Fear-based health messages for Malay diabetes patients in Singapore

• Main Author: Kawaja, Ariffin
• Other Authors: Theng Yin Leng
• Format: Thesis-Doctor of Philosophy
• Language: English
• Published: Nanyang Technological University 2021
• Subjects: Library and information science::General::Education; Social sciences::Communication
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/146132
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Diabetes is a major cause of death worldwide and ranks amongst killer diseases such as cancer and cardiovascular diseases. The Malays with Type 2 diabetes were being investigated in this research as they are the most susceptible to the disease compared to the other ethnic groups in Singapore. Among the non-clinical intervention programmes, scholarly articles suggest that emotion-based health messages can be a powerful driver to promote health preservation attitudes and behaviours. The objective of this research was to investigate the influence of fear-based messages on patients' behaviours in managing their diabetes condition. To achieve this objective, the research was divided into three phases. In Phase I, forty stimuli were curated. Eight patients with diabetes and eight healthcare providers took part in two separate focus group discussions (FGDs) and a one-to-one interview to determine the appropriateness of the stimuli curated. In Phase II, 100 patients were recruited and asked to rank the stimuli according to three emotion metrics: valence, arousal and dominance. The metrics were derived from the standard Self-Assessment-Manikin (SAM). In Phase III, the rated stimuli were used in a 2 (high-threat, low-threat) x 2 (image, text) factorial design experiment, where 60 patients were recruited. The research findings indicated that varying the threat levels and manipulating the type of format (image or text) had no significant impact on Malay patients accepting the health messages. However, it was found that varying threat levels could influence message acceptance among Malay patients when moderated with perceived susceptibility and perceived response efficacy.