Understanding tailoring in communicating about health

In the paper

“Some tailoring studies have used such designs [19].”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [19] Kreuter MW, Bull F, Clark EM, et al. Understanding how people process health information: a comparison of tailored and untailored weight loss materials. Health Psychol. 1999;18:487–94. doi: 10.1037//0278-6133.18.5.487. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

In the paper

“We know of no research testing these proposed effects and mechanisms of effect of tailored feedback, nor of research comparing effects of different types or combinations of feedback in tailored health communication programs.”

In the paper

“As noted at the outset of this section, the three tailoring strategies are frequently used in combination with each other and can even occur within a single message.”

In the paper

“Some such research already exists, labeled as comparing undifferentiated versus ‘targeted’ or ‘targeted’ versus ‘tailored’ messages.”

In the paper

“Although differences between the three feedback tactics are subtle in practice, it seems possible that some might be more effective for certain individuals under certain circumstances.”

In the paper

“Another comparative feedback tactic gathers data from the same individuals over time and messages report on progress over time (i.e. self-comparison) [40].”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [40] Velicer W, Prochaska J, Fava JL, et al. Interactive versus noninteractive interventions and dose-response relationships for stage-matched smoking cessation programs in a managed care setting. Health Psychol. 1999;18:21–8. doi: 10.1037//0278-6133.18.1.21. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

In the paper

“Research on this dimension of dose has been limited and inconclusive [40].”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [40] Velicer W, Prochaska J, Fava JL, et al. Interactive versus noninteractive interventions and dose-response relationships for stage-matched smoking cessation programs in a managed care setting. Health Psychol. 1999;18:21–8. doi: 10.1037//0278-6133.18.1.21. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

In the paper

“Tailored evaluative feedback varies in the depth of inference made.”

In the paper

“Tailoring involves either or both of two classes of goals (enhancing cognitive preconditions for message processing and enhancing message impact through modifying behavioral determinants of goal outcomes) and employs strategies of personalization, feedback and content matching.”

• Also stated in: § Introduction · plain

  “Claims about why and how tailoring enhances health communication fall into two distinct classes of mechanisms: (i) that tailoring enhances cognitive preconditions for message processing or acceptance and (ii) that it enhances message impact by selectively modifying initial behavioral determinants of desired outcomes.”

In the paper

“These goals and strategies intersect in a 2 × 3 matrix in which some strategies and their component tactics match better to some goals than to others.”

In the paper

“Using information about particular individuals (tailoring in categorical terms) may customize to a yet more specific segment but is not a qualitatively different strategy.”

In the paper

“There is a growing consensus that these three constructs serve as the principal determinants of intention to perform a given behavior and that each is itself based on a set of underlying beliefs [9, 25, 26].”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [9] Noar SM, Benac CN, Harris MS. Does tailoring matter? Meta-analytic review of tailored print health behavior change interventions. Psychol Bull. 2007;133:673–93. doi: 10.1037/0033-2909.133.4.673. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
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In the paper

“Results so far have been generally positive but not consistently so, and this paper seeks to explicate tailoring to help focus future research.”

• Also stated in: § Introduction · plain

  “typically showing tailoring to be more effective than undifferentiated messages, though some studies have found no differences [4–8].”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [4] Skinner CM, Campbell MK, Rimer BJ, et al. How effective is tailored print communication? Ann Behav Med. 1999;21:290–8. doi: 10.1007/BF02895960. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
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In the paper

“and employs strategies of personalization, feedback and content matching.”

• Also stated in: § Introduction · plain

  “We propose that ‘personalization’, ‘feedback’ and ‘content matching’ are three distinct strategies through which the above tailoring goals can be achieved.”

In the paper

“But as one reads and thinks more about such tailoring, it becomes apparent that tailoring has encompassed a diverse set of both message construction methods and the psychological and social processes (generally assumed) by which enhanced communication effects are brought about.”

In the paper

“Since positive emotions tend to reduce effortful processing and negative emotions enhance it, emotion arousal could elicit varying cognitive processing [22].”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [22] Forgas JP. Affect in social judgments and decisions: a multiprocess model. Adv Exp Psychol. 1992;25:227–75. [Google Scholar]

In the paper

“it obscures the more useful idea that individualizing health communication involves two linked processes, segmentation and customization, each of which varies continuously (Fig. 1).”

In the paper

“A recent meta-analysis of tailoring studies utilizing print messages also concluded that tailored interventions are more effective than non-tailored ones and further explored a useful range of moderators of these effects [9].”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [9] Noar SM, Benac CN, Harris MS. Does tailoring matter? Meta-analytic review of tailored print health behavior change interventions. Psychol Bull. 2007;133:673–93. doi: 10.1037/0033-2909.133.4.673. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

In the paper

“(ii) the evaluation contains content information in that it gives a meaning to the factual psychological or behavioral state, thereby changing relevant beliefs,”

In the paper

“Feedback and content matching strategies are intended primarily to stimulate particular intermediate impacts, but they may also affect processing.”

In the paper

“and (iii) and the whole feedback text may increase the sense of ‘being acknowledged’.”

