TABLE 6.
The campaign rationale.
| Vademecum keyword | Rationale | Conceptual link to the PHE model dimensions | Theoretical roots |
| Empathize (in Italian: Empatizza) | The acceptance of daily life limitations (such as lockdown) required to mitigate the contagion spread requires the individual ability to move from an individualistic consideration of personal benefit to the consciousness of one’s behaviors impact on societal health. This is also a function of an adequate ability to empathize with the other, their needs, and expectations. | Emotional dimension | Barello and Graffigna, 2020; Harper et al., 2020 |
| Navigate the right information (in Italian: Naviga le corrette informazioni) | The ability to navigate the corrected information about the virus, to recognize reliable sources of information is a crucial component of health engagement and foremost important in such an emergency such as the one of COVID19 | Cognitive-behavioral dimension | Koh et al., 2013; Smith et al., 2013; Palumbo et al., 2016 |
| Deal with stressors (in Italian: Gestisci lo stress) | The outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) may be stressful for people. Fear and anxiety about the risk of contagion can be overwhelming and cause strong emotions that might reduce people’s engagement in preventive behaviors. Thus, finding strategies to prevent fear and anxiety from turning into distress can help us regain control of our lives, increasing our capacity to respond positively and reducing the anxiety and distress caused by uncertainty in a rapidly evolving situation. | Emotional dimension | Moos, 1992; Daubenmier et al., 2007; Gruman et al., 2010 |
| Trust the healthcare system (in Italian: Affidati al sistema sanitario) | Mastering the consciousness of one own role in the healthcare system is a prerequisite of health engagement. Citizens are claimed to perceive themselves not only mere end-users of the healthcare system but also active players for the effectiveness and sustainability of the system. This in particular in the case of a Public National System such as the Italian one | Cognitive-behavioral | Gilson, 2003; Richards et al., 2013; Gabay, 2015 |
| Enjoy time (in Italian: Gustati il tempo) | If one disease can provide wisdom beyond our comprehension of how fragile, interconnected and precious life is, the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic offers citizens a plethora of lessons on the relevance to take time for themselves to engage in a psychological recovery during and after the pandemic. It’s important that people take breaks, and set up an accountability system for their lifestyle. In this situation, people need to ration their time wisely so that they can still meet targets while having a healthy work-life balance. | Emotional | Hunt and Macleod, 1987; Boekaerts, 1992 |
| Be enthusiastic (in Italian: Entusiasmati) | It’s easy to let negative thoughts and feelings creep in during the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite all of this, keeping a positive mindset can go a long way in managing through a difficult time. Having an attitude that looks for the positive and tries to be optimistic can help people to filter out some of the constant barrage of bad or discouraging news that might impact on people’s motivation to cope with the difficulties and engagement in healthy behaviors. | Emotional | Meyers and Meyers, 2003; Henley and Donovan, 2004 |
| Monitor yourself (in Italian: Monitorati) | Making people able to engage in self-monitor signals and symptoms is critical to assess if they may be at risk for disease and whether they qualify for additional testing or treatment. Symptom progression can occur rapidly and ensuring these people know when and how to seek hospital care can potentially save lives. Engaging people in monitoring and updating their health, medication, or treatment plans have the potential to increase treatment concordance, as well as enabling health care providers to review and intervene if needed. | Cognitive-behavioral | Dolan Mullen et al., 1997; Burke et al., 2002 |
| Keep balance (in Italian: Equilibrio) | Balance or balancing served many important purposes in the context of health and illness literature. Achieving balance as a state is recognized as a way to enable people to experience a sense of health and well-being. Research also associated balance with resilience, describing it as a means of coping, gaining inner strength, moderating vulnerability, and adjusting to difficult changes. Balance also helps people to deal with uncertainty, unfamiliarity, and unpredictability. Balance or balancing is also a source of consolation that could help people deal with adversity. Balancing seemed to improve people’s emotional experiences and self-esteem because it provided the necessary stability to prioritize commitments, helped people to resolve ambivalence, provided people with confidence about decisions made, and reduced guilt about value conflicts. | Emotional | Mullen, 1992; Lipworth et al., 2011 |
| Find a new normality (in Italian: Nuova normalità) | New understanding about people’s role in their health management and getting engaged in preventive behaviors calls attention to recognizing new forms of adaptations and new habits that encourage people’s own coping and creative processes to deal with their strain and, in some cases, reconstruct everyday lives. | Cognitive-behavioral | de Ridder et al., 2008; Darcy et al., 2014 |
| Be a leader of change (in Italian: Trascina) | Making a difference through guiding others, building awareness, and sensitizing the enlarged community is recognized as a characteristic of people fully engaged in their health. Helping others to adopt recommended behaviors to enable a virtuous circle of “health engagement contagion.” | Cognitive-behavioral | Stanhope and Henwood, 2014; Anderson and McCleary, 2015 |