Public Health Messaging About Dengue on Facebook in Singapore During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Content Analysis
BackgroundDengue, a mosquito-borne disease, has been a health challenge in Singapore for decades. In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Singapore encountered a serious dengue outbreak and deployed various communication strategies to raise public awareness and mitigate dengue...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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JMIR Publications
2025-05-01
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| Series: | JMIR Formative Research |
| Online Access: | https://formative.jmir.org/2025/1/e66954 |
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| author | Shirley S Ho Mengxue Ou Nova Mengxia Huang Agnes SF Chuah Vanessa S Ho Sonny Rosenthal Hye Kyung Kim |
| author_facet | Shirley S Ho Mengxue Ou Nova Mengxia Huang Agnes SF Chuah Vanessa S Ho Sonny Rosenthal Hye Kyung Kim |
| author_sort | Shirley S Ho |
| collection | DOAJ |
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BackgroundDengue, a mosquito-borne disease, has been a health challenge in Singapore for decades. In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Singapore encountered a serious dengue outbreak and deployed various communication strategies to raise public awareness and mitigate dengue transmission.
ObjectiveDrawing on the Crisis and Emergency Risk Communication (CERC) framework, this study examines how dengue-related messages communicated on Facebook (Meta) during the COVID-19 pandemic fall into the CERC themes. This study also seeks to understand how these themes differ between dengue outbreak (eg, 2020) and nonoutbreak years (eg, 2021). In addition, we explore how message themes on dengue changed across different CERC phases within the dengue outbreak year.
MethodsWe conducted a content analysis on 314 Facebook posts published by public health authorities in Singapore between January 1, 2020, and September 30, 2022. We conducted chi-square tests to examine the differences in message themes between the dengue outbreak and nonoutbreak years. We also conducted chi-square tests to examine how these message themes varied across 3 CERC phases during the dengue outbreak year.
ResultsOur findings suggest that during the dual epidemics of dengue and COVID-19, Singapore’s public health communication on dengue largely adhered to CERC principles. Dengue-related messaging, particularly regarding intelligence and requests for contributions, significantly varied between outbreak and nonoutbreak years. In addition, messages on general advisories and vigilance, as well as those on social and common responsibility, significantly differed across the CERC phases during the dengue outbreak year.
ConclusionsSingapore’s public health authorities flexibly adjusted their messaging strategies on social media platforms in response to the evolving dengue situation during the COVID-19 pandemic, demonstrating the high adaptability of the government’s health communication amid the dual epidemics. However, several areas for improvement should also be noted for future public health communication to mitigate dengue transmission. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-671845ece9644805bb84f5944a6f07ce |
| institution | OA Journals |
| issn | 2561-326X |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-05-01 |
| publisher | JMIR Publications |
| record_format | Article |
| series | JMIR Formative Research |
| spelling | doaj-art-671845ece9644805bb84f5944a6f07ce2025-08-20T02:26:06ZengJMIR PublicationsJMIR Formative Research2561-326X2025-05-019e6695410.2196/66954Public Health Messaging About Dengue on Facebook in Singapore During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Content AnalysisShirley S Hohttps://orcid.org/0000-0003-1079-103XMengxue Ouhttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-0130-7640Nova Mengxia Huanghttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-0596-6301Agnes SF Chuahhttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-4658-166XVanessa S Hohttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-7311-6317Sonny Rosenthalhttps://orcid.org/0000-0003-4928-4916Hye Kyung Kimhttps://orcid.org/0000-0003-0870-147X BackgroundDengue, a mosquito-borne disease, has been a health challenge in Singapore for decades. In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Singapore encountered a serious dengue outbreak and deployed various communication strategies to raise public awareness and mitigate dengue transmission. ObjectiveDrawing on the Crisis and Emergency Risk Communication (CERC) framework, this study examines how dengue-related messages communicated on Facebook (Meta) during the COVID-19 pandemic fall into the CERC themes. This study also seeks to understand how these themes differ between dengue outbreak (eg, 2020) and nonoutbreak years (eg, 2021). In addition, we explore how message themes on dengue changed across different CERC phases within the dengue outbreak year. MethodsWe conducted a content analysis on 314 Facebook posts published by public health authorities in Singapore between January 1, 2020, and September 30, 2022. We conducted chi-square tests to examine the differences in message themes between the dengue outbreak and nonoutbreak years. We also conducted chi-square tests to examine how these message themes varied across 3 CERC phases during the dengue outbreak year. ResultsOur findings suggest that during the dual epidemics of dengue and COVID-19, Singapore’s public health communication on dengue largely adhered to CERC principles. Dengue-related messaging, particularly regarding intelligence and requests for contributions, significantly varied between outbreak and nonoutbreak years. In addition, messages on general advisories and vigilance, as well as those on social and common responsibility, significantly differed across the CERC phases during the dengue outbreak year. ConclusionsSingapore’s public health authorities flexibly adjusted their messaging strategies on social media platforms in response to the evolving dengue situation during the COVID-19 pandemic, demonstrating the high adaptability of the government’s health communication amid the dual epidemics. However, several areas for improvement should also be noted for future public health communication to mitigate dengue transmission.https://formative.jmir.org/2025/1/e66954 |
| spellingShingle | Shirley S Ho Mengxue Ou Nova Mengxia Huang Agnes SF Chuah Vanessa S Ho Sonny Rosenthal Hye Kyung Kim Public Health Messaging About Dengue on Facebook in Singapore During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Content Analysis JMIR Formative Research |
| title | Public Health Messaging About Dengue on Facebook in Singapore During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Content Analysis |
| title_full | Public Health Messaging About Dengue on Facebook in Singapore During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Content Analysis |
| title_fullStr | Public Health Messaging About Dengue on Facebook in Singapore During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Content Analysis |
| title_full_unstemmed | Public Health Messaging About Dengue on Facebook in Singapore During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Content Analysis |
| title_short | Public Health Messaging About Dengue on Facebook in Singapore During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Content Analysis |
| title_sort | public health messaging about dengue on facebook in singapore during the covid 19 pandemic content analysis |
| url | https://formative.jmir.org/2025/1/e66954 |
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