Health Communication最新文献

As not all individuals are willing to pay attention to health information it is crucial to understand and distinguish the underlying motives and the scope of various nonuse behaviors. To increase conceptual clarity and specify theoretical assumptions about the types of nonuse of health information and their determinants, we used a qualitative research approach. Semi-structured interviews with 11 female, 10 male, and 10 non-binary participants aged between 18 and 67 (M = 39.7) showed that information ignoring and avoidance are two distinct behaviors characterized by their motivational patterns. Information ignoring is a preference for other content, serving as a strategy to manage limited time resources and receptivity. Information avoidance is understood as a decision to avoid threatening health information serving emotion regulation. Our data further indicate that information ignoring and avoidance are not unidimensional constructs. Instead, the selectivity and consistency of both behaviors build various types of information ignoring and avoidance, which need to be explained differently considering individual differences, cognitive, affective, socio-normative, and structural factors. Further, theory specification should build on the revealed findings and test which factors relate to which kind of nonuse behaviors.

In the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. undocumented immigrants were at heightened risk of contracting COVID-19, with many of them being "frontline essential workers" and residing in crowded living spaces. Given undocumented immigrants' elevated susceptibility to contracting COVID-19 at the peak of uncertainty surrounding the virus, we used the structural influence model of communication to explore: (1) how undocumented immigrants acquired information about COVID-19; (2) how they assessed information trustworthiness and accuracy; (3) their perceptions of COVID-19; and (4) how they prevented or managed COVID-19. Drawing from semi-structured interviews with 46 Latina/o/x/e undocumented immigrants residing in California, we found four key themes: (1) (dis)trust in traditional media as participants relied heavily on social media for COVID-19 information; (2) weak and strong ties played a crucial role in co-constructing health outcomes with different levels of organization; (3) learning about COVID-19 through (in)direct experiences; and (4) coping through health literacy and cultural beliefs. The study's findings can inform future efforts to reach highly-vulnerable immigrant communities during a crisis (or different outbreaks in COVID-19 variants), and hopefully, help reduce health inequities.

Research suggests that a heterogeneous media diet can foster more objective information evaluations, reducing issue polarization as a result. These findings beg the question: Can increased news heterogeneity reduce issue polarization around COVID-19? Using data from a cross-sectional survey in the United States (N = 1,262), this study found that - in line with theoretical expectations - at high levels of homogeneity of traditional and digital news consumption, the difference in support for COVID-19 prevention between Biden and Trump supporters was significantly large. Conversely, this attitude gap narrowed at high news heterogeneity levels. Our results continue to advance research on the role of homogeneous and heterogeneous media diets and biased cognitive processing in issue polarization, a crucial endeavor as polarization poses a challenge to effective public health policy implementation and pandemic management. At the outset, the implications of our findings for pandemic communication (and health communication more generally) are discussed.

Americans have increasingly turned to online crowdfunding to pay for healthcare costs, but our understanding of the inequalities in medical crowdfunding remains limited. This study investigates racial disparities in medical crowdfunding outcomes and examines the role of communication in amplifying, altering, or even reducing the disparities. Using data from 1,127 medical crowdfunding campaigns on GoFundMe, the study found that beneficiaries of color received significantly fewer donations than their White counterparts. The differences in donations between racial groups were partly attributable to sharing disparities. Campaigns for beneficiaries of color were shared less via e-mail or social media than campaigns for White beneficiaries. Campaign narratives with more humanizing details about beneficiaries were associated with more donations. However, humanizing details did not predict more shares, nor were they linked to smaller disparities in campaign outcomes between racial groups. Post-hoc analyses showed that more humanizing details were linked to fewer campaign donations for male beneficiaries of color. The findings contribute to the scholarship addressing the intersections of communication and health inequality on digital platforms.

The prevalence of postpartum depression (PPD) exceeds 20% in China. In this article, we unpack the coping strategies and involuntary responses to PPD among Chinese women and how such patterns are shaped by family communication dynamics and reflect distinct social, structural, and cultural contexts. Drawing upon the communication accommodation theory and the generic stress and coping model, we analyzed 661 posts collected under the hashtag #PPD (chanhou yiyuzheng) on Zhihu using the phronetic iterative approach. The analysis reveals that women self-identifying as having PPD often find themselves situated within a family environment marked by non-adaptive communication, culminating in insufficient support from their social circles. Furthermore, a significant number of these women lack effective coping mechanisms to manage PPD. Instead, they tend to stifle their expressions and needs through automatic responses, dedicating themselves to constant self-monitoring without practicing self-care. Our findings contribute to informed policymaking for postpartum support, addressing nuanced challenges encountered by new mothers in China.

Recent research shows social norm perceptions predict people's adherence to COVID-19 preventative health practices. Nonetheless, additional empirical studies are necessary to evaluate the effectiveness of different types of social norm messages on behavioral outcomes with experimental designs. Guided by the social norm literature and frameworks, the current research addresses this need by examining the effects of descriptive and injunctive norm appeals promoting the practice of social distancing and mask-wearing with both a controlled experiment and social media campaigns. Results from this multistudy investigation showed the effectiveness of descriptive and injunctive norm messages (v. no message exposure) in promoting focal behaviors and highlighted the superiority of injunctive norm appeals in promoting behavioral intentions and increasing social media engagement. Theoretical implications and recommendations for practice are discussed.

Research has repeatedly demonstrated the ability of social networks, interpersonal discussion, and perceived social norms to shape health-related outcomes. There are still substantial gaps, however, in understanding the theoretical mechanism that holds these components together, as well as the boundary conditions of their effects. Employing ego-network analysis with a representative sample of Illinois residents (N = 711) and focusing on the context of COVID-19 vaccine adherence, this study constructs a comprehensive framework to examine the direct, indirect, and conditional relationships linking social capital within networks, factual knowledge, and vaccination. Overall, the results point to the ability of tight-knit networks to influence knowledge and behavior for better or worse, depending on the composition of the network and its conversational valence. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Social norms are a promising means in health crisis communication because they can guide collective action to reduce risk. However, recent research on the COVID-19 pandemic suggests that social norms may have not fully supported strategic goals and even contributed to phenomena that hindered risk reduction, calling into question the potential of social norms campaigns. This became most evident during the COVID-19 pandemic in the emergence of alternative norms of measure opposition, stigmatization of norm-deviant individuals, and the issue of free-riding. The article analyzes these phenomena from a social identity and communication perspective and outlines areas for further inquiry in health and crisis communication. The goal is to pave the way for a research agenda dedicated to the dark side of social norms to unlock the full potential of social norms in times of (health) crisis.

The present study examines how content of fitfluencers can be employed to improve body satisfaction and intention to exercise among adolescents. Specifically, this experimental study (N = 114 adolescents, age: 16-18) compares the effects of fitfluencer content with instructional captions that contain exercise or workout instructions (as a form of edutainment) with those of self-focused fitfluencer captions that emphasize the fitfluencer's appearance. These two types of captions are found to induce no significant differences in either body satisfaction or intention to exercise. In addition, there were no significant indirect effects via state appearance comparison or self-efficacy. The results do show that less state appearance comparisons increase body satisfaction, and that more self-efficacy increases body satisfaction and intention to exercise. The results suggest that instructions in fitfluencer captions do not differ from self-focused captions in their effects on body satisfaction and intention to exercise among adolescents.

To reduce the impact of communicable diseases like COVID-19, collective action is required and likely to be susceptible to normative influence as well as whether people are more or less collectively oriented. We extend the theory of normative social behavior (TNSB) to account for group orientation and predict the relationships between social norms and physical distancing behaviors. Using a rolling cross-