In the paper

“One reason may be that the receiver could perceive the tailoring agent to be highly insightful and skilled (i.e. credible) and perceives more presence [37] from the communication, just as deeper level reflections build rapport and encourage change in psychological counseling [41, 42].”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [37] Lee KM. Presence, explicated. Commun Theory. 2004;14:27–50. [Google Scholar]
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• Not checked yetcites [42] Miller WR, Rollnick S. Motivational Interviewing: Preparing People for Change. 2nd. New York: Guilford Press; 2002. [Google Scholar]

In the paper

“In effect, such designs test whether some example of segmentation/customization (tailoring) is more effective than little or no segmentation and customization.”

In the paper

“Such inferences, if correct, can yield new insights into a person's behavioral or psychological states, and we hypothesize that messages based on these inferences may be especially potent in changing beliefs.”

In the paper

“It may also produce non-specific effects such as ‘feeling acknowledged’, ‘feeling understood’ or creating a sense of presence [37, 38], which could build rapport and favorably influence interpretation of the tailoring agent's motives or lower resistance to persuasion.”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [37] Lee KM. Presence, explicated. Commun Theory. 2004;14:27–50. [Google Scholar]
• Not checked yetcites [38] Walther JB, Pingree S, Hawkins RP, et al. Attributes of online interactive health information systems. J Med Internet Res. 2005;7:e33. doi: 10.2196/jmir.7.3.e33. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

In the paper

“Comparative feedback may be especially effective among individuals for whom normative beliefs are important determinants of a given behavior.”

In the paper

“Tailoring on contextual variables alone may not be sufficient to bring about changes in behavior but might enhance the effects of other tailoring strategies on impact variables.”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [36] Kreuter MW, Skinner C, Holt CL, et al. Cultural tailoring for mammography and fruit and vegetable intake among low-income African American women in urban public health centers. Prev Med. 2005;41:53–62. doi: 10.1016/j.ypmed.2004.10.013. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

In the paper

“Identification has increased effects in some studies [29] but had no effects in others [33].”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [29] Dijkstra A. Working mechanisms of computer-tailored health education: evidence from smoking cessation. Health Educ Res. 2005;20:527–39. doi: 10.1093/her/cyh014. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
• Not checked yetcites [33] Bull F, Kreuter MW, Scharff DP, et al. Effects of tailored, personalized, and general materials on physical activity. Patient Educ Coun. 1999;36:181–92. doi: 10.1016/s0738-3991(98)00134-7. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

In the paper

“For example, personalization might lead to more positive thoughts but only when arguments are strong.”

In the paper

“Women who received magazines tailored on both constructs were most likely to report getting mammograms and to have increased fruit and vegetable consumption [36].”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [36] Kreuter MW, Skinner C, Holt CL, et al. Cultural tailoring for mammography and fruit and vegetable intake among low-income African American women in urban public health centers. Prev Med. 2005;41:53–62. doi: 10.1016/j.ypmed.2004.10.013. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

In the paper

“Such overreaching may then undermine tailoring not only by yielding less relevant messages based on erroneous conclusions about the individual but also by compromising the credibility of the tailoring program.”

In the paper

“‘Feedback with evaluation’ would seem to have at least three potential effects: (i) the factual feedback links the information to the individual, thereby increasing involvement;”

In the paper

“For example, personalization and feedback might be hypothesized to lead to greater personal relevance, attention to messages, and greater elaboration [44].”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [44] Kreuter MW, Skinner C, Steger-May K, et al. Responses to behaviorally vs. culturally tailored cancer communication for African American women. Am J Health Behav. 2004;28:195–207. doi: 10.5993/ajhb.28.3.1. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

In the paper

“Descriptive feedback ranges from simply restating or acknowledging information (e.g. ‘You said you smoke a pack of cigarettes per day.’) to providing information based on more complex processing of their responses (e.g. ‘Based on your answers, we determined that you eat 24 grams of fat per day.’).”

In the paper

“Although differences between the three feedback tactics are subtle in practice, it seems possible that some might be more effective for certain individuals under certain circumstances.”

In the paper

“In the case of weak arguments, personalization might lead to more counterargumentation and less desired effects.”

In the paper

“Personalization strategies are generally used to enhance message processing, though there is some evidence that they may also affect behavior directly [29].”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [29] Dijkstra A. Working mechanisms of computer-tailored health education: evidence from smoking cessation. Health Educ Res. 2005;20:527–39. doi: 10.1093/her/cyh014. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

In the paper

“As a final step in this explication, we suggested that strategies and goals are often linked, with personalization more often affecting processing goals and feedback and content matching more related to outcomes.”

In the paper

“Furthermore, claims and evidence of tailoring's effectiveness are based on a variety of goals, both to alter message processing and to directly impact useful intermediate outcomes.”

In the paper

“Because segmentation and customization rely on information about individuals and are arguably most effective when this information is detailed and relevant to targeted behaviors, individual-based assessments are often integral to tailored interventions.”

In the paper

“Beyond this, we have argued that all tailoring employs one or more of three basic strategies, which subsume further distinctions of tactics.”

In the paper

“The first argument that tailoring is not unitary results from the dual continua of audience segmentation and message customization: both are matters of degree, not categorical, and tailoring in practice thus varies continuously and relies on the linkage of the two.”

In the paper

“Because segmentation and customization rely on information about individuals and are arguably most effective when this information is detailed and relevant to targeted behaviors, individual-based assessments are often integral to tailored interventions.”