R N Rimal
Datos Biográficos
| ID | 820407 |
|---|---|
| NOMBRE | R N Rimal |
| NOMBRES | R N |
| APELLIDO | Rimal |
| FIRMA | RIMAL R N |
| AFILIACIONES | Johns Hopkins University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-1413-9305 |
| VERIFICADO | Sí |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 49 |
| TOTAL DE CITAS | 382 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 49 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 0 |
| PRIMER AÑO DE PUBLICACIÓN | 1995 |
| AÑO MÁS RECIENTE DE PUBLICACIÓN | 2026 |
| ÍNDICE H | 8 |
Introducing and testing the maternal vulnerability segmentation tool (MVST) for essential health services use
Ethiopia has made substantial progress in improving maternal health outcomes; however, significant disparities remain among populations whose individual, interpersonal, community and cultural factors place them at greater risk, as compared with those with better access to resources and healthcare facilities. Addressing these disparities requires initiating advanced and targeted segmentation tools to effectively identify and reach vulnerable group…
Improving Maternal Health Service Use Among Underserved Pregnant Women
The World Health Organization recommends that pregnant women attend antenatal care (ANC) regularly throughout pregnancy and deliver in a health facility. While prior interventions have sought to address social barriers to maternal health service utilization, the specific social mechanisms through which these interventions exert influence remain unclear. This study examined changes in key social factors following the intervention and their associa…
Transforming maternal health in Ethiopia
A significant number of maternal and child births in Ethiopia are at elevated risk because they occur at home and/or because of low rates of antenatal care visits. This study applied a human-centered design (HCD) approach to develop contextually appropriate solutions that can promote institutional delivery and a greater number of antenatal care visits. The HCD approach (a five-step design-thinking process) was conducted in two rounds of workshops…
Norms shifting and behavior change in uncertain times
This commentary reflects on the current state of evidence on social norms interventions focused on improving health and economic outcomes for adolescent girls and young women in low- and middle-income countries. Drawing on a newly published global evidence review, it highlights how the field has evolved from narrow, individual-level strategies toward community-centered approaches. While conceptual clarity and implementation tools have improved, s…
Using WhatsApp for vaccine promotion in low- and middle-income countries
BOX The combination of WhatsApp’s widespread use in low- and middle-income countries and array of low-cost messaging and data features suggests that the platform has great potential for health communication applications, including for vaccine promotion
More work for Ashas? Exploring the role of whatsapp messaging and community health work in urban slum areas of Varanasi, India
India’s community health workers (CHWs) have taken on an onerous set of responsibilities for the welfare of their clients across a variety of health domains, including providing modern contraception for family planning, promoting childhood vaccinations, and enhancing pregnant women’s nutritional outcomes. Governments have also added technology to this mix under the assumption that new digital tools can relieve the work burdens. Through interviews…
Evaluation of online videos to engage viewers and support decision-making for Covid-19 vaccination
Background Vaccine hesitancy has hampered the control of COVID-19 and other vaccine-preventable diseases. Methods We conducted a national internet-based, quasi-experimental study to evaluate COVID-19 vaccine informational videos. Participants received an informational animated video paired with the randomized assignment of (1) a credible source (differing race/ethnicity) and (2) sequencing of a personal narrative before or after the video address…
Production of vaccination videos in India
When projects require close collaborations between scientists and artists, committing to a unified vision is essential for facilitating open, bidirectional communication and building trust between the partners. Clearly denoting research boundaries ensures that the scientific needs of the project are met while simultaneously welcoming space for the filmmakers' creativity, fostering a sense of ownership, and enhancing the final product
Adapting and Validating the G‐Norm (Gender Norms Scale) in Nepal
Research calls for the sexual and reproductive rights field to prioritize gender norms to ensure that women can act on their reproductive rights. However, there is a gap in accepted measures. We addressed this by including important theoretical components of gender norms: differentiating between descriptive and injunctive norms and adding a referent group. Our team originally developed and validated the G‐NORM, a gender norms scale, in India. In …
