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L.Suzanne Suggs, PhD
Assistant Professor
 suzanne.suggs@usi.edu

suggs.info
 

   
 

Courses taught at USI:

  • Social Marketing
    • Fall semester. Masters level
    • Spring semseter: doctoral level
  • Design & Evaluation of Health Campaigns
    • Fall semester. Masters level
  • Focus Group Methodology
    • Spring semester. Doctoral leve
 

Biosketch:

My principal research focuses on communication strategies (social marketing, tailoring, targeting) and the use of communication technologies and new media to improve health status, health outcomes, and facilitate health behavior and social change. The majority of my current work focuses on physical activity and dietary behaviors using and testing the Theory of Planned Behavior.

Prior to joining the faculty at the University of Lugano in August 2007, I was Assistant Professor in the Graduate Program in Health Communication, Department of Marketing Communication at Emerson College and Adjunct Assistant Clinical Professor in the Department of Public Health and Family Medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston, Massachusetts. I have held positions as Research Assistant and Project Coordinator at the Oregon Center for Applied Science (Eugene, Oregon) and as Associate Director of Research at HealthMedia (Ann Arbor, Michigan). I earned my PhD in Health Studies from Texas Woman’s University and a post-doctoral fellowship in the Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Evidence-Based Practice Centre, at McMaster University in Ontario Canada.

I serve on the Editorial Review Board for the Journal of Health Communication, on the organizing board of the Global Social Marketing Association, and co-lead the European Social Marketer's Network.

 

Rules that I live by:

  • Have fun & Do what you enjoy
  • Daily physical actvity makes everything else better
  • Let food be your medicine and medicine be your food (-Hippocrates)
  • Every truth passes through 3 stages before it is recognized. In the 1st it is ridiculed, in the 2nd it is opposed, in the 3rd it is recognized as self evident (-Schopenhauer)

Health Communication

"Health communication encompasses the study and use of communication strategies to inform and influence individual and community decisions that enhance health. It links the domains of communication and health and is increasingly recognized as a necessary element of efforts to improve personal and public health. Health communication can contribute to all aspects of disease prevention and health promotion and is relevant in a number of contexts, including (1) health professional-patient relations, (2) individuals’ exposure to, search for, and use of health information, (3) individuals’ adherence to clinical recommendations and regimens, (4) the construction of public health messages and campaigns, (5) the dissemination of individual and population health risk information, that is, risk communication, (6) images of health in the mass media and the culture at large, (7) the education of consumers about how to gain access to the public health and health care systems, and (8) the development of telehealth applications."
- http://healthypeople.gov/Document/HTML/Volume1/11HealthCom.htm

Social Marketing

Social marketing is a process that applies marketing principles and techniques to create, communicate, and deliver value in order to influence target audience behaviors that benefit society (public health, safety, the environment, and communities) as well as the target audience."
- Kotler, Lee & Rothschild (2006)

A nice short overview of the link

For students: Check here for most up to date info

 

    

Courses taught at the SSPH+ MPH, DrPH, and summer school programs:

  • Focus Group Methods in Public Health
    • Spring semester. Masters level
  • Social Marketing
    • Spring semester. Masters level
  • Media skills
    • summer. doctoral level
  • Social Marketing (co-teach with François Legarde).
    • Summer School (August 10-14)

Active Research Projects:

  1. FAN: Testing Tailored Communication and New Technologies for Diet and Physical Activity Behavior
  2. Measuring the Determinants of Physical Activity Behavior for People Living with Type 2 Diabetes: Developing a Measurement Tool in Ticino Switzerland
  3. MoveM8: A test of the Theory of Planned Behavior and Persuasive Communication Strategies for Physical Activity promotion in the Workplace
  4. Teens Against Drinking & Drugs: A social marketing intervention using SMS and social media for the prevention of youth alcohol and drug use.

