Health Communication最新文献

With the popularity of smartphones, their impact on the physical and mental health of left-behind adolescents has become the focus of social attention. Some believe that smartphone use will provide emotional compensation for left-behind adolescents, while others believe that the lack of supervision of smartphone use among left-behind adolescents will exacerbate their psychological problems. To explore the mechanisms of the dual effects, we conducted a field survey of 848 left-behind adolescents (male = 446, age between 12 and 19) in Shicheng County in Gannan Region of China. It was found that social smartphone use, recreational smartphone use, frequency, and duration of smartphone use, mediated by smartphone dependence, were positively associated with social anxiety, stress perception, and sleep disorder, and further with depression of left-behind adolescents. Although social uses of smartphones were positively associated with online social support, they were not related to loneliness and depression. Based on our results, left-behind adolescents' smartphone use habits have shown more harmful than good effects on their psychological well-being.

When experiencing sexual health uncertainties, emerging adults often rely on friends for support; however, the support provided is not always helpful. This study situates support in response to uncertainty within appraisal and attribution theories to explain nurturant, informational, and tangible support provision. Study 1 coded 441 participants' responses to open-ended questions about a recent conversation about a friend's sexual health uncertainty. It revealed that stability and responsibility attributions were made, and fear was the most common emotion described. Desire to provide support and knowledge also were prominent themes. Study 2's online survey of 248 emerging adults indicated that the more support providers assigned blame for the sexual health uncertainty to the friend, the more fear support providers experienced, yet the more fear experienced, the more nurturant, informational, and tangible support they provided. Perceived sexual health knowledge diminished the association between blame attributions and support provision.

Patients can become educator-influencers in promoting the public's understanding of health and illness; however, the underlying motivations driving their engagement in this role remain unclear. Drawing from the Self-Determination Theory, this study explores the motivations of patients-turned-influencers in sharing eating disorders (ED) experiences and information on Chinese social media. Through semi-structured interviews with 33 patient influencers, this study examines the motivations associated with three psychological needs: autonomy, competence, and relatedness. In terms of autonomy, influencers shared their ED experiences as self-therapy, expression, and documentation of personal growth. Regarding competence, influencers felt that their medical training or personal experiences made them more knowledgeable about ED, and their communication skills and high self-esteem gave them more confidence and courage to share their ED experiences. Finally, in terms of relatedness, altruism, community building, and peer influence are the driving forces behind their sharing behaviors. With the rise of ED cases in China, misunderstandings about the condition remain prevalent. As the first study of ED social media influencers in a Chinese context, this research highlights the unique cultural and social factors influencing the motivations behind sharing ED-related experiences on social media. The theoretical and practical implications of the study are also discussed.

Misperceptions strongly influence the extent to which individuals comply with preventative measures. Social support from others, particularly given widespread mistrust in news media among those holding misperceptions, plays an important role in shaping compliance with preventative measures. The impact of social support, however, is not straightforward and not all support results in greater compliance. The goal of this study is to examine the role of COVID-19 misperceptions in shaping support marshaling and its associations with emotions about masking as well as compliance with masking measures. The findings broadly identify that those who engage avoidance support marshaling are likely fostering echo-chambers, reinforcing misperception and emotions about masking that limit their willingness to comply. Alternatively, those who are approaching support are likely encountering diverse opinions and increasing the opportunity to discuss misperception that influences emotions in ways that may foster more compliance. Implications of these findings for theory and methodological development are discussed.

This study applies protection motivation theory (PMT) to the COVID-19 contact-tracing context by including privacy concerns, collective efficacy, and a mediator (fear of COVID-19) and tests it in the US and South Korea. The study uses a structural equation modeling (SEM) approach and a sample of 418 Americans and 444 South Koreans. According to the results, fear was positively associated with adoption intentions in the US sample but not in the Korean sample. Coping appraisals positively affected adoption intentions in both samples. However, while all types of coping appraisals were significant in the Korean sample, response efficacy was the only significant predictor among US participants. Privacy concerns were negatively associated with adoption intentions in the US sample, but not in the Korean sample. The results indicate that differences exist in the mediating role of fear connecting threat appraisals and adoption intentions in both countries. These findings hold important implications for future studies in AI-based health communication, especially in the areas of privacy management, protection motivation, and diverse cultural contexts.

