TY  - JOUR
AU  - Lungu, Daniel Adrian
AU  - Røislien, Jo
AU  - Berg, Siv Hilde
AU  - Smeets, Ionica
AU  - Shortt, Marie Therese
AU  - Thune, Henriette
AU  - Brønnick, Kolbjørn Kallesten
PY  - 2023
DA  - 2023/8/23
TI  - Assessing the Effect of Nonvisual Information Factors in Pandemic-Related Video Communication: Randomized Controlled Between-Subjects Experiment
JO  - J Med Internet Res
SP  - e42528
VL  - 25
KW  - video communication
KW  - COVID-19
KW  - trust
KW  - comprehension
KW  - intentions
KW  - behavior
KW  - visual
KW  - pandemic
KW  - risk
KW  - communication
KW  - policy
KW  - effect
KW  - video
KW  - experiment
AB  - Background: Videos have been an important medium for providing health and risk communication to the public during the COVID-19 pandemic. Public health officials, health care professionals, and policy makers have used videos to communicate pandemic-related content to large parts of the population. Evidence regarding the outcomes of such communication, along with their determinants, is however limited. Objective: The aim of this study was to test the impact of nonvisual information factors of video communication on 4 outcomes: trust, comprehension, intentions, and behavior. Methods: Twelve short health communication videos related to pandemics were produced and shown to a large sample of participants, applying a randomized controlled between-subjects design. Three factors were included in the creation of the videos: the topic (exponential growth, handwashing, and burden of pandemics on the health care system), the source (expert and nonexpert), and a call to action (present or absent). Participants were randomly assigned to 1 video intervention, and 1194 valid replies were collected. The data were analyzed using factorial ANOVA. Results: The 3 pandemic-related topics did not affect trust, comprehension, intentions, or behavior. Trust was positively influenced by an expert source (2.5%), whereas a nonexpert source instead had a positive effect on the proxy for behavior (5.7%) compared with the expert source. The inclusion of a call to action had a positive effect on both trust (4.1%) and comprehension (15%). Conclusions: Trust and comprehension in pandemic-related video communication can be enhanced by using expert sources and by including a call to action, irrespective of the topic being communicated. Intentions and behavior appear to be affected to a small extent by the 3 factors tested in this study. International Registered Report Identifier (IRRID): RR2-10.2196/34275 
SN  - 1438-8871
UR  - https://www.jmir.org/2023/1/e42528
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2196/42528
UR  - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37610820
DO  - 10.2196/42528
ID  - info:doi/10.2196/42528
ER  -