Inclusive Crisis Communication in a Pandemic Context: A Rapid Review

Karin Hannes (), Pieter Thyssen, Theresa Bengough, Shoba Dawson, Kristel Paque, Sarah Talboom, Krizia Tuand, Thomas Vandendriessche, Wessel van de Veerdonk, Daniëlle Wopereis and Anne-Mieke Vandamme
Additional contact information
Karin Hannes: Research Group SoMeTHin’K, Centre for Sociological Research, Faculty of Social Sciences, KU Leuven, 3000 Leuven, Belgium
Pieter Thyssen: Research Group SoMeTHin’K, Centre for Sociological Research, Faculty of Social Sciences, KU Leuven, 3000 Leuven, Belgium
Theresa Bengough: Austrian National Public Health Institute, 1010 Vienna, Austria
Shoba Dawson: School of Medicine and Population Health, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S1 4DA, UK
Kristel Paque: Department of Nursing and Midwifery, University of Antwerp, 2000 Antwerpen, Belgium
Sarah Talboom: Centre of Expertise—Sustainable Business and Digital Innovation, Campus De Ham, Thomas More University of Applied Sciences, 2800 Mechelen, Belgium
Krizia Tuand: Learning Centre Désiré Collen, KU Leuven Libraries—Location: 2Bergen, KU Leuven, 3000 Leuven, Belgium
Thomas Vandendriessche: Learning Centre Désiré Collen, KU Leuven Libraries—Location: 2Bergen, KU Leuven, 3000 Leuven, Belgium
Wessel van de Veerdonk: Centre of Expertise—Care and Well-Being, Campus Zandpoortvest, Thomas More University of Applied Sciences, 2800 Mechelen, Belgium
Daniëlle Wopereis: Research Group SoMeTHin’K, Centre for Sociological Research, Faculty of Social Sciences, KU Leuven, 3000 Leuven, Belgium
Anne-Mieke Vandamme: Institute for the Future, KU Leuven, 3000 Leuven, Belgium

IJERPH, 2024, vol. 21, issue 9, 1-30

Abstract: Background: Crisis communication might not reach non-native speakers or persons with low literacy levels, a low socio-economic status, and/or an auditory or visual impairments as easily as it would reach other citizens. The aim of this rapid review was to synthesize the evidence on strategies used to improve inclusive pandemic-related crisis communication in terms of form, channel, and outreach. Methods: After a comprehensive search and a rigorous screening and quality assessment exercise, twelve comparative studies were selected for inclusion in this review. Data were analyzed and represented by means of a structured reporting of available effects using narrative tables. Results: The findings indicate that a higher message frequency (on any channel) may lead to a lower recall rate, audio–visual productions and tailored messages prove to be valuable under certain conditions, and primary healthcare practitioners appear to be the most trusted source of information for most groups of citizens. Trust levels were higher for citizens who were notified in advance of potential exceptions to the rule in the effect of preventive and curative measures promoted. Conclusions: This review contributes to combatting information inequality by providing evidence on how to remove the sensorial, linguistic, cultural, and textual barriers experienced by minorities and other underserved target audiences in COVID-19-related governmental crisis communication in response to the societal, health-related costs of ineffective communication outreach.

Keywords: inclusive communication; crisis communication; pandemics; rapid review (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/21/9/1216/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/21/9/1216/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:21:y:2024:i:9:p:1216-:d:1479332

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().