studies, published between 2000 and 2014, on programs promoting positive health behaviors and implemented in western countries were included in the review. The data analyzed provide a general overview of the available experiences in this field and represent a starting point to develop new programs that use new techniques and appropriate outcomes measures. The third chapter presents an experimental study on a campaign promoting flu shot among healthcare workers (HCWs) in an Italian Academic Hospital in North-Eastern Italy (Azienda Ospedaliera Universitaria di Udine – AOUD) by a multimedia intervention. The campaign was planned, implemented and evaluated in terms of knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) changes, among HCWs. The final chapter reports the lessons learned from the literature review and the experimental study and gives recommendations for future research in the field of health promotion and prevention through mass media.