How to Encourage Older Adults to Undergo Health Screenings?

#PaperReading #NewKnowledge Recently, my spouse shared a story about a coworker in their office who had been experiencing persistent abdominal pain. Despite repeated advice from colleagues to seek a medical check-up, the individual didn’t take it seriously. Only after the pain became unbearable, accompanied by cold sweats, did they visit the hospital—where they were diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer. For a long time, this coworker had avoided abdominal ultrasounds or colonoscopies. Yet, diseases like colon cancer can often be detected and prevented through early screenings. Similarly, modern illnesses like diabetes, hypertension, and hyperlipidemia require regular testing. But have you noticed that the older people get, the more resistant they seem to be toward health screenings? Ironically, for seniors, these screenings are even more critical. So why do older adults tend to avoid them? One plausible explanation is that the way we frame messages is ineffective. Framing theory suggests that the same issue can be presented in either a positive or negative frame. A positive frame highlights the benefits of performing a certain behavior, while a negative frame emphasizes the potential risks of not doing it. Most health and disease screening messages rely on negative framing because previous research often found that it had stronger persuasive effects. However, a recent study in the Journal of Consumer Psychology by a team from Zhejiang University and Hong Kong challenges this notion. They found that for older adults, positive framing might be more effective. They provide three key reasons to support this claim:Cognitive Decline with AgeAs people age, cognitive decline makes them more likely to engage in abstract and high-level (high construal) thinking. Research on framing theory shows that positive frames are typically processed at higher construal levels, making them more effective for seniors.Awareness of Life’s FinitenessOlder adults are more conscious of the brevity of life and are more motivated to focus on the gains highlighted in positive messages. They also tend to avoid information that triggers negative emotions, which is why positive framing resonates better.Novelty of Positive FramesOver the years, older adults have been repeatedly exposed to negatively framed messages about health screenings, making them less impactful. Positive frames, being less common, stand out more and are therefore more persuasive.In short, compared to younger consumers, older adults perceive positive framing as more diagnostic and are thus more likely to comply with disease-related screenings when exposed to such messages. This is the first article authored by Yu-Ting Pang, though it appears the project was likely overseen by the second author, Li-Li Wang, and their long-time collaborator Fang-Yuan Chen from the University of Macau. I met Yu-Ting last year in Paris—an outstanding young scholar. She seemed a bit shy but demonstrated great research acumen. Wishing her all the best in her postdoctoral journey at Hong Kong Polytechnic University! Reference: Pang, Y., Wang, L., & Chen, F. (2024). Message framing to enhance consumer compliance with disease detection communication for prevention: The moderating role of age. Journal of Consumer Psychology. https://myscp.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/jcpy.1436 加入免費會員，更新資訊不漏接： https://open.firstory.me/join/ckguycqvd09rl0903cnn324fv 小額贊助支持本節目： https://open.firstory.me/user/ckguycqvd09rl0903cnn324fv 留言告訴我你對這一集的想法： https://open.firstory.me/user/ckguycqvd09rl0903cnn324fv/comments Powered by Firstory Hosting