Health Communication最新文献

The COVID-19 pandemic represented a turning point for many scientists, challenging established motives and attitudes toward public communication and raising new questions about their willingness to communicate publicly. During this time, scientists faced unprecedented scrutiny, leading to both recognition and maltreatment by the media, politicians and the public. This paper examines whether the pandemic experience altered scientists' rationale for engaging in health communication-specifically, whether perceived benefits (e.g. contributing to the public good) still outweigh potential costs (e.g. exposure to hostility). Based on a survey of N = 4,207 researchers at German universities and research institutions, our findings indicate that negative perceptions of how politicians and journalists treated scientists diminished their assessment of public communication as a rational endeavor, leading to decreased willingness to communicate, particularly regarding self-interested motives.

As generative artificial intelligence (GAI) increasingly contributes to the creation of news content, its ability to produce authoritative yet fabricated information raises pressing concerns for public trust and misinformation detection. Guided by the media evocation paradigm (MEP), this study examines how source credibility, content style, and communication channel influence users' ability to detect GAI-generated health fake news. A 2 × 2 × 3 mixed experimental design (N = 120) was employed, in which participants evaluated nine GAI-generated news items across television, newspapers, and social media. Results show that non-authoritative sources, rational framing, and social media platforms significantly enhanced detection accuracy. In contrast, authoritative sources and emotional content in traditional media environments reduced detection rates. A significant three-way interaction reveals that detection accuracy was highest when all three media cues aligned (non-authoritative source, rational style, and social media context). This study extends the MEP to the context of GAI-generated health news and highlights the importance of reflective media processing in how individuals assess information credibility. By identifying how specific combinations of media cues affect fake news detection, the findings offer practical implications for improving public resilience against health misinformation and inform the design of more effective communication strategies in GAI-mediated health contexts.

This study examines the determinants of health information avoidance on social media among Chinese adults aged 50 and above. Drawing on the planned risk information avoidance (PRIA) framework, it examines how informational characteristics-information accessibility, information overload, and interpersonal information exposure-influence avoidance through the internal mechanisms of negative emotion and eHealth literacy. Individuals aged 50 and above were selected due to the statutory retirement age for female workers in China, marking a transition into older adulthood. An anonymous survey of 921 respondents aged 50 and above was conducted, and partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was used to test the hypotheses. The results show that information accessibility decreases negative emotion and enhances eHealth literacy, whereas information overload heightens negative emotion and reduces eHealth literacy. Interpersonal information exposure directly reduces avoidance and enhances eHealth literacy but has no significant effect on negative emotion. Both negative emotion and eHealth literacy significantly predict health information avoidance. The findings highlight the interplay of emotional and cognitive factors in avoidance behaviors. Addressing information overload, improving e-health literacy, and leveraging interpersonal support are key strategies for reducing avoidance and fostering better engagement with health information among digitally active older adults.

Construal level theory (CLT) explains that people construe realities differentially based on the psychological distance between themselves and the realities. Informed by CLT, this study investigated how congruencies between mental representations of different message and recipient components influence individuals' responses. Specifically, it examined how message target (self vs. others) effects vary depending on the use of gain-loss framing and individuals' regulatory focuses, using an experiment with 800 respondents in the social distancing context. Results indicated that promotion-focused individuals are more likely to find others-targeted messages more effective, interesting, and easy to process, which further affected behavior-related responses. By contrast, the results showed that prevention-focused individuals are more likely to perceive self-targeted messages as easier to process, which also influences their behavior-related responses. This study contributes to the development of target framing theory and expands the current message design literature by revealing the potential mechanisms through which multiple message components interact.

This study investigates how risk behavior detail (RBD) in health messages affects intentions to drive under the influence of cannabis (DUIC). Based on research on cue reactivity and observational learning, we test whether messages with detailed information about risky behaviors related to DUIC may inadvertently teach high-risk audiences these behaviors, thereby increasing their likelihood of engaging in DUIC. An online experiment surveyed 686 adult drivers, ages 18 to 50, who use cannabis. Participants viewed messages with varying levels of detail about behaviors that may reduce the risk of adverse outcomes of DUIC (High vs. Low RBD), or a control video. Exposure to High-RBD messages was associated with increased DUIC intentions and behaviors, mediated by perceptions that the behaviors would be effective at reducing risk (response efficacy), and self-efficacy to perform these behaviors, both immediately and at two-weeks follow-up. Implications for theory, and for effective and responsible message design are discussed.

