Riddell, J. , Cleary, A., Dean, J. A., Flowers, P. , Heard, E., Inch, Z., Mutch, A., Fitzgerald, L. and McDaid, L. (2024) Social marketing and mass media interventions to increase sexually transmissible infections (STIs) testing among young people: social marketing and visual design component analysis. BMC Public Health, 24, 620. (doi: 10.1186/s12889-024-18095-8) (PMID:38408945) (PMCID:PMC10898181)
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Abstract
Introduction: Globally, sexually transmissible infections (STIs) continue to disproportionately affect young people. Regular STI testing is an important public health strategy but remains low among this age group. Raising awareness of testing is an essential step and requires effective interventions designed for young people. To inform the development of effective interventions that promote STI testing among young people, we conducted a systematic literature review to describe the social marketing and visual design components commonly found in STI testing interventions and explore associations of these components with intervention effectiveness. Methods: We used a systemic review methodology to identify peer-reviewed articles that met pre-defined inclusion criteria. Social marketing and visual component analyses were conducted using structured data extraction tools and coding schemes, based on the eight key social marketing principles and 28 descriptive dimensions for visual analysis. Results: 18 studies focusing on 13 separate interventions met the inclusion criteria. Most interventions used photograph-based images, using conventionally attractive actors, positioned centrally and making direct eye contact to engage the viewer. The majority of interventions featured text sparingly and drew on a range of tones (e.g. serious, humorous, positive, reassuring, empowering and informative) and three interventions used sexualised content. Four articles explicitly stated that the interventions was informed by social marketing principles, with two explicitly referencing all eight principles. Around half of the articles reported using a formal theoretical framework, but most were considered to have theoretical constructs implicit in interventions materials. Four articles provided detailed information regarding developmental consumer research or pre-testing. All articles suggested segmentation and development of materials specifically for young people. Explicit consideration of motivation and competition was lacking across all articles. This study found that there were some design elements common to interventions which were considered more effective. High social marketing complexity (where interventions met at least seven of the 11 criteria for complexity) seemed to be associated with more effective interventions. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that the incorporation of social marketing principles, could be more important for intervention effectiveness than specific elements of visual design. Effective and systematic use of social marketing principles may help to inform future evidence-informed and theoretically based interventions and should be employed within sexual health improvement efforts.
| Item Type: | Articles |
|---|---|
| Additional Information: | Funding: This study was funded by a Queensland HIV Foundation HIV Research and Program Grant 2017. JR is funded by the UK Medical Research Council (MRC) and Scottish Government Chief Scientist Office (CSO) at the MRC/CSO Social & Public Health Sciences Unit, University of Glasgow (MC_UU_12017/11, SPHSU11, MC_UU_00022/3, SPHSU18). At the time of completing the analysis, LMcD, and PF were funded by the UK Medical Research Council (MRC) and Scottish Government Chief Scientist Office (CSO) at the MRC/CSO Social & Public Health Sciences Unit, University of Glasgow (MC_UU_12017/11, SPHSU11; MC_UU_12017/12, SPHSU12). |
| Status: | Published |
| Refereed: | Yes |
| Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: | McDaid, Professor Lisa and Flowers, Professor Paul and Riddell, Miss Julie |
| Authors: | Riddell, J., Cleary, A., Dean, J. A., Flowers, P., Heard, E., Inch, Z., Mutch, A., Fitzgerald, L., and McDaid, L. |
| College/School: | College of Medical Veterinary and Life Sciences > School of Health & Wellbeing > MRC/CSO SPHSU |
| Journal Name: | BMC Public Health |
| Publisher: | BioMed Central |
| ISSN: | 1471-2458 |
| ISSN (Online): | 1471-2458 |
| Copyright Holders: | Copyright © 2024 The Authors |
| First Published: | First published in BMC Public Health 2024 |
| Publisher Policy: | Reproduced under a Creative Commons licence |
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