Introduction
It is hard to disagree that there is a vast number of various health concerns and conditions that make it challenging for people to lead a healthy lifestyle and not worry about their well-being. One way for activists and the government to help the community to be more informed about diseases’ symptoms, risk factors, and prevention measures is through running healthcare campaigns. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the CDC’s Hear Her Maternal Health Campaign and then evaluate it.
Description of the Selected Health Campaign
For many women, pregnancy is one of the most valuable and simultaneously stressful periods. Although carrying a child and preparing for giving birth is quite reverent, it can be difficult for expecting mothers to forget that there is a chance of encountering all sorts of complications and problems. For example, miscarriage or other issues are quite common, and all women need to know the symptoms and causes. The Hear Her project is supported through a partnership with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and tries to address the aforementioned issues.
The initial phase of the project was launched in the summer of 2020. To promote Hear Her, CDC created advertisements and ran them on numerous national TV and radio channels, social media, and digital platforms (Stinson & Bucherati, 2020). The purpose of the health project is to “prevent pregnancy-related deaths by sharing potentially life-saving messages about urgent warning signs” (“About the Campaign,” 2022, para. 2). The campaign has a quite informative website with valuable articles, statistics, and PDF materials, videos, and social media content. For instance, they introduce the value of the project in a short promo video (see Appendix A).
While it may be surprising for some people, pregnant women are not the only target audience of the Hear Her campaign. It is rather helpful for friends, families, and healthcare providers (see Appendix B). Apart from increasing awareness, the campaign tries to “encourage partners, friends, family, coworkers, and providers—anyone who supports pregnant and postpartum women—to listen when she tells you something doesn’t feel right” (“About the Campaign,” 2022, para. 3). In addition to the materials mentioned above, the campaign also provides women and other interested people with real-life stories told by females who encountered issues during pregnancy (see Appendix C).
Evaluation of the Selected Health Campaign
The purpose of the following section is to provide a comprehensive and detailed evaluation of the described project. Such an evaluation is required to get an idea of whether the healthcare campaign is necessary and effective, as well as identify if it has some areas that need to be improved. Several parameters of the project, including the relevance of its objective, topic coverage, accessibility, inclusiveness, and other aspects, are utilized to assess the Hear Her campaign.
Relevance
To begin with, it is essential to explore whether the goal and objectives of the project are relevant to the current society. Precisely the relevance of a campaign’s addressed concern is one of the primary evaluation components (Robertson & Vanlaar, 2017). According to statistics, “as many as 50,000 women experience severe, unexpected health problems related to pregnancy that may have long-term health consequences” (“About the Campaign,” 2022, para. 1). What is more, approximately 700 females die every year in the U.S. from delivery complications or pregnancy issues (“About the Campaign,” 2022). Additionally, when a pregnant woman states that she feels bad and asks for medical help, not all people believe her.
These factors not only indicate that the problem is quite serious but also make it evident that American women and their families and friends lack knowledge related to this topic. Indeed, the U.S. community must be aware of the numerous threats and issues a pregnant female may encounter, so the topic selected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is highly relevant and significant. Society must begin to take women seriously and hear them when they need help.
Topic Coverage and Presentation
Further, it is essential to analyze whether the selected topic is properly covered by the campaign materials, resources, and promotion advertisements. As mentioned above, Hear Her’s website provides an extended number of various brochures, and PDF files containing all the relevant information, videos, real-life stories, checklists, and many other resources (“About the Campaign,” 2022). According to Stead et al. (2019), for a campaign to be more effective in disseminating valuable information, it should consider using a variety of formats to present information: presentations, texts, posters, and videos. The significance of the latter is additionally emphasized by Shin et al. (2018). In that case, it is more likely that each person who becomes interested in the project can find the way of presenting information that is most convenient to them. Thus, the number of people affected by the campaign can increase significantly. Then referring to the Hear Her, it is possible to say that the project receives the highest evaluation point for the topic coverage and presentation.
Accessibility
The aspect of accessibility is also extremely important to consider during evaluation. Generally, if the information provided by a project cannot be accessed conveniently by an average user, the chances that the majority of the target audience perceives the knowledge decreases greatly. Referring to Hear Her, one may say that the campaign’s resources can be easily accessed by most users from both a smartphone and a laptop. It is quite convenient that no online registration or sign-up is required – anyone can download all the files without the need to create an account. All the website’s pages are well-designed and structured, and the navigation is quite easy.