The dilemma of disclosing one's illness experiences in real life has led to a proliferation of online health communities. It is worth exploring the nature of such communities. Drawing on the community of practice (CoP) theory, this article explores how members enact online health communities by studying the support group "Philosophical Treatment of Depression," one of the largest online depression communities in China. The findings show that participants enacted the CoP by constructing negative individual identities and positive collective identities, participating and engaging in the common enterprise, and building a shared repertoire. Constructing negative individual identities and positive collective identities enhanced group cohesion and clarified community goals. Participation and mutual engagement facilitated members' sharing of illness experiences and seeking/providing support in the community. Sharing treatment and coping experiences and tactics contributed to a shared repertoire that sustains the community. This study provides insights into understanding the nature of online health communities. It also has practical implications for social support to people living with depression.

According to psychological reactance theory, individuals who perceive a threat to or loss of valued behavior will experience reactance - an amalgam of anger and negative cognitions that motivates an effort to regain behavioral freedom. The limited effects of health communication interventions have often been attributed to psychological reactance, and previous research has tended to focus on how to design health messages that mitigate this phenomenon. However, the motivational nature of reactance suggests that it might also be used to promote health. When people learn that external influences circumvent a positive health behavior, this information may elicit reactance, motivating them to exhibit that behavior. This idea found support in the results of a preregistered experiment (N = 358), showing that participants were more willing to reduce meat consumption when they experienced reactance after reading about how the food industry undermines self-determined dietary decisions. The findings indicate that harnessing reactance to leverage behavior change may offer a promising alternative to established communication strategies.

Healthy People 2030 highlights the importance of both personal and organizational health literacy (HL) to improving population health. Yet, most research focuses on personal-level HL or fails to study the effect of both types of HL on health behavior. This study explored the relationships between organizational HL (Healthy People 2030 objective: decrease the proportion of adults who report poor communication with their health care provider), personal-level HL, and cancer prevention and screening behaviors. Data were collected using Qualtrics Panel. Participants who indicated they had a non-emergency room provider visit in the last 12 months were included in the analyses. Participants (n=549, Mean age = 41.44 years, SD = 15.91; 51.9% female; 54.3% White, 28.8% Hispanic/Latino/a/x) completed measures of personal and organizational HL and reported on their cancer prevention (e.g., cigarette smoking) and screening (e.g., mammogram) behaviors. Hierarchical linear and logistic regressions predicting cancer prevention and screening behaviors, respectively, from organizational HL, personal HL, and demographic covariates, were estimated. Regarding the results, higher organizational HL was related to higher fruit and vegetables consumption and physical activity after accounting for personal-level HL and demographic covariates. Higher personal-level HL was related to lower physical activity, binge-drinking, and cigarette smoking, and higher odds of pap smear screening, prostate-specific antigen testing, and completing all eligible screenings after accounting for organizational-level HL and demographic covariates. The findings support that personal-level and organizational HL may be differentially important to improving cancer prevention and screening behaviors. Policies that address improving both personal-level and organizational-level HL are needed.

Caring for medically complex children (MCC) involves physical, financial, and emotional challenges for parents, who are often grieving the loss of their expectations or vision for a healthy child. We applied Miles' parental grief model to explore the experiences of 25 parent-caregivers who were interviewed for The Rare Life, a podcast in which a mother of a MCC interviews parents about their experiences caring for their MCC. We characterize parent-caregivers' experiences of shock; their intense grief, including yearning, helplessness, physical symptoms, behavioral changes, and a search for meaning; and the reorganization that helped them accept their parenting reality. In addition, we identified communicative barriers and facilitators that hindered and supported parent-caregivers' movement through the phases of grief.

Literature on how to address misinformation has rapidly expanded in recent years. The aim of this scoping review was to synthesize the growing published literature on health and science misinformation mitigation interventions. English-language articles published from January 2017 to July 2022 were included. After title/abstract screening, 115 publications (148 empirical studies) met inclusion criteria and were coded for sample characteristics, topics, mitigation strategies, research methods, outcomes, and intervention efficacy. A marked increase in misinformation mitigation research was observed in 2020-2022. COVID-19, vaccines, and climate change were the most frequently addressed topics. Most studies used general population samples recruited online; few focused on populations most vulnerable to misinformation. Most studies assessed cognitive outcomes (e.g., knowledge), with fewer assessing health behavior, communication behavior, or skills. Correction (k = 97) was the most used misinformation mitigation strategy, followed by education and other literacy initiatives (k = 39) and prebunking/inoculation (k = 24). Intervention efficacy varied, with 76 studies reporting positive, 17 reporting null, and 68 reporting mixed results. Most misinformation mitigation interventions were limited to short-term online experiments focused on improving cognitive outcomes. Priority research areas going forward include expanding and diversifying study samples, scaling interventions, conducting longitudinal observations, and focusing on communities susceptible to misinformation.