It’s not simply about sharing accurate information. It’s about whether that information is understood, meaningful and useful to the people receiving it.
A reflection from our Children for Health podcast on what it takes to turn health information into something people can actually use.
For me, effective health communication starts long before we communicate. It begins with an understanding what information people actually need and also what evidence exists and how that information can be best translated into something more meaningful and actionable for a specific audience.
In our work with children and in communities, it’s far more likely for them to engage with and act upon health information when it comes from sources that they trust and when it resonates with their own lived experiences and their own realities. But in today’s world, effective health communication also means addressing misinformation and disinformation.
This is something new we are looking into more in depth with along with all the health information that we are sharing. It is not sufficient to actually simply share the accurate information. We must also help people and the communities to navigate an increasingly complex information environment and build their needed skills to identify which is right and which is wrong in terms, especially in terms of health information.
This is particularly important for children because children are growing up in an environment where they are constantly, constantly exposed to information from multiple sources with this digital advancement. And our role is not only to provide accurate information, but I think we should also look into building their confidence, their critical thinking, their ability to engage with health information in a more constructive manner.
So across our work with different countries, what we have seen is that communication is most effective when people are not passively recipients of the message, but actively participants in that conversation.
