Health Communication最新文献

eHealth use enables older adults to access and manage healthcare resources, and benefits their health; however, older adults' uptake of eHealth remains low across societies. Social influences such as descriptive norms may be of critical importance in promoting the elderly's usage of eHealth. Based on the Integrative Model of Behavioral Prediction, this study investigates how descriptive norms relate to eHealth use among the elderly in China and the United States. Analysis of the combined sample (N = 1,070) showed that descriptive norms were positively related to eHealth use. Also, descriptive norms were indirectly associated with eHealth use via injunctive norms, attitudes and self-efficacy. Moderated mediation analysis indicated that these direct and indirect relationships differed across the two countries. This study highlights the important role of descriptive norms in promoting older adults' eHealth use behavior and addresses potential country differences in how the elderly respond to descriptive norms. Several important theoretical and practical implications are also discussed.

COVID-19 related health disparities are prevalent among higher risk populations like the Hispanic community. Vaccination is one readily available public health tool, yet vaccine uptake is lower among minority populations and hesitations and concerns are high. In the present study, interpersonal and media sources of information about COVID-19 were discussed in a series of six focus groups with Spanish-language dominant and bilingual English-Spanish respondents in a large metropolitan area in Texas. Participants reported using legacy media as a main source of information about COVID-19 vaccines and encountered conspiracy theories and misinformation on social media. Using the Health Belief Model as the theoretical lens, we found individuals' and family members' perceived susceptibility to COVID-19 played a part in participants wanting to find and get the vaccine. Provider recommendations may have served as cues to action. Ease of receiving the vaccines at church and pharmacies may have served to boost participants self-efficacy. Perceived barriers include vaccine specific reasons such as the fast pace of initial authorization, side effects, and long-term effects along with conspiracy theories. Prevailing information gaps regarding the COVID-19 vaccines and the resulting uncertainty are discussed. Understanding information sources and the trust Hispanic communities place in these sources is important in designing effective health messages.

The convenience of mobile devices has driven the widespread use of voice technology in mobile health communication, significantly improving the timeliness of online service. However, the issue of listening to therapeutic content, which requires great cognitive effort and may exceed the patient's information processing capacity (i.e., information overload), is of concern. Based on information processing theory, this study reports how online physicians' voice characteristics (pitch range and filled pauses) affect patient satisfaction. We obtained 10,585 mobile voice consultation records of 1,416 doctors from China's largest mHealth platform and analyzed them using audio mining and empirical methods. Results showed that pitch range (β = 0.0539, p < .01) and filled pauses (β = 0.0365, p < .01) in doctors' voice positively influenced online patient satisfaction. However, the effect of filled pauses becomes weaker for patients with higher health literacy and higher disease risk. This suggests that there is heterogeneity in the way different patients process audio information. This study provides important insights for guiding online physician behaviors, enhancing patient satisfaction, and improving mobile health platform management.

Medicalization shapes, and in some cases legitimizes, individuals' embodied experiences even as it molds the landscape of healthcare and treatment. In this essay I provide a layered account that moves between my experiences as a neurodivergent person and academic theorizing to explore how processes of medicalization inform public discourses and personal sensemaking. In the case of ADHD, medicalization has contributed to societal narratives that focus on symptoms of hyperactivity rather than the etiology of dopamine dysregulation. Such narratives fail to fully account for the lived experience of ADHD and inadvertently stigmatize neurodivergent individuals. I urge scholars and practitioners to direct more attention to the communicative dimensions of medicalization including both the rhetorical nature of the diagnostic process and how diagnoses, in turn, are rhetorically framed with varying consequences.

Problematic integration theory is a theory in communication that deals with the processing of messages by humans. It is helpful to study challenges and their solutions in the health communication context to develop effective relationships, treat patients, and, ultimately, ensure the well-being of society. A scoping review was conducted. Three databases were searched following the PRISMA-ScR statement without a time frame. Independent screening of titles, abstracts, and full texts was performed, and the studies selected based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria were assessed. The required information was then extracted from the studies and entered into Excel software. A total of 43 studies related to PI theory were identified in the databases. The results indicated that PI theory is used to interpret feelings, beliefs, challenges, concerns, and problematic dilemmas in five thematic categories: elderly care, cancer care, infertility, pregnancy, and childbirth care, illness care, and sexual care. Each of the papers also offers distinctive and valuable considerations for interventions such as communication strategies, coping mechanisms, uncertainty and certainty management, information management, education, training, support groups, and campaigns to improve decision-making and meet the challenges of health communication.