Inclusion
Nowadays, those projects that are not inclusive have much lower chances for success. Fortunately, this cannot be said about Hear Her: this campaign is not only for women or men, African Americans or whites, pregnant females, or healthcare practitioners. This project is for everyone interested in supporting females, raising awareness, and empowering females to speak up. It is noticeable that Hear Her covers the needs of the targeted groups separately and simultaneously, which unites and distinguishes between them, indicating that people are responsible for females’ well-being individually and as a whole community.
Effectiveness
Another aspect of the selected campaign’s evaluation is its effectiveness. Unfortunately, there is a lack of news articles or other sources discussing Hear Her and its impact on increasing females’ awareness. Thus, this fact has a slightly negative effect on the effectiveness of the project: it is simply impossible to evaluate it correctly, so other components of efficacy will be used. Overall, as stated by Chang and Basnyat (2017), family support is critical for people who are facing health challenges. Therefore, it is possible to suggest that if a healthcare campaign promotes the involvement and education of friends and family members, it improves its effectiveness, which may be said about Hear Her. Further, according to Jiang (2017), patient-centered communication is a critical element in enhancing their emotional well-being. Since the selected project encourages medical professionals to engage in patient-centered communication with pregnant women, the campaign may be considered successful.
Media Resources and Social Networks Usage
In this digital century, it is of vital importance for campaigns to use social media to convey their message. For instance, Chung (2016) recommends using Twitter and allowing numerous individuals and nonprofit organizations to post about the project. What is more, the necessity of using social networks for the campaign’s promotion is highlighted by Shi et al. (2018) and Freeman et al. (2015). Precisely the use of social networking sites can lead to the project’s popularity and sincere promotion by those who became interested in the campaign’s idea. In the case of Hear Her, it is possible to state that the project uses social media, but there is an opportunity for further growth. For example, the campaign encourages individuals to support them by sharing information on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook (“Social Media,” 2022). Interestingly, Hear Her even has its hashtag and provides post templates for these three social networks with sample texts and pictures (“Social Media,” 2022). Overall, while it is possible to engage in social media more, the campaign’s current efforts are quite adequate.
Conclusion
To conclude, one may say that the overall effectiveness of the selected health campaign is quite high. The topic covered by Hear Her is relevant and significant for American society’s well-being, while the project itself is accessible and inclusive. To make sure that the information they provide is accessed and perceived by as many people as possible, the campaign’s creators decided to use various formats and expand their target audience.
References
About the campaign. (2022). CDC. Web.
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Chung, J. E. (2016). A smoking cessation campaign on Twitter: Understanding the use of Twitter and identifying major players in a health campaign. Journal of Health Communication, 21(5), 517-526. Web.
Doctor’s Message to Medical Colleagues. Web.
Freeman, B., Potente, S., Rock, V., & McIver, J. (2015). Social media campaigns that make a difference: What can public health learn from the corporate sector and other social change marketers. Public Health Research and Practice, 25(2).
Guide for Friends and Families. Web.
Hear Her Campaign Promo Video. Web.
Helpful Poster for Healthcare Professionals. Web.
Jiang, S. (2017). Pathway linking patient-centered communication to emotional well-being: Taking into account patient satisfaction and emotion management. Journal of Health Communication, 22(3), 234-242. Web.
Robertson, R. D., & Vanlaar, W. G. M. (2017). Campaign evaluation [PDF document]. Web.
Personal Stories. Web.
Shi, J., Poorisat T., & Salmon, C. T. (2018) The use of social networking sites (SNSs) in health communication campaigns: Review and recommendations. Health Communication, 33(1), 49-56. Web.
Shin, Y. J., Miller-Day, M., Hecht, M. L., & Krieger, J. L. (2018). Entertainment-education videos as a persuasive tool in the substance use prevention intervention “keepin’ it REAL.” Health Communication, 33(7), 896-906. Web.
Social media. (2022). CDC. Web.
Stead, M., Angus, K., Langley, T., Katikireddi, S. V., Hinds, K., Hilton, S., Lewis, S., Thomas, J., Campbell, M., Young, B., & Bauld, L. (2019). Mass media to communicate public health messages in six health topic areas: A systematic review and other reviews of the evidence. NIHR Journals Library. Web.
Stinson, C., & Bucherati, E. (2020). The Hear Her campaign empowers pregnant and postpartum women. CDC Foundation. Web.