Sample of Completed Research Projects:

  • SENSI: Testing strategies to improve diet and physical activity behaviours in families with young children
  • Reception and Processing of Health Communication Messages Delivered via an Online Virtual World
  • SMS for the control of communicable and non-communicable disease in developing countries: A Systematic Review
  • Evaluation of the Efficacy of Passport for Life and PatientLink in Hemophilia Treatment Adherence
  • Identifying Communication Needs and Preferences of Obese and Overweight Sedentary Adults
  • The use of Interactive Web-based Technologies among College Students
  • The use of New Technologies for Physical Activity Promotion
  • Health Information Seeking Behaviors of Hispanic Women
  • Psychosocial Aspects of Pets in the Classroom: An examination of Attitudes and Experiences of Ontario Teachers
  • A Web-based Tailored Cookbook to Promote 5 A Day
  • Efficacy of a Web-Based Tailored Weight Management Program With and Without Tailored Nutrition and Goal Setting Support
  • e-Health and Mental Health Services: A Synthesis of the Literature to Identify Best Practices
  • Nicotine Replacement for Interactive Smoking Cessation
  • Interactive Program to Teach Pedestrian Safety-Grade K-3
 

Peer Reviewed Publications: (for most up to date, click here)

  • Suggs, LS. (In review). The Correlates of Public Opinion Toward Policies to Improve Children’s Diets: Results from the Eurobarometer.
  • McHugh, J., & Suggs, L.S. (Under Review). Online tailored weight management in the worksite: Do they make a difference in biennial HRA data?
  • Suggs, L.S., McIntyre, C., & Cowdery, J. (Forthcoming). Public Opinion towards Health Communication Measures to Address Childhood Overweight and Obesity in the European Union.
  • Suggs, L.S., Cowdery, J.E., McIntyre, C., & Noll, D. (Under Review). Hispanic women and health information seeking behavior: Is health communication a one-sided conversation?
  • Cowdery, J.E, Kindred, J., Michalakis, A, & Suggs, L.S. (Under Review). The effectiveness of Health Education Delivered Via an Online Virtual World.
  • Suggs, L.S., McIntyre, C., & Cowdery, J.E., (2010). Overweight and Obese Sedentary Adults’ Physical Activity Beliefs and Preferences. American Journal of Health Studies.
  • Suggs, L.S., Raina, P., Gafni, A., Grant, S., Skilton, K., Fan, A. & Szala-Meneok, K. (2009). Family Physician Attitudes about Prescribing using a Drug Formulary. BMC Family Practice.
  • Daly, B. & Suggs, L.S. (2009). Humane Education and Pets in the Classroom. Journal of Moral Education.
  • Suggs, L.S. & McIntyre, C. (2007). Are we there yet? An examination of online tailored health communication. Health Education & Behavior.
  • Cowdery, J., Suggs, L.S., & Parker, S. (2007). Application of a Web-Based Tailored Health Risk Assessment in a Worksite Population. Health Promotion Practice. 8(1). P. 88-95.
  • Suggs, L.S. (2006). A 10-Year Retrospective of Research in New Technologies for Health Communication. Journal of Health Communication. 11(1). p. 61-74.
  • Suggs, L.S., Cowdery, J., & Carroll, J.B. (2006). Tailored Program Evaluation: Past, Present, Future. Evaluation and Program Planning. 29. p. 426-432.
  • Suggs, L.S., Cissell, W.B., McIntyre, C., & Ward, M. (2002). Adoption of Communication Technologies in a Texas Health Setting. Educational Technology and Society. 5(2). 69-74.
  • Suggs, L.S. (2000). 1-2-3 SmokeFree Program at Quitcigs.com. Health Education and Behavior. 27(6). 682-3.
  • Oomen, J., Owens, L., and Suggs, L.S. (1999). Culture Counts: Why Current Treatment Models Fail Hispanic Women With Type 2 Diabetes. The Diabetes Educator. 25(2). 220-225.
  • Goldstein, R.B., Johannes, C.B., Woods, J., Crawford, S.L., McIntyre, C., Suggs, L.S., McWilliams, E.M., Rightmeyer, J., & Osganian, V. (1999). Use of wireless handheld computers in clinical research. Controlled Clinical Trials: Design, Methods, and Analysis. 20(2S). 44S.

Non Peer Reviewed Publications:

  • Eysenbauch, G., MacMiliian, H., McIntyre, C., McKibbon, A., O’Brien, MA., Santaguida P.L, and Suggs, L.S. (2004). A Synthesis of Literature to Identify Best Practices: e-Health and Mental Health Services. Prepared for the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care & Ontario Mental Health Foundation.
  • Suggs, L.S. (2003). Analysis & Perspective: The Case for Tailored Behavior Change Programs, HealthPlan and Provider Report. 9(50). 1336-1339.