Spillover Effects of COVID-19 News Coverage on Willingness to Participate in Medical Research in a Diverse Sample of US Older Adults

Abstract

COVID-19 has dominated news coverage since the beginning of the pandemic. The extent to which exposure to such news affected perceptions of medical research and other health issues is not clear, especially among older adults who are more susceptible to infection and experience more COVID-19-related morbidity and mortality. This study uses a two-wave national panel of U.S. adults ages 50 years and older ( n = 1,240) to examine the mechanism through which exposure to source-specific news outlets (e.g., national network broadcasts, CNN, Fox News, MSNBC) affected willingness to participate in medical research for COVID-19 and Alzheimer’s disease (AD), both of which afflicts millions of older adults. We hypothesized that spillover from COVID-19 information exposure influenced potential research participation in AD research through attitudes toward science and COVID-19 misperceptions. Path analysis results provide empirical support for spillover effects which vary by news outlet.