This study deconstructs the way in which journalists in two lesser-studied contexts framed a major health crisis through the lens of intertextuality. Based on a corpus of English-language newspaper reports from Japan and South Korea from 2020 to 2022, the study explicates the way in which the risks, urgency, and gravity of the COVID-19 crisis are talked into being, amplified, or downplayed through the complex interaction of the quoted and reporter voices. The findings reveal that in both settings, quotations are strategically interwoven to serve four rhetorical functions: reporting facts, distancing, deauthorizing, and providing a personal touch. Despite similar journalistic standards, variation is observed in terms of the types of sources deferred to and the functions the voices opted for. Such differences are attributed to the changing nature of the socio-political factors in the two countries.

This article interrogates COVID-19 Vaccine and the Black Community: A Tyler Perry Special, a health communication program that addressed vaccine hesitancy in the Black community during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using critical race theory (CRT) and amplification rhetoric, we, two Black scholars, analyze how the program leveraged culturally resonant storytelling, African American Vernacular English (AAVE), and the influence of Tyler Perry to challenge medical mistrust and race-based structural inequities. While acknowledging that the Black experience is not monolithic, the special reframes vaccine hesitancy in the Black community as "healthy hesitation," and centers collective Black experiences to critique historical and contemporary medical racism. Additionally, anchored in Black epistemologies, the special employs platforms like BET and YouTube to connect with audiences in culturally meaningful ways. In turn, this study demonstrates the power of culturally tailored health communication to build trust and offers insights into health communication strategies for members of the Black community. The study also illuminates implications at the intersections of pop culture, race, culture, and health communication.

Engaging adolescents with health topics on social media is notoriously challenging. A common strategy is message personalization, yet most efforts focus on personalizing what is said rather than how it is expressed. This is a missed opportunity, as youth-relevant health communication requires attention to both style and content. Digital communication environments enable such adaptation by making users' linguistic patterns visible and available for personalization. Yet little is known about how adolescents respond to health messages written in a similar linguistic style, or how such similarity is best operationalized. Addressing these gaps, this preregistered study tests whether adolescents prefer social media health messages that are more similar to their linguistic style and identifies which linguistic categories are most effective in eliciting positive responses. Using WhatsApp conversations donated by 191 Dutch adolescents (aged 13-15), we derived linguistic profiles and created Instagram-style health messages varying in linguistic similarity. Participants then evaluated 22 message pairs, each pair manipulating one linguistic category. Multilevel Bayesian analyses yielded inconclusive evidence for effects of linguistic similarity on message preference or personalization, and moderate evidence against effects on perceived effectiveness. Our findings point to potential trade-offs between experimental transparency and similarity strength, yielding important insights for refining future operationalizations. At the same time, adolescents consistently preferred positive and simple-worded messages, which gives general stylistic guidance for more engaging health communication on social media. Further, we discuss implications for AI-based style matching, including the use of algorithmic approaches and large language models.

Weight stigma in healthcare is pervasive, and its presence in healthcare interactions contributes to breakdowns in communication between patients and providers. This study sought to better understand and explain the disconfirming experiences of individuals with larger bodies during weight-related discussions with healthcare providers. Ten in-depth interviews and two focus groups, consisting of nine and six additional participants, were collected. Two levels of coding were performed. Qualitative descriptive analysis revealed two themes of disconfirming communication: (a) minimizing effort or struggle, and (b) undermining agency. The second level applied an a priori thematic analysis to categorize the disconfirming message types using Sieburg's previously established typology, which were largely classified as (a) impervious and (b) disqualifying. Additionally, the findings suggest several maladaptive health outcomes associated with disconfirming communication during weight-related conversations, including (a) diminished trust in therapeutic relationships, (b) emotional and psychological distress, and (c) disrupted care. Theoretical and practical insights are discussed to address weight stigma and improve patient care and communication with individuals with larger bodies.

Can deliberate self-affirmation and self-threat inductions be effectively employed in health persuasion targeting bystanders or individuals not directly responsible for health risks? Drawing on the self-affirmation theory, this study examines the effectiveness of message-integrated self-affirmation and self-threats in secondhand smoke (SHS) health risk messages among Chinese nonsmokers. An online experiment was conducted, using a 3 (self-integrity strategies: self-affirming vs. self-threatening vs. control group) × 2 (reference points: self-referencing vs. other-referencing) between-subjects factorial design, with self-esteem treated as a continuous moderator. Results showed that both strategies, compared to a control group, elicited greater negative self-appraisal, which in turn increased psychological reactance. Notably, self-affirmation led to stronger anti-SHS behavioral intentions than the control group. While reference points did not moderate the effects, self-esteem emerged as a key moderator: high self-esteem enhanced the persuasive impacts of both strategies, whereas low self-esteem heightened defensive coping and its undesirable influences on behavioral intention. Theoretically, the findings extend self-affirmation theory in health persuasion by identifying self-esteem as a key moderator in self-integrity appeals. Practically, although both self-integrity strategies can enhance message persuasion, self-affirmation appears particularly impactful, and tailoring interventions to recipients' self-esteem may further optimize persuasive outcomes.