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NIOSH Hearing Loss Research Program

**The NIOSH Office of Health Communication**

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            Overview

            
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Since its inception in 1995, the NIOSH Office of Health Communication
(OHC) has developed and implemented an Institute wide effort to increase
the effectiveness of, and support for, incorporating health
communication activities into Institute programs. Communication
initiatives assist by playing a key role in facilitating partnerships,
reinforcing NIOSH's scientific credibility with stakeholders and the
public, developing useful scientific information products, assisting in
the process of translating research findings into practice, targeting
dissemination efforts, tracking, and highlighting the effectiveness of
Institute efforts in positively impacting worker safety and health.
Communication strategies include needs assessment activities, worker and
employer information dissemination and outreach, professional and
academic involvement, training, media advocacy, worksite empowerment,
support for change interventions, social marketing, story telling,
entertainment education, public relations, health professional
networking, and media affairs.

The Associate Director for Communication is located in the NIOSH-Office
of the Director in Washington D.C. The Washington office includes a
small core of OHC staff which works closely with the communication
liaisons in the Institute's divisions, laboratories, and offices around
the country. Because of its unique capacity building mission the
NIOSH-OHC has the smallest permanent staff of any Center within the CDC
system.

# Communication Goals

The goals of the OHC are to:

-   Build and sustain health communication capacity and performance
    within the Institute

-   Encourage and ensure the relevance and quality of health
    communication strategies, messages, and scientific information
    products; and

-   Initiate and ensure continuous outreach and involvement from
    partners and stakeholders.

NIOSH shares common communication goals with the CDC and works
collaboratively to insure that these goals complement one another.

# Communication Standards 

The activities and initiatives that have been created to fulfill the OHC
goals are guided by the following three communication standards:
quality, performance and relevance. The management and maintenance of
these three standards are essential for effective communication and are
sustained by continuous partner involvement (Figure
1).![](media/image1.jpeg){width="1.3333333333333333in"
height="1.3333333333333333in"}

**I. Relevance**

To insure the quality of scientific information, OHC works with NIOSH
researchers and partners to identify key communication opportunities
that are directly related to long-standing and emerging occupational
safety and health issues. With the assistance of stakeholders, NIOSH has
identified eight key single industrial sector areas and twelve
cross-sector programs. *Information dissemination* has been designated a
major Institute-wide emphasis area (Figure 2). The OHC supports the new
NORA sector teams and assists the development and implementation of
their communication strategies and information products. The OHC also
works with its public health partners to identify key communication and
marketing issues and activities that arise from state based and local
surveillance activities.

The Institute supports and encourages the use of scientific assessments
to identify critical communication needs and opportunities. For example,
the NIOSH funded National Academies Study entitled; *Safety is
Seguridad* (NAS, 2003) provides a focused blueprint for information
dissemination and outreach to Hispanic workers and employers of Hispanic
workers.

Mandated requirements such as those for mining and construction are also
taken into consideration when identifying communication needs and
program goals. The following case study provides an example of NIOSH
communication relevance related to the mining industry.

*Case Study Example*

According to the Mine Safety and Health Administration, 10,923 miners
were injured and another 56 were killed in the U.S. in 2003. Most of
these injuries are preventable, but reaching such a specialized and
often hard-to-reach audience is a daunting task.

*Communication Response*

By partnering with external stakeholders and analyzing mining injury
data, NIOSH communication specialists created a new series of mine
safety training videos and delivered them in a format that can be easily
used by all mine sites. The videos engage workers and describe miner
safety practices through humor and use of miners as actors working
within the occupational norms of mining worksites.

*Impact*

The videos are currently being used across the U.S. and in more than 30
countries. According to data gathered from trainers and miners, the
videos are perceived as interesting and credible sources of information
and have influenced miners and employers to adopt correct safety
practices in the workplace. Trainers believe the videos to be highly
effective training tools because miners pay close attention to them. The
videos have won numerous awards for excellence in education, including
the NIOSH Alice Hamilton Award and the CDC Communicators Roundtable
Award.

**II. Quality**

The OHC has the responsibility of guiding and ensuring the integrity of
the scientific information product management system at the Institute.
The OHC does this by managing the Institute's unique scientific
information product review system. The review of NIOSH scientific
information products was developed to include all the intricate dynamics
of occupational safety and health that are different in fundamental ways
from those of other public health management practices. Scientific
information products are reviewed externally by labor, academia, and
other government agencies.

For the purpose of accountability, transparency, and quality control,
scientific information products are divided into three categories:
general, influential, and highly influential based upon OMB guidance
definitions (Figure 3). Each category has its own unique clearance
pathway and proscribed review requirements. The review pathway and
accountability requirements in the scientific information product
clearance system are recorded in an electronic repository.

NIOSH understands the importance of including external and internal
reviewers with the necessary independent technical and scientific
expertise as well as those who use and are impacted by the research
results reported in the information product. In August 2005, the OHC
initiated a beta-test of an electronic document management system (eDMS)
and Institute-wide training to improve the quality and efficiency of its
scientific information product clearance system.

**III. Performance**

The OHC provides access to training and support for NIOSH staff to
acquire knowledge and skills to plan, implement, and disseminate
scientific information products. It provides a focal point for
increasing the number of opportunities for NIOSH staff to receive
training in health communication techniques.

OHC tests the performance of its products through a variety of methods.
Web usability evaluations and scientific information product surveys are
conducted. NIOSH stakeholders also provide feedback on NIOSH
communication efforts before, during, and after product development.
NIOSH communication specialists carefully implement outreach and
marketing campaigns to receive feedback from stakeholders and customers.

The OHC ensures the marketing of its performance through various
methods. In 2004, NIOSH initiated the Research to Practice (r2p)
initiative. The purpose of this program is to reduce or eliminate
occupational disease and injury by increasing the use of effective
NIOSH-funded research findings in the workplace. The OHC works closely
with the NIOSH r2p Office to ensure that NIOSH research is translated
into useful communication products that best deliver the Institute's
research recommendations.

In addition to the traditional vehicles of dissemination the OHC takes
on unique demonstration projects to improve the Institute's document
development and dissemination performance.

*Case Study Example*

NIOSH is working closely with the Entertainment Education Community and
its partners to deliver OSH messages into the Hispanic community via
Spanish soap operas (Telenovellas) which are very popular among foreign
born audiences in the U.S. Many workers especially in mining and
construction are primarily Spanish speaking and have difficulty reading
or speaking English. In response to this need the OHC is creating
Spanish documents and televised messages to ensure that workers and
employers receive messages that they can understand. Because of the
demonstration nature of this activity additional independent partners
are providing an evaluation component to better understand the utility
of this unique channel in reaching an important but often hard to reach
audience.

# Conclusion

Communication plays an essential role in hazard prevention, and
occupational safety and health promotion. Communicating effectively
becomes a difficult task because occupational safety and health
information is often political, complex, and technical. Nevertheless,
the Institute guided by the OHC, is dedicated to insuring that
communication programs have great potential for success.