Health is critical to quality of life, but people often don’t adopt evidence-based health practices. In addition, historically marginalized communities and minority groups are disproportionately affected by negative health outcomes. SCR Associates conduct research designed to identify and implement communication strategies and campaigns to improve individual and public health.

 

Our Research

From cigarette warning labels to campaigns about genetic testing, vaccines, and prevention of sexually transmitted diseases, SCR leads transdisciplinary research to determine how to effectively communicate about health and achieve positive and equitable health outcomes.

• These questions have never been more important as we face the health and equity implications of climate change. In collaboration with other experts, SCR Director Dr. Ellen Peters developed insights from psychological and communication sciences to help health professionals better communicate the health effects of climate change through the use of information that promotes action rather than confusion. She is now on the U.S. Brief Working Group for the Lancet Countdown, which tracks the impact of climate change on human health in the S. Policy Brief for the Lancet Countdown.
• SCR Associates — Dr. Autumn Shafer, Dr. Brittany Shoots-Reinhard, and Director Dr. Ellen Peters — also conduct research for a statewide public health campaign designed to help people understand inherited genetic cancer risk and to communicate cancer risk to the Oregon public.
• With the guidance of Dr. Ellen Peters, SCR Emerging Scholar and science communication minor Eliza Lawrence published her first peer-reviewed paper and won the UO Undergraduate Research Symposium’s Knight Campus Poster Award.

 

Spotlight Project: Wellness among Latinx Migrants and Seasonal Farmworkers

With funding from SCR’s inaugural Small Grants Program, Assistant Professor Dr. James Muruthi, Counseling Psychology and Human Services in the College of Education, is studying disaster-related health communication and wellness among marginalized Latinx farmworkers in a limited resource setting.

Dr. Murithi’s project is designed to increase understanding of how information about the summer 2020 Oregon wildfires was communicated to, and among, middle-aged and older Latinx migrants and seasonal farmworkers (MSFW). This study combines a multiphase disaster communication model, community

health resilience, and minority health disparity approaches to learn from the participants about the impacts of English-dominant disaster communication on their preparedness. It also explores whether MSFWs have community-based communication strategies during natural disasters, such as the recent wildfires in Oregon.

SCR Associates Who Study Health Communication

Elliot Berkman
Pär Bjälkebring
Donna Davis
Raleigh Goodwin
Dave Markowitz
Juan-Carlos Molleda
Ellen Peters
Autumn Shafer
Brittany Shoots-Reinhard
Michael Silverstein
Paul Slovic
Martin Tusler