Abstract

GARCIA, Andreia  and  EIRO-GOMES, Mafalda. Health Communication in Times of Pandemic: The Perspective of Portuguese National Health Service Users. Comunicação e Sociedade [online]. 2021, vol.40, pp.189-203.  Epub Dec 20, 2021. ISSN 1645-2089.  https://doi.org/10.17231/comsoc.40(2021).3250.

The covid-19 disease, caused by infection with the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2), has introduced numerous global health communication challenges. The need for behavioral change, such as mask-wearing, hand washing, or social distancing, has become imperative to prevent the spread of this disease. Primary health care, due to its population coverage throughout the Portuguese territory and almost free of charge, plays a central role in health care provision, being the preferred contact between people and health services. The main objective of this study was to analyze, from the perspective of users of the Portuguese national health service (NHS; Serviço Nacional de Saúde, SNS), the contribution of the health center clusters, institutions responsible for primary health care in health communication regarding covid-19. Data were collected by online questionnaire from 904 users of the national health service residing in the 18 districts of Portugal between December 2020 and January 2021. Our research confirmed that health center clusters were the source of information the least sought after by users to learn about covid-19. Participants in this study also revealed that they had not received any information about the new coronavirus from their health center (80%), although they wished to have been contacted, preferably by email (87.2%), phone/mobile (36.5%), or mail (20.2%).

Keywords : communication for health; primary health care; health center clusters.

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