{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,27]],"date-time":"2026-08-27T06:18:07Z","timestamp":1787811487112,"version":"build-2784847793"},"reference-count":20,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,27]],"date-time":"2026-08-27T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1787788800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Public Health"],"abstract":"<jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Introduction<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted significant failures in United States public health communications, which were often perceived as unclear and biased, particularly among racialized and marginalized groups. As generative artificial intelligence (genAI) becomes integrated into public health practice, there is an urgent need to train the workforce to recognize and mitigate the societal biases these tools can reproduce. This study describes the development and classroom testing of a tool designed to teach these critical evaluation skills.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      We developed the \u201cHealth Communications Assessment Checklist,\u201d a 14-question pedagogical tool based on the CommunicateHealth Framework for Equity-Centered Health Communication and the CDC\u2019s Guiding Principles for health equity. The checklist was tested during the 2024\u20132025 academic year in two graduate-level courses (\n                      <jats:italic>n<\/jats:italic>\n                      \u202f=\u202f55 students) at a large public university. The single-lesson exercise required students to use ChatGPT-4o to generate health communication content and then apply the checklist to critique the output for clarity, relatability, actionability, and inclusivity.\n                    <\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Post-exercise surveys and classroom discussions indicated positive student engagement and self-reported skill-building in critical assessment. A key finding was that students leaned heavily on their diverse individual identities and lived experiences to identify subtle biases that the AI generated. Furthermore, the checklist acted as a self-assessment tool, helping students identify gaps in their own knowledge of communication implementation. Feedback led to iterative improvements of the tool.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Conclusion<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>The Health Communications Assessment Checklist is a simple, modifiable, and promising pedagogical tool for public health education. By centering equity and reflexivity, it helps prepare the future workforce to critically manage AI-generated content, ensuring health communications are inclusive and effective in promoting health equity.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/fpubh.2026.1872506","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,27]],"date-time":"2026-08-27T05:33:48Z","timestamp":1787808828000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["The Health Communications Assessment Checklist: a teaching tool for uncovering bias in the age of AI"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"14","author":[{"given":"Rebecca H.","family":"Ofrane","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Public Health, College for Community Health, Montclair State University","place":["Montclair, NJ, United States"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Taliah","family":"Canada","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Public Health, College for Community Health, Montclair State University","place":["Montclair, NJ, United States"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Amanda S.","family":"Birnbaum","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Public Health, College for Community Health, Montclair State University","place":["Montclair, NJ, United States"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,27]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"618","DOI":"10.1093\/eurpub\/ckae042","article-title":"Where did public health go wrong? Seven lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic","volume":"34","author":"Ali","year":"2024","journal-title":"Eur J Pub Health"},{"key":"ref2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1080\/10410236.2021.1994910","article-title":"Public health messaging during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond: lessons from communication science","volume":"37","author":"Nan","year":"2021","journal-title":"Health Commun"},{"key":"ref3","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1256829","DOI":"10.3389\/fpubh.2023.1256829","article-title":"The impact of nontransparent health communication during the COVID-19 pandemic on vaccine-hesitant people\u2019s perception of vaccines","volume":"11","author":"Wegwarth","year":"2024","journal-title":"Front Public Health"},{"key":"ref4","author":"Halkitis","year":"2025"},{"key":"ref5","volume-title":"Public Health Policy as Public Choice Failure (SSRN Scholarly Paper No. 4850221)","author":"Manta","year":"2024"},{"key":"ref6","volume-title":"5 Years Later: America Looks Back at the Impact of COVID-19","year":"2025"},{"key":"ref7","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"183","DOI":"10.1007\/s11524-020-00508-9","article-title":"The expanding digital divide: digital health access inequities during the COVID-19 pandemic in new York City","volume":"98","author":"Eruchalu","year":"2021","journal-title":"J Urban Health"},{"key":"ref8","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"e66032","DOI":"10.2196\/66032","article-title":"Health communication on the internet: promoting public health and exploring disparities in the generative AI era","volume":"27","author":"Uddin","year":"2025","journal-title":"J Med Internet Res"},{"key":"ref9","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"e10453","DOI":"10.7759\/cureus.10453","article-title":"Role of mass media and public health communications in the COVID-19 pandemic","volume":"12","author":"Anwar","year":"2020","journal-title":"Cureus"},{"key":"ref10","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"2339","DOI":"10.1186\/s12889-022-14707-3","article-title":"What did the pandemic teach us about effective health communication? 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