Rumour spread and control during the West African Ebola epidemic in Liberia
The severity of the 2014-15 West African Ebola epidemic in Liberia was coupled with widespread misunderstanding of the virus among citizens and the proliferation of rumours. Rumour control during outbreaks is imperative to reduce the public's fears about a disease. In Liberia, a tracker system was developed to detect rumours as quickly as possible through SMS (short message service) text messaging. This study focused on assessing rumour circulati…
Descriptive, Injunctive, and Collective Norms
We propose and test several hypotheses derived from the expanded theory of normative social behavior (TNSB) that also includes collective norms (with descriptive and injunctive norms). Data come from a quasi-experiment intervention to promote safer driving among adolescents in Serbia. The intervention was administered among high school students, most of whom were on the verge of receiving their driver’s licenses. Longitudinal data were collected …
Dietary Diversity and Its Associations with Anemia among Women of Reproductive Age in Rural Odisha, India
The aim of this study is to examine diet diversity, predictors associated with it, and its associations with anemia among non-pregnant women of reproductive age in rural India. Baseline data from the Reductions in Anemia through Normative Innovations (RANI) project were used and included 980 non-pregnant women aged 15-49 years from Odisha, India. The Food and Agriculture Organization's Minimum Dietary Diversity for Women (MDD-W) was used to asses…
The G-Norm Scale
Gender norms are increasingly recognized as important modifiers of health. Despite growing awareness of how gender norms affect health behavior, current gender norms scales are often missing two important theoretical components: differentiating between descriptive and injunctive norms and adding a referent group. We used a mixed-methods approach to develop and validate a novel gender norms scale that includes both theoretical components. Based on…
Trends in handwashing behaviours for Covid-19 prevention
Handwashing is essential for respiratory virus prevention, but uptake of handwashing in the context of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic remains under-explored. This study examines trends in and determinants of handwashing practices for COVID-19 prevention in 10 countries in West, East, and Southern Africa. Data are derived from an online global Facebook survey assessing COVID-19 knowledge, attitudes, and practices, fielded in July (Round 1) and November 2…
Determinants of work capacity (predicted VO2max) in non-pregnant women of reproductive age living in rural India
Clinical Trial Registry- India (CTRI) http://ctri.nic.in/Clinicaltrials/pmaindet2.php?trialid=26285&EncHid=&userName=CTRI/2018/10/016186 on 29 October 2018
Does the Belief That Contraceptive Use Causes Infertility Actually Affect Use? Findings from a Social Network Study in Kenya
The belief that contraceptive use causes infertility has been documented across sub‐Saharan Africa, but its quantitative association with actual contraceptive use has not been examined. We collected and analyzed sociocentric network data covering 74 percent of the population in two villages in rural Kenya. We asked respondents to nominate people from their village (their network), and then we matched their network (alters) to the individual parti…
Toxicity and verbal aggression on social media
Medical and public health professionals recommend wearing face masks to combat the spread of the coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19). While the majority of people in the United States support wearing face masks as an effective tool to combat COVID-19, a smaller percentage declared the recommendation by public health agencies as a government imposition and an infringement on personal liberty. Social media play a significant role in amplifying p…
Construction of Meaning during a Pandemic
How social norms are formed likely has a bearing on the mechanisms underlying their effects on behavioral outcomes. We propose three mechanisms of norms formation - through direct experience, symbolically through media, or imaginatively - and introduce ideas about normative durability, normative subscription, normative volume, personal agency, and polarization of norms - that likely have a bearing on how norms affect behaviors. The COVID-19 pande…
Moving beyond individual barriers and identifying multi-level strategies to reduce anemia in Odisha India
Interventions should address multiple barriers to iron supplement use along the socio-ecological model. They should also be tailored to a woman's reproductive life course stage: adolescents, pregnancy, and non-pregnant women of reproductive age because social norms and available services differ between the subpopulations
The reduction in anemia through normative innovations (Rani) project
