Effectively Communicating Healthcare Issues to Policymakers

Theoretical Background and research questions/hypothesis:

The research questions answered in this abstract are:

• What are the best ways to communicate to policymakers about healthcare issues like healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) and antimicrobial resistance (AR)?
• How have policymakers’ knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs (KABs) related to AR changed over time?

To answer these questions, CDC’s AR Coordination and Strategy Unit (ARX) used the Theory of Planned Behavior, the Knowledge-Attitude-Behavior Model, the Behavior Learning Theory, and the Health Belief Model to create, conduct, and analyze formative research. In partnership with Porter Novelli, ARX fields proprietary surveys to various audiences, including healthcare professionals and beltway influencers (i.e., policymaker stakeholders like former and current Hill staffers, association executives, lobbyists, etc.).

Methods:

The survey referenced in this abstract is PNView Policy- a multiple-choice survey fielded by Porter Novelli to beltway influencers. ARX communicators develop questions for this survey to assess KABS related to AR or other healthcare issues. Porter Novelli delivers PNView Policy results in frequencies and tables, which ARX communicators analyze using exploratory and descriptive data analysis.

Results:

According to PNView Policy results, beltway influencers learn about new information from CDC mainly via the CDC website or other news source. When seeking the latest AR information, they use a search engine or the CDC website (2016-2019). More than half can correctly define, have knowledge of, and understand AR’s impact worldwide, an increase since 2017.Over half (56%) of participants chose “antimicrobial resistance” as the most effective term for describing the phenomenon of bacteria and fundie resisting the drugs designed to kill them. Approximately 20% chose “antibiotic resistance” as the most appropriate term (June 2021). Participants’ awareness of how COVID-19 impacted the spread of AR increased by 22% since February 2021. Less than half (45%) either disagreed with or were neutral towards the statement “There is a correlation between socioeconomic factors and the risk of acquiring an antibiotic-resistant infection.”

Conclusions:

Beltway influencers already understand what AR is and its importance as a global issue. However, there is room for improvement when communicating regularly updated news and data.

Implications for research and/or practice:

Knowing where intended audiences seek information is crucial to effectively reaching them and moving the needle on AR issues. Communicators can prioritize using the channels their intended audience references most often – as determined by this study and similar research – and explore ways to feature content more predominately. To determine messaging reach, communicators can monitor audiences’ KABs.