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Theoretical Background and research questions/hypothesis: Study uses the entertainment-education communication strategy defined as: the process of purposely designing and implementing a media message to both entertain and educate, in order to increase audience members’ knowledge about an educational issue, create favorable attitudes, shift social norms and change overt behavior” Theoretical Framework incorporates Uses & Gratification Theory, Social Learning Theory, Lewinian Theory and the Transtheoretical Model. Hypothesis: Women who were shown the EE video would have higher levels of cervical cancer and Pap testing knowledge, more positive attitudes, and behavioral intention changes compared to women who were not shown the EE video
Methods: A two-year, quasi-experimental study with 498 Thai women, age 18+, using a pretest, posttest and three-month follow-up posttest. Because initial analysis showed little difference between the two groups on many variables, an analysis was performed on communication variables. Chi-square tests were calculated to determine intervention versus comparison group differences on “improvement” on each of the communication attitude variables. Improvement for a given individual was defined as movement from a “yes” on a communication attitude variable at pretest to a “no” on the same variable at 3-month follow-up. Last, four logistic regression models were performed to further assess intervention effects after adjusting for the effects of demographic covariates.
Results: Although the results indicated that both groups experienced reductions in barriers to communicating with others about Pap tests, the intervention group had significantly stronger outcomes than the comparison group for communicating about Pap tests in general as well as to doctors.
Conclusions: These findings suggest that intermediate communication effects such as self-efficacy, collective efficacy and perhaps interpersonal communication may reduce barriers to discussion and positive decision-making regarding Pap tests.
Implications for research and/or practice: While improvement on communication variables were seen in both the intervention group and the comparison group, the author believes the effects in the intervention group were strong enough to merit further study in the use of the EE communication strategy to promote both the quantity and quality of communication among underserved women about cervical cancer and its risks. Using the present study results and the present intervention in a new study incorporating communication concepts such as parasocial interactions and collective efficacy may hold promise for a better understanding of the biggest challenge of all—achieving behavior change.