Enhancing Helicobacter pylori prevention through fear appeals in health public service announcements: Two randomized experiments.

Abstract

Objective: Given the high prevalence of Helicobacter pylori infection and the established effectiveness of H. pylori prevention in reducing gastric cancer risk, efforts generally focus on promoting H. pylori screening and risk-reducing dining customs. This study aimed to identify effective fear appeal public service announcements (PSAs) capable of promoting intentions for H. pylori prevention.

Method: The participants in our experiments were recruited from an online survey platform in China. Experiment 1 employed a 2 (self-oriented threat: present vs. absent) × 2 (other-oriented threat: present vs. absent) × 2 (personal efficacy: present vs. absent) design to assess H. pylori screening intentions. A total of 312 participants were randomly assigned to eight conditions. Experiment 2 utilized a 2 (self-oriented threat: present vs. absent) × 2 (other-oriented threat: present vs. absent) × 2 (efficacy types: personal vs. collective) design to evaluate intentions to use separate serving chopsticks as the risk-reducing dining custom, with 293 participants randomly assigned to eight conditions.

Results: In Experiment 1, positive effects were observed for self-oriented threat, other-oriented threat, and personal efficacy in fear appeal PSAs on H. pylori screening intention. The three-way interaction effect revealed that the effects of fear appeal PSAs on H. pylori screening intentions depended on the presence of other-oriented threat. In Experiment 2, fear appeal PSAs with a collective efficacy message elicited higher intentions to use separate serving chopsticks than PSAs with a self-efficacy message.

Conclusions: Fear appeal PSAs aimed at promoting H. pylori prevention could highlight other-oriented threat and collective efficacy. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).