Framing Messages & Presentations

So this week we were supposed to talk about framing messages but unfortunately we didn't get to it, but I did get to read the two articles that we had to read for the week. The first article by Tversky and Kahneman mentions the concepts of framing messages to influence decisions and focusing heavily on psychological aspects. To be completely honest I found this article to be very confusing and I was REALLY glad we didn't get a quiz this week, because I was nervous what would be asked on it, because I had a really hard time following and understanding the article. Although I found the first article confusing, I was glad that the second one was easier to follow. The article by Rothman et al. focused on the concepts of gain-framed messages versus loss-framed messages. What the article indicated was that loss-framed messages are more effective when promoting screening behaviors while gain-framed messages are more effective in prevention behaviors. They discuss how they used the two messages on two different situations, one on a fictitious disease and the other on oral health. I found the article and the study quite interesting.

As for the group presentations, I found it quite interesting to hear what every group is doing in regards to their project. I feel as though each group did a great job in presenting their information and and well on their way in moving on to the next step. As for our group, I feel as though we just need to do a bit more interviews and really target more males, rather than just females. As Sheila mentioned, we need to decide if we want to focus on the Student ED drinker or on the Alcoholic ED drinkers. My only fear in moving toward the Alcoholic ED drinkers is that we may be moving away from our "nutrition" group and more toward the "substance abuse" group. Not sure if that is okay to do or not, but I guess at the end of the day we just have to figure out which target group is the best one to work with.

P.S. After the Cancer group presentation I was quite curious to learn more about bone marrow donation because I never heard of a non-surgical way of donating marrow. What I found was that bone marrow IS surgical in donation. The method in which you donate similar to blood donation is when the patient needs peripheral blood stem cell donation. And when you register to be a donor you can't choose to be one or the other. Just wanted to clarify this for people so you know and are not confused later when you find out what really happens. This is what I found on the Be The Match website.

Q: How are bone marrow and peripheral blood stem cell (PBSC) donation different?

A: Donating bone marrow is a surgical procedure done under general or regional anesthesia in a hospital. While a donor receives anesthesia, doctors use needles to withdraw liquid marrow from the back of the pelvic bone.

PBSC donation is a non-surgical procedure done in an outpatient clinic. PBSC donors receive daily injections of a drug called filgrastim for five days, to increase the number of blood-forming cells in the bloodstream. Then, through a process called apheresis, a donor's blood is removed through a needle in one arm and passed through a machine that separates out the blood-forming cells. The remaining blood is returned to the donor through the other arm.

Q: How will I know if I'm asked to donate bone marrow or PBSC?

A: When you join the registry, you agree to donate by whichever method is needed. The patient's doctor asks for either marrow or PBSC, depending on what is best for the patient.