Health Communication最新文献

Antibiotic resistance is an urgent global health crisis that requires effective communication strategies to encourage public engagement in preventive behaviors. The current study explores the impact of multimodal design features, including threat agency (human vs. bacteria), nominalized forms (antibiotic misuse vs. antibiotic misuser), and color cues (blue vs. red) in health communication messages about antibiotic resistance. A 2 × 2 × 2 between-subjects experimental design was employed with a sample of 386 participants randomly assigned to one of eight conditions. Results indicated that messages assigning agency to humans led to greater perceived freedom threat compared to assigning bacteria as the agent. The interaction effects between threat agency and nominalized forms predicted perceived response efficacy and self-efficacy. The interaction between threat agency and color cues predicted intention to engage in antibiotic misuse. Additionally, the combination of nominalized forms and color cues predicted negative emotional reactions toward the fact sheet. The key takeaways from the study are that linguistic and sensory features often interact with each other to shape people's health beliefs, and it is important to understand how to strategically present (or mask) human involvement when humans are a primary cause of the health threat. The study's implications, limitations, and future research directions are discussed.

Existing research on misinformation often focuses on messages that are completely false. For greater external validity, our experiment examines reactions to messages that contain both false and accurate information. Using a framework of uncertainty attributes of truth claims, we examine perceptions of how acceptable error is when the source is (perceived to be) human-only, generative artificial intelligence-only, or a combination of the two. We examine the acceptability of perceived error and harms associated with the message and its topic, and how they interact as predictors of intentions to engage with the message or intervene.

Previous research has largely focused on whether restrictive mediation reduces online time or addiction risks, ignoring adolescents' resistance and its psychological outcomes. Considering adolescents' agency in their socialization process, this study explores whether restrictive mediation shields them from depression by limiting entertaining-oriented Internet use (EIU) or inadvertently exacerbates depression by triggering resistance to parental control (RPC), either directly or indirectly through increased EIU. Using data from 7,965 Chinese adolescents and employing structural equation modeling, the study found that more frequent restrictions were associated with reduced EIU, which in turn predicted lower levels of depression. However, frequent restrictions also triggered RPC, which directly increased depression and led to greater engagement in restricted activities, thereby offsetting the intended protective effects of restrictions. Moreover, the study examined varying restriction styles (i.e. how parents implement restrictions) and revealed that their impact on depression depended on both the implementation style and adolescents' responses.

Research into end-of-life (EOL) communication has mostly been conducted in Anglophone countries and intensive care settings. In areas where the value of family determination prevails and significant cancer mortality rates, such as China, there remains a necessity for scholarly exploration of how EOL information about late-stage cancer diagnosis and prognosis is communicated when patients have a normal level of consciousness. Drawing on the concept of collective boundary coordination from communication privacy management (CPM) theory, this study employs semi-structured in-depth interviews to explore physicians' strategies for disclosing late-stage cancer in China's general hospitals. Reflexive thematic analysis of the data collected from seven attending physicians and nurses, 13 medical interns, and 11 family members of late-stage cancer patients demonstrates another management pattern of patient privacy and a group of flexible strategies for collective boundary coordination. These findings have implications for the development of CPM and EOL communication in China and other cultures that prioritize family determination.

Online medical consultation services (OMCS) in China always receive high ratings, while offline medical services receive many complaints. The COVID-19 pandemic has strengthened the connection between online and offline medical services in China, but the important question whether the online-offline connection can bring benefits for offline medical services is rarely studied. From a patient perspective, this study explores the impact mechanism of OMCS on the offline physician-patient relationship, attempting to enhance the spillover effect of OMCS on offline medical services and promote communication between physicians and patients. The study adopts trust transfer theory and uses a cross-sectional survey regarding questions about online-to-offline medical service to validate a moderated serial mediation model. The results showed that OMCS usage makes individuals perceive significantly higher levels of offline physician trust and physician-patient relationships. Individuals' satisfaction with OMCS enhances offline physician-patient relationships through the sequential mediating effect of online and offline trust toward physicians. In the online-to-offline physician trust transfer process, online-offline medical service connection and patients' prior satisfaction with offline physician service play significant moderating roles. The trust transfer effect is more effective when the online-offline medical service connection is high and the prior offline service satisfaction is low. This study sheds new light on online-to-offline service and OMCS research, and contributes to trust transfer theory. The study also discusses the practical implications for stakeholders.