Rooted in the emotions-as-frames model (EFM), this research examines how hope, fear, and annoyance are evoked through health news headline scanning, and how these emotions influence perceptions of news and medical science institutions as well as health behavioral intentions. A sample of U.S. adults (N = 327) were assigned to one of four headline framing conditions expected to associate with different emotions (positive future frame-hope; threat frame-fear/anxiety; reversal frame-annoyance; and control-neutral) and then asked about their emotional states, trust in science and news, and health-related behavioral intentions. Overall, health news headlines generated more hope than any other emotion across all conditions, and positive future-framed headlines evoked more hope than other framed headlines. Felt hope, in turn, generated greater trust in news and science, higher expectations of medical breakthroughs and cures, and greater intention to engage in preventative health behaviors. Felt anxiety had marginal positive benefits whereas felt annoyance negatively impacted the outcomes of interest. Notably, felt emotion mediated the headline frame-outcome relationships in the positive future/hope condition. These findings offer some support for the EFM and demonstrate that scanning headlines imbued with specific emotional frames can influence important health-related outcomes through the emotions they evoke. We discuss both the theoretical and practical implication of these findings.

Doctors running late may convey a lack of respect which can impair the therapeutic relationship. This study examines how surgeons address lateness in consultations with patients. We analyzed 52 consultation recordings from a range of surgical specialties in an Australian metropolitan setting. Conversation analysis was used to analyze interactional sequences where lateness was addressed. Six sequences were identified within four recordings. The two consultations with two apologies include a surgeon and registrar apologizing in a neurosurgical consultation and a surgeon apologizing twice within a colorectal consultation. Apologies were either accepted or responded to with an account for not accepting the apology. When these accounts were made, consultations could only progress when patients accepted an explanation for lateness or the degree of complainability about lateness was reduced. The infrequent occurrence of apologies for lateness, and the way in which these sequences unfolded when they did occur, suggest that there is greater acceptability of lateness for surgeons than in ordinary social situations.

Although Valley fever represents a growing public health challenge for Central and Southern Californian residents, awareness remains severely limited. The California Department of Public Health (CDPH) ran a cross-platform campaign to mitigate this awareness gap and impact prevention behavior. This study evaluates exposure to the CDPH campaign, followed by an examination of the information consumption patterns associated with key health outcomes. Results suggest that the CDPH campaign successfully improved knowledge accuracy, reduced misperceptions, and increased the likelihood of prevention behavior. Using an information repertoire lens revealed a more nuanced account. Most information repertoires positively influenced accurate knowledge retention and prevention behavior compared to those who were not exposed. The most diverse information repertoire, including interpersonal and media channels, was associated with increased knowledge accuracy, affective risk concerns, personal susceptibility, and prevention behavior. However, exposure to this repertoire was also associated with greater misperceptions. In addition, medical professional and radio-based repertoires positively influenced personal susceptibility perceptions. Overall, this research illustrates the importance of examining not only the general outcomes of health campaigns but also the patterns of information acquisition - particularly when working with underserved communities whose health information consumption preferences may not be comprehensively reflected in the literature.

Substantial gaps exist in the theoretical conceptualization and practical development of entertainment-education, as studies often fail to account for the ways in which intrinsic message characteristics influence subsequent behavior. These gaps served as the impetus for an international collaborative project that evaluated Vencer el Miedo ("Overcome the Fear"), a Spanish-language program that aired in Mexico from January to March 2020. The telenovela was produced with the aim of improving sexual and reproductive health knowledge and behaviors by modeling effective ways to discuss and negotiate safer sex practices. The show was accompanied by a telephone hotline called OrientaSEX operated by professional counselors from MEXFAM, Planned Parenthood's Mexican affiliate. Utilizing an interrupted time series analysis of calls made to OrientaSEX (N = 11,878) and focusing on changes in the volume of calls and the identity of callers following key moments in the storyline, the findings support the central role played by transitional characters and their similarity to audience members. Implications of these results for the theory and practice of entertainment-education are discussed.