Publications

PGP has collaborated with thousands of social media influencers to tackle critical public health issues. This case study explores influencers’ perspectives on their engagement in PGP’s health programs. Overall, influencers report a positive effect on their brand, receiving positive comments, gaining or maintaining followers, and achieving similar or higher engagement  compared to their typical posts. These findings can help improve health programs and make them more impactful for influencers, with the ultimate goal of enhancing outcomes for the communities they serve.

Binge drinking is a critical public health concern, and there is a need for new innovative approaches to reduce binge drinking. This study evaluated engagement and responses to Drunken Rewind, a targeted animated series for males 18-34 years old, implemented in west Orange County, Florida. ​​​​This study adds evidence that a digital intervention aimed at reducing binge drinking can be feasibly implemented and positively received by a population that is difficult to reach with public health messaging.

There is a need for new, cross-sector collaborations to create innovative programs that meet young adults where they are to better support their mental health needs. This article highlights lessons learned from the implementation and evaluation of Presence of Mind, the first mental health initiative embedded into pre-existing professional esports networks.

Social media platforms have a wide and influential reach, and as such provide an opportunity to increase vaccine uptake. To date, there is no large-scale, robust evidence on the offline effects of online messaging campaigns. For this study, we aimed to test whether pre-tested, persuasive messaging campaigns from UNICEF, disseminated on Facebook, influenced COVID-19 vaccine uptake in Ukraine, India, and Pakistan.

In the USA, syringe services programmes (SSPs) provide a range of harm reduction services and have numerous benefits for communities. However, stigma, misconceptions about SSPs and changing policies/legislation remain a challenge to effective implementation. This study reviews the implementation of two digital interventions, Appalachian Influence and Shared Influence, which used social media influencers and digital volunteers to communicate positive information about harm reduction and SSPs.

The opioid crisis is a public health emergency in the United States, particularly in rural Pennsylvania. This study utilized an observational, cross-sectional design to examine latent subgroups of stigma and differences in support for harm reduction strategies. Findings highlight that OUD stigma profiles differ across rural Pennsylvania and are associated with varying support for harm reduction strategies. Individuals with less stigma report more support for harm reduction strategies. Interventions to implement harm reduction strategies should consider varying levels of stigma and use a targeted approach to inform implementation and messaging strategies.

Public health organizations are increasingly using influencers as trusted messengers to deliver health education to communities. However, there is a gap in established approaches to evaluate the success of influencer programs. This case study reviews the five main ways that PGP evaluates its influencer campaigns: digital metrics, comment sentiment analysis, influencer surveys, influencer interviews, and community surveys. This mixed methods approach to evaluation provides a comprehensive picture of a campaign’s impact by including the perspectives of both influencers and the populations they reach.

This article reports on lessons learned from monitoring Spanish-language vaccine misinformation. Analysts found that Spanish-language vaccine misinformation is easily identifiable, in part because it is not as well monitored as English language misinformation. Several websites have outsized influence in promoting Spanish-language vaccine misinformation, suggesting that it may be important to focus on a handful of hyperinfluential accounts and websites. Collaboration with communities and emphasizing empowerment are crucial to combatting Spanish-language vaccine misinformation. Ultimately, Spanish-language vaccine misinformation is not an issue of data access and knowledge of how to monitor it; it is an issue of prioritization.

Racial disparities in maternal and infant mortality have worsened since the COVID-19 pandemic. This blog describes the evaluation of Growing and Glowing, a digital media campaign to address low birthweight. Growing and Glowing featured content made by Black artists and a video series featuring Black prenatal care providers. The campaign acknowledged Black women’s unique pregnancy experiences, and focused on empowering them to advocate for themselves with information that can help them make informed decisions. While the pandemic shifted public health priorities, it is now time to refocus and commit to approaches that help Black women have the same opportunities for a health pregnancy and birth.

This case study provides insight on how to positively impact vaccine attitudes by applying data insights, testing and scaling online vaccine communication interventions in the Philippines. Published through a partnership between UNICEF, Meta, the Yale Institute for Global Health and the Public Good Projects, this case study highlights the value of regional testing of vaccine messages and utilizing social media insights and tools to encourage vaccine confidence globally.