Michael Mackert

About

Michael Mackert, Ph.D., is the Director of The University of Texas at Austin Center for Health Communication and a Professor in the School of Advertising & Public Relations and the Department of Population Health. His research primarily focuses on strategies used in traditional and new digital media to provide effective health communication to audiences with low health literacy. He leads projects on various public health issues, including tobacco cessation, opioid overdose prevention, and men's role in prenatal health, which generate evidence-based health communication strategies and contribute to health communication scholarship.

Research topics

• Political Science
• Computer Science
• Medicine
• Sociology
• Psychology
• Business
• Public relations
• Nursing
• World Wide Web
• Pedagogy

Selected publications

• Global health crises are also information crises: A call to action

  Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology · 2020 · 200 citations

  crises"; (b) recommend changes needed for the field of information science to play a leading role in such crises; and (c) propose actionable items for short- and long-term research, education, and practice in information science.

  DOI

• Are Health Literacy and Patient Activation Related to Health Outcomes in Breast Cancer Patients?

  HLRP Health Literacy Research and Practice · 2021 · 34 citations

  BACKGROUND: Assessing health literacy and patient activation at the beginning of care could facilitate the provision of appropriate information to patients with breast cancer and increase the effectiveness of interventions geared toward improving patient involvement in self-managing their health and, consequently, their quality of life. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to evaluate cancer health literacy and patient activation in patients with breast cancer as well as examine their relationsh…

  DOI

• Applying Best Practices from Health Communication to Support a University’s Response to COVID-19

  Health Communication · 2020 · 27 citations

  1st authorCorresponding

  Higher education institutions face profound communication challenges managing risks for university communities during the ongoing pandemic. This commentary shares 1) findings from our study involving analysis of 17 focus groups of students, faculty, staff, and parents of students to explore effective COVID-19 messages about campus safety, and 2) insights into the process of integrating the expertise of a university health communication center into campus-wide responses to COVID-19. Key focus gro…

  DOI

• Sudden Infant Death Syndrome on Facebook: Qualitative Descriptive Content Analysis to Guide Prevention Efforts

  Journal of Medical Internet Research · 2020 · 23 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  BACKGROUND: Sudden unexpected infant death (SUID), which includes the diagnosis of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), is a leading cause of infant mortality in the United States. Despite prevention efforts, many parents continue to create unsafe infant sleep environments and use potentially dangerous infant sleep and monitoring devices, ultimately leading to sleep-related infant deaths. Analyzing Facebook conversations regarding SIDS may offer a unique maternal perspective to guide future rese…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Social media conversations about community water fluoridation: formative research to guide health communication

  Journal of Public Health Dentistry · 2020 · 21 citations

  1st authorCorresponding

  OBJECTIVES: Community water fluoridation (CWF) is one of the greatest public health achievements of the 20th century. Despite this achievement, there are still misunderstandings about the safety of water fluoridation. Previous communication campaigns advocating CWF have been unsuccessful in combating these misunderstandings, suggesting a need for a new way to promote CWF. The goal of this article is to guide research for future campaigns by analyzing the digital conversation regarding community…

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Allison J. Lazard

  University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

  39 shared

• Sara Champlin

  University of North Texas

  37 shared

• William L. England

  25 shared

• Gina Perez

  University of Miami

  25 shared

• Kathryn Cristaldi

  Medical University of South Carolina

  25 shared

• Pamela Whitten

  22 shared

• Marie Guadagno

  Mitre (United States)

  21 shared

• Erin E. Donovan

  Massachusetts General Hospital

  15 shared

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