Assessing the effectiveness of informative video clips on Farsi-speaking . . .

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BC Place – Session 4, Tuesday, May 30, 2006 from 15:00 – 16:30

Abstract Title: Assessing the effectiveness of informative video clips on Farsi-speaking immigrants’ perception toward and intention to use BC HealthGuide Services in GVA

Presenting Author:
Iraj Poureslami
Adjunct Professor IHPR and UBC

Additional Authors:
Dr. Irving Rootman, Professor
Centre for Community Health Promotion Research, UVIC

Ellen Balka, Professor
School of Communication, SFU

Objective:
This study aims to assess the effects of broadcasting a series of videos, intended to provide information about the BC HealthGuide program in Farsi, on the awareness about and the patterns of the service usage among Farsi-speaking communities in the Greater Vancouver Area. The major goals of the present study were; (1) to compare two methods of communications (direct vs. indirect messages) on the attitudes and perceptions of the viewers regarding the credibility of messengers and the relevance of the information provided in the videos, and (2) to compare and contrast the impact of providing health information (i.e., the produced videos) via local TVs with the same materials when presented in group sessions (using VCR) on participants’ attitudes and perceptions towards the BC HealthGuide Services.

Results:
Through a telephone survey, 591 Farsi-speaking adults were interviewed in November and December 2004. 35% of the participants were males and 65% were females. The preliminary findings show that 36.5% of the participants had seen the aired videos, from which, 59.7% watched at least one of the ‘drama’ clips, 5.1% watched only ‘documentary’ clip, and 35.2% watched both types of video. In addition, 34.8% of the respondents claimed that they were aware about the program before watching the videos, while 65.2% said they leaned about the services only after watching the videos. From this group, 11.7% said they called the BC NurseLine for their own or their children’s health problems in the past month. 60.7% also indicated that they would use the services in the future whenever it would be needed. 28% considered the videos as “very good” and thought they could deliver relevant messages and 18% expressed their wish to increase the variety of subjects and increase the frequency of video clips.

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