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Policy PointsMany studies have explored the impact of message strategies to build support for policies that advance racial equity, but few studies examine the effects of richer stories of lived experience and detailed accounts of the ways racism is embedded in policy design and implementation.Longer messages framed to emphasize social and structural causes of racial inequity hold significant potential to enhance support for policies to advance racial equity.There is an urgent need to develop, test, and disseminate communication interventions that center perspectives from historically marginalized people and promote policy advocacy, community mobilization, and collective action to advance racial equity. Context: Long‐standing racial inequities in health and well‐being are shaped by racialized public policies that perpetuate disadvantage among Black, Brown, Indigenous, and people of color. Strategic messaging can accelerate public and policymaker support for public policies that advance population health. We lack a comprehensive understanding of lessons learned from work on policy messaging to advance racial equity and the gaps in knowledge it reveals. Methods: A scoping review of peer‐reviewed studies from communication, psychology, political science, sociology, public health, and health policy that have tested how various message strategies influence support and mobilization for racial equity policy domains across a wide variety of social systems. We used keyword database searches, author bibliographic searches, and reviews of reference lists from relevant sources to compile 55 peer‐reviewed papers with 80 studies that used experiments to test the effects of one or more message strategies in shaping support for racial equity–related policies, as well as the cognitive/emotional factors that predict their support. Findings: Most studies report on the short‐term effects of very short message manipulations. Although many of these studies find evidence that reference to race or use of racial cues tend to undermine support for racial equity–related policies, the accumulated body of evidence has generally not explored the effects of richer, more nuanced stories of lived experience and/or detailed historical and contemporary accounts of the ways racism is embedded in public policy design and implementation. A few well‐designed studies offer evidence that longer‐form messages framed to emphasize social and structural causes of racial inequity can enhance support for policies to advance racial equity, though many questions require further research. Conclusions: We conclude by laying out a research agenda to fill numerous wide gaps in the evidentiary base related to building support for racial equity policy across sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context In a time of economic austerity, one of the most daunting questions is who decides on healthcare rationing? In the current study, we sought to examine if the public can in fact provide meaningful information regarding healthcare policy issues. Based on theories of public policy, this paper tries to find out if patients behave akin to 'responsible citizens' and can provide differentiated expectations between three healthcare dimensions. Methods One thousand two-hundred eleven individuals participated in a telephone interview. Participants were asked two series of questions, one regarding their views on the primary care, prevention and promotion practices they experience with their healthcare provider and one regarding the importance of these practices to them. We calculated a difference score representing the gap in each healthcare dimension. Findings In all three healthcare dimensions, the mean gap is in the positive side of the axis indicating that the public does not receive what it expects to receive, or in policy terms there is 'a responsiveness deficit'. The mean gap in relation to primary care is significantly lower than the mean gap in both preventive care and health promotion. Conclusions The public can provide meaningful information even in areas of endless demand and can provide an addition point of view to be considered by policy makers in complicated healthcare rationing decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To examine whether there are individual level factors such as socio‐economic status that may predict disparities in the public's experiences with and expectations of their health‐care providers. Data sources/study setting: Primary data were collected in 2010. The sample comprised of 1211 Israeli citizens above the age of 18. Study design: Participants were randomly approached at one points in time and presented with statements regarding practices they experience and practices that are important to them related to primary care, preventive care and health promotion. We calculated a difference scores for each health‐care area. We measured socio‐economic status (SES) with three separate variables relating to income, education and living location. Data collection/extraction methods: Employees of a professional telephone survey firm conducted the survey. Multiple regression was used with the responsiveness gap in each of three health‐care areas as the dependent variables. Principal findings: We found that level of education is negatively related to the extent of the responsiveness gap in both primary and preventive health care and that income is negatively related to the responsiveness gap in health promotion. Conclusions: Personal characteristics such as SES are related to people's perceptions about the extent of the responsiveness gap. Policy makers can now expend efforts and resources in minimizing such responsiveness gaps among specific populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]