This trial was registered with Clinical Trial Registry- India (CTRI) (CTRI/2018/10/016186) on 29 October 2018
The Power of Being Transported
We evaluated the short-term effects of transportation on efficacy beliefs and risk perceptions after exposure to a climate change documentary. Data were collected in randomized laboratory ( N = 624) and online ( N = 1,391) experiments. Participants watched one episode of Years of Living Dangerously or a control video. Regression analyses assessed whether narrative transportation and/or political affiliation were predictive of outcomes. Transporta…
They Destroy the Reproductive System”
A common reason for nonuse of modern contraceptives is concern about side effects and health complications. This article provides a detailed characterization of the belief that modern contraceptives cause infertility, and an examination of how this belief arises and spreads, and why it is so salient. We conducted focus group discussions and key informant interviews in three rural communities along Kenya's eastern coast, and identified the followi…
Social norms
Social norms, as a topic of inquiry, has garnered significant attention from a variety of perspectives in recent years. Because of the rapidly-growing interest in social norms from scholars in multiple disciplines, this area of scholarship is often characterized by a lack of clarity on what constitutes social norms and how key concepts are operationalized. The objectives of this article are to (a) provide a review of the fast-expanding literature…
Theory and Practice in Risk Communication
A Re-Explication of Social Norms, Ten Years Later
We revisit some ideas from our previous article on social norms by conceptualizing norms as dynamic entities that both affect and are affected by human action; elaborating on the distinction between collective and perceived norms; summarizing key findings from studies that have adopted the theory of normative social behavior (TNSB) and thereby proposing guidelines for further expanding the purview of the TNSB; discussing the attribute-centered ap…
An Explication of Social Norms
This article identifies four factors for consideration in norms-based research to enhance the predictive ability of theoretical models. First, it makes the distinction between perceived and collective norms and between descriptive and injunctive norms. Second, the article addresses the role of important moderators in the relationship between descriptive norms and behaviors, including outcome expectations, group identity, and ego involvement. Thir…
A Re-Explication of Social Norms, Ten Years Later
We revisit some ideas from our previous article on social norms by conceptualizing norms as dynamic entities that both affect and are affected by human action; elaborating on the distinction between collective and perceived norms; summarizing key findings from studies that have adopted the theory of normative social behavior (TNSB) and thereby proposing guidelines for further expanding the purview of the TNSB; discussing the attribute-centered ap…
Understanding the Influence of Perceived Norms on Behaviors
Although a number of studies demonstrate the impact of perceived norms on human behavior, we know little about how this relation works. Extant norms-based campaigns to reduce alcohol consumption among U.S. college students fail to distinguish between descriptive and injunctive norms. In this article, we make this distinction, and we develop a model of normative influences that also includes the impact of group identity and communication patterns …
Healthy and unhealthy social norms and food selection. Findings from a field-experiment
The behavior of others in people's social environment (i.e., descriptive norms), as well as their opinions regarding appropriate actions (i.e., injunctive norms) strongly influence people's decisions and actions. The goal of this study was to extend prior laboratory research on the influence of social norms on food choices, by conducting a field-experiment in an on-campus food court. One of three different messages was posted on a given day: a he…
The Role of Anxiety in Seeking and Retaining Risk Information
Despite the importance of health information seeking, not all people engage in such behaviors, especially when thinking about the disease is distressing. The focus of this paper is to examine the antecedents of information seeking and retention. Based on individuals' risk perception and efficacy beliefs, the risk perception attitude framework is used to formulate four groups: responsive (high risk, high efficacy), avoidance (high risk, low effica…
Understanding the sources of normative influence on behavior
They Destroy the Reproductive System”
A common reason for nonuse of modern contraceptives is concern about side effects and health complications. This article provides a detailed characterization of the belief that modern contraceptives cause infertility, and an examination of how this belief arises and spreads, and why it is so salient. We conducted focus group discussions and key informant interviews in three rural communities along Kenya's eastern coast, and identified the followi…