The stigma of gynecological diseases (GDs) in China threatens women's health rights. Based on the model of stigma communication (MSC), this study introduced two dimensions of emotional valence and emotional arousal to explore factors associated with the stigma spread of GDs. Content analysis, Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression, and Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM) were used to analyze 1,279 related posts and comments on Sina Weibo. Results showed that mark, label, and responsibility were positively associated with the stigma spread of GDs, while peril and the three negative emotions (disgust, anger, and fear) were not. Unlike previous studies, emotional valence and emotional arousal were both positively associated with the stigma spread of GDs, with emotional arousal associated across various topics, especially in news discussion and gender relationships. Emotional valence and emotional arousal significantly improved the model's explanatory power. These findings emphasize the role of emotion in stigma communication, offering insights for stigma spread.

Although alcohol consumption has negative influences on individuals' well-being, drinking holds a significant place in Chinese traditional culture. This study examined how Chinese culture, especially Chinese people's perceptions of their self-identity may be associated with intentions of alcohol consumption. Adopting the perspective of self-views and the theory of planned behaviors as two theoretical frameworks, this study conducted a cross-sectional online survey (n = 869) to examine how individual- and social-oriented self would predict intentions to drink through the mediation of attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control. For dimensions of the individual-oriented self, this study found that the independence dimension was positively associated with attitude and perceived behavior control. For dimensions of the social-oriented self, the self-cultivation and social sensitivity dimensions positively predicted subjective norms. Self-view also affected intentions of alcohol consumption through attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control. This study offers a cultural perspective to understand the theory of planned behavior and shows that aspects of cultural identity are influential in alcohol consumption.

People experience, engage, and interact with their living world not as disembodied minds, but as embodied beings and motivated actors. The fifteen contributions gathered in this special issue collectively mirror the essential terrain of embodied health experiences in the Chinese context. The collective findings move the field beyond merely describing cultural differences to demanding a fundamental re-theorization of core communication concepts and the adoption of new interdisciplinary methodologies.

The growing prevalence of young children's diabetes in China is exerting an increasingly severe impact on affected families. This study selected 14 sample accounts from the Xiaohongshu platform, where parents documented the daily lives of their diabetic children. Guided by Communicated Narrative Sense-Making theory, a reflexive thematic analysis was conducted, revealing four key, interconnected themes that shape the parental experience: the disruption and reconstruction of self-identity due to psychological challenges and the ongoing struggle for self-preservation; the strains and realignments within family life, encompassing the complexities of parent-child relationships, marital adjustments, and the reevaluation of familial roles; and the broader social context, where parents grapple with dual pressures of adhering to predetermined life paths while managing the economic and healthcare challenges associated with their child's condition. This study advances Communicated Narrative Sense-Making theory by foregrounding online public narratives as sites of parental identity reconstruction shaped by Confucian-Taoist sociocultural constraints, and informs healthcare practices for better supporting diabetic young children and their families.

Participation in triadic medical interaction can be more unpredictable and challenging than that in dyadic interactions limited to patients and physicians. Many studies have explored participants' roles or communication strategies in triadic medical interaction but seldom investigated discursive resources and actions of the third party in interactional tension, especially in Chinese healthcare settings. Eighty-two conversations involving 45 patients, 57 companions, and four physicians were audio-recorded at the neurology clinic of a tertiary hospital in northern China, each lasting between 12 and 20 min. Through conversation analysis, the moments and activities that the third party intervenes in the interactional tension are captured and analyzed at a micro-level. Our collected data reveal that the third-party intervention can be classified into double, unilateral, and nonaligned. Along the gradient, initiatives for actions by the third party are diminished. Five distinct behavioral patterns are identified to represent alignment choices, including serving as and beyond a sounding board, downgrading one side to keep the stance back, prioritizing one party, and deflecting with non-verbal cues and fact-based formulation. This study sheds light on the practical implications of alleviating and addressing the emerging tension before it spreads, especially in neurology clinics where companions are frequently involved. When tension-related parties are at an impasse, the third party can step in by seizing the opportune moment and act as a gatekeeper for the spill-over of the tension through the design and organization of sequences in the interaction.