Complementing the Sense-Making Approach With a Survey to Enhance Communication of HIV/AIDS Knowledge

In 2004, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention named the Baton Rouge, Louisiana, metropolitan area, in a tie with Miami, Florida, the second highest for new cases of AIDS per capita in the nation. This study uses the Baton Rouge case to suggest improvements to sense-making theory. It posits that complementing sense-making's traditional qualitative approach with quantitative analyses will improve long-term community-based healthpromotion campaigns by uncovering HIV/AIDS knowledge gaps that exist between groups and within individuals about their own risk for the disease. As the results show, many similarities were indeed found, but some differences also emerged. This triangulation approach is important in creating health communication messages that are effective with the entire population.