Enhancing Web-Based Kidney Disease Prevention Messages for Hispanics Using Targeting and Tailoring

Abstract

The goal of this experiment was to assess the effects of targeted and tailored web-based messages on Hispanics' perceived susceptibility to kidney disease, and on their intention to talk to a doctor about kidney disease (the recommended behavior). Two-hundred-seventeen English-speaking Hispanics age 40 and older were recruited using an online survey service, and they were assigned randomly to read one of four messages (i.e., control, generic, targeted, and tailored). The hypothesis predicted a positive linear trend between type of message received and perceived susceptibility and intentions. Results were partially consistent with this hypothesis. Specifically, perceived susceptibility to kidney disease was highest in the tailored condition, followed by the generic and targeted conditions (which did not differ from each other), followed by the control condition where perceived susceptibility was the lowest. For behavioral intention, those in the tailored, targeted, and generic conditions did not differ from one an other; however, all three did report greater intentions to ask a doctor about kidney disease than those in the control condition. The theoretical and practical insights and implications of these findings are discussed.

This project was funded by the School of Communication at The Ohio State University and the National Kidney Foundation of Ohio.

Notes

¹All threat and efficacy examples presented in this paragraph were taken directly from the messages being evaluated in this study. Additional information about the messages is included in the Method section.

²The message developed for this study was guided by formative evaluation with target audience members (i.e., four focus groups and approximately 20 surveys). Due to page limitations, we are not able to report the full results of the formative evaluation here. However, we would like to note that those who participated in the focus groups and completed the surveys clearly indicated that perceived severity toward kidney disease was already very high, as were response-efficacy and self-efficacy toward the recommended behavior (i.e., talking to a doctor about kidney disease). Thus, a hypothesis regarding these variables did not seem warranted in this instance. To verify this, however, we also included the severity (α = .84), response-efficacy (α = .90), and self-efficacy (α = .82) subscales from Witte et al.'s Risk Behavior Diagnostic Scale on our survey (each subscale contains three items, with response categories ranging from “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree” on a seven-point scale). As expected (and consistent with focus group results), there was a ceiling effect for all three variables, which left little room for upward movement. Not surprisingly, then, one-way ANOVA revealed no differences between any of the groups for severity, F (3, 211) = 1.83, p = .14 (overall M = 6.25), response-efficacy, F (3, 210) = 1.56, p = .20 (overall M = 6.26), or self-efficacy, F (3, 210) = 0.20, p = .89 (overall M = 6.20).

^a Seven key risk factors derived from The National Kidney and Urologic Diseases Information Clearinghouse (2005), National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (2005), and U.S. Renal Data System (2007).

^b Number of risk factors (M = 3.32; SD = 1.11) did not differ across the four conditions, F (3, 213) = 0.09, p = .97.

^c These age ranges were selected as each is at an increasing risk of kidney disease.