Communication and Normative Influence
In recent years, we have witnessed a resurgence of interest in the study of normative influences. The multitude of scholars who approach the topic from a variety of disciplinary perspectives widely share the convention, backed by strong empirical evidence, that social norms exert a great deal of influence on human behavior and that processes of normative influence exist in a variety of contexts and situations that people encounter in their everyd…
Toxicity and verbal aggression on social media
Medical and public health professionals recommend wearing face masks to combat the spread of the coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19). While the majority of people in the United States support wearing face masks as an effective tool to combat COVID-19, a smaller percentage declared the recommendation by public health agencies as a government imposition and an infringement on personal liberty. Social media play a significant role in amplifying p…
Bidirectional Familial Influences in Dietary Behavior Test of a Model of Campaign Influences
Using both cross-sectional and longitudinal data spanning a decade, this article analyzes how dietary behavior of household children and adults (N = 576 households) was affected by the Stanford Five-City Project (FCP). Tests of a three-part, cumulative model of bidirectional influences within the family, which conceptualizes household members as sources of influence on each other and subject to influence by an external agent, were supported. Chil…
Audience Segmentation as a Social-Marketing Tool in Health Promotion
Objectives. We sought to determine whether individuals' risk perceptions and efficacy beliefs could be used to meaningfully segment audiences to assist interventions that seek to change HIV-related behaviors. Methods. A household-level survey of individuals (N = 968) was conducted in 4 districts in Malawi. On the basis of responses about perceptions of risk and beliefs about personal efficacy, we used cluster analysis to create 4 groups within th…
Does the Belief That Contraceptive Use Causes Infertility Actually Affect Use? Findings from a Social Network Study in Kenya
The belief that contraceptive use causes infertility has been documented across sub‐Saharan Africa, but its quantitative association with actual contraceptive use has not been examined. We collected and analyzed sociocentric network data covering 74 percent of the population in two villages in rural Kenya. We asked respondents to nominate people from their village (their network), and then we matched their network (alters) to the individual parti…
The Power of Being Transported
We evaluated the short-term effects of transportation on efficacy beliefs and risk perceptions after exposure to a climate change documentary. Data were collected in randomized laboratory ( N = 624) and online ( N = 1,391) experiments. Participants watched one episode of Years of Living Dangerously or a control video. Regression analyses assessed whether narrative transportation and/or political affiliation were predictive of outcomes. Transporta…
Food-related behavior, physical activity, and dietary intake in First Nations 1 – a population at high risk for diabetes
Diabetes prevention programs for First Nations should focus on improving physical activity and dietary intake by targeting specific risk group needs. Food knowledge, self-efficacy, outcome expectations, and intention are important factors in understanding those needs
Adapting and Validating the G‐Norm (Gender Norms Scale) in Nepal
Research calls for the sexual and reproductive rights field to prioritize gender norms to ensure that women can act on their reproductive rights. However, there is a gap in accepted measures. We addressed this by including important theoretical components of gender norms: differentiating between descriptive and injunctive norms and adding a referent group. Our team originally developed and validated the G‐NORM, a gender norms scale, in India. In …
The G-Norm Scale
Gender norms are increasingly recognized as important modifiers of health. Despite growing awareness of how gender norms affect health behavior, current gender norms scales are often missing two important theoretical components: differentiating between descriptive and injunctive norms and adding a referent group. We used a mixed-methods approach to develop and validate a novel gender norms scale that includes both theoretical components. Based on…
Moving Toward a Framework for the Study of Risk Communication
Moving Toward a Framework for the Study of Risk Communication
Bidirectional Familial Influences in Dietary Behavior Test of a Model of Campaign Influences
Using both cross-sectional and longitudinal data spanning a decade, this article analyzes how dietary behavior of household children and adults (N = 576 households) was affected by the Stanford Five-City Project (FCP). Tests of a three-part, cumulative model of bidirectional influences within the family, which conceptualizes household members as sources of influence on each other and subject to influence by an external agent, were supported. Chil…
Closing the Knowledge-Behavior Gap in Health Promotion
Three cross-sectional data waves spanning 10 years (N = 2,055; 2,026; and 2,068) and 2 longitudinal data waves spanning 4 years (N = 1,384 and 1,151) from the Stanford Five-City Project (see Farquhar, Fortmann, Maccoby, & Haskell, 1985, for a full description of the project) were analyzed to determine whether diet self-efficacy mediated the relation between diet knowledge and behavior. In the cross-sectional data waves, knowledge-behavior correla…
Perceived Risk and Self-Efficacy as Motivators
Using Witte's (1992) extended parallel process model, this study identifies 4 groups of individuals according to their perceived risk and self-efficacy: responsive (high perceived risk, high efficacy), proactive (low perceived risk, high efficacy), avoidance (high perceived risk, low efficacy), and indifference (low perceived risk, low efficacy). Membership in these groups is hypothesized to influence motivation to think about cardiovascular dise…
Perceived Risk and Self-Efficacy as Motivators
Using Witte's (1992) extended parallel process model, this study identifies 4 groups of individuals according to their perceived risk and self-efficacy: responsive (high perceived risk, high efficacy), proactive (low perceived risk, high efficacy), avoidance (high perceived risk, low efficacy), and indifference (low perceived risk, low efficacy). Membership in these groups is hypothesized to influence motivation to think about cardiovascular dise…
Perceived Risk and Efficacy Beliefs as Motivators of Change
Journal Article Perceived Risk and Efficacy Beliefs as Motivators of Change: Use of the Risk Perception Attitude (RPA) Framework to Understand Health Behaviors Get access Rajiv N. Rimal, Rajiv N. Rimal 1University of Texas 3Address correspondence to the first author at Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Kevin Real Kevin Real 2University of Kentucky Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Goo…
Perceived Risk and Efficacy Beliefs as Motivators of Change
Understanding the Influence of Perceived Norms on Behaviors
Although a number of studies demonstrate the impact of perceived norms on human behavior, we know little about how this relation works. Extant norms-based campaigns to reduce alcohol consumption among U.S. college students fail to distinguish between descriptive and injunctive norms. In this article, we make this distinction, and we develop a model of normative influences that also includes the impact of group identity and communication patterns …
How Behaviors are Influenced by Perceived Norms
Normative restructuring strategies currently under way to combat alcohol-related problems among U.S. college students are based on the idea that students harbor inflated perceptions about the prevalence of drinking on campus and that if these misperceptions can be corrected, then alcohol consumption will decrease. Evidence for the effectiveness of these strategies is lacking, and there is little discussion in the literature about how or why peopl…
Moving Toward a Theory of Normative Influences
In recent years researchers have focused attention on understanding the role of normative factors in influencing behaviors. Although there is some evidence to support the idea that restructuring normative beliefs can result in behavior change, the norms literature is largely silent about how or why this influence occurs. The theory of normative social behavior describes the moderators of the descriptive norm-behavior relationship. Through a 2 (de…
An Explication of Social Norms
This article identifies four factors for consideration in norms-based research to enhance the predictive ability of theoretical models. First, it makes the distinction between perceived and collective norms and between descriptive and injunctive norms. Second, the article addresses the role of important moderators in the relationship between descriptive norms and behaviors, including outcome expectations, group identity, and ego involvement. Thir…
Communication and Normative Influence
In recent years, we have witnessed a resurgence of interest in the study of normative influences. The multitude of scholars who approach the topic from a variety of disciplinary perspectives widely share the convention, backed by strong empirical evidence, that social norms exert a great deal of influence on human behavior and that processes of normative influence exist in a variety of contexts and situations that people encounter in their everyd…
The Role of Anxiety in Seeking and Retaining Risk Information
Despite the importance of health information seeking, not all people engage in such behaviors, especially when thinking about the disease is distressing. The focus of this paper is to examine the antecedents of information seeking and retention. Based on individuals' risk perception and efficacy beliefs, the risk perception attitude framework is used to formulate four groups: responsive (high risk, high efficacy), avoidance (high risk, low effica…
Modeling the Relationship Between Descriptive Norms and Behaviors
Informed by the theory of normative social behavior, this article sought to determine the underlying mediating and moderating factors in the relationship between descriptive norms and behavioral intentions. Furthermore, the theory was extended by asking whether and what role behavioral identity played in normative influences. Simulating the central message of norms-based interventions to reduce college students' alcohol consumption, in this field…
The Impact of Social Capital on HIV-related Actions as Mediated by Personal and Proxy Efficacies in Namibia
Food-related behavior, physical activity, and dietary intake in First Nations 1 – a population at high risk for diabetes
Diabetes prevention programs for First Nations should focus on improving physical activity and dietary intake by targeting specific risk group needs. Food knowledge, self-efficacy, outcome expectations, and intention are important factors in understanding those needs
Audience Segmentation as a Social-Marketing Tool in Health Promotion
Objectives. We sought to determine whether individuals' risk perceptions and efficacy beliefs could be used to meaningfully segment audiences to assist interventions that seek to change HIV-related behaviors. Methods. A household-level survey of individuals (N = 968) was conducted in 4 districts in Malawi. On the basis of responses about perceptions of risk and beliefs about personal efficacy, we used cluster analysis to create 4 groups within th…
Factors related to HIV-testing behavior and interest in testing in Namibia
HIV testing remains an important part of HIV prevention and treatment programs. Interventions to encourage testing may be more effective if they can be tailored to audiences with different readiness for testing. We sought to determine characteristics differentiating people who had tested from those who had not but were interested, and people who were interested from people who had not tested and were not interested in testing. We analyzed survey …
Duty and destiny
Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) are increasingly providing critical health-related services to hard-to-reach populations. In India, stigma has been cited as a barrier to NGO participation in HIV-prevention activities with high-risk populations. Our study undertook to characterize and contextualize HIV-related stigma within HIV NGOs in Delhi, India. We investigated psychometric characteristics and correlates of HIV-related stigma in a sample …
The Role of Interpersonal Communication in Reducing Structural Disparities and Psychosocial Deficiencies
Conceptualizing disparities as comprising both psychosocial and structural components, we hypothesized that interpersonal communication would moderate the effects of disparities on knowledge and HIV prevention behaviors. Using data (N = 3,843) from the Malawi BRIDGE Project, we examined the effects of project exposure on knowledge, HIV testing, condom use, and condom use intentions. Controlling for known predictors, exposure to the intervention w…
Stigma Against People with HIV/Aids in Rural Ethiopia, 2005 to 2011
Healthy and unhealthy social norms and food selection. Findings from a field-experiment
The behavior of others in people's social environment (i.e., descriptive norms), as well as their opinions regarding appropriate actions (i.e., injunctive norms) strongly influence people's decisions and actions. The goal of this study was to extend prior laboratory research on the influence of social norms on food choices, by conducting a field-experiment in an on-campus food court. One of three different messages was posted on a given day: a he…
Using social and behavior change communication to increase HIV testing and condom use
While overall HIV prevalence in Malawi has decreased, it is still high in the southern region of the country. Behavioral prevention activities are crucial to continue the reduction in HIV prevalence. Behavior change is influenced by many factors. Previous work indicates knowledge about HIV transmission, self-efficacy to protect oneself from exposure, and accurate risk perception of one's susceptibility all impact sexual behavior. The current stud…
Understanding the sources of normative influence on behavior
Theory and Practice in Risk Communication
Psychology (35 obras) · Social Psychology (31 obras) · Medicine (27 obras) · Political science (17 obras) · Behavioral Health and Interventions (15 obras) · Perception (15 obras) · Environmental health (14 obras) · Normative (13 obras) · Public health (13 obras) · Sociology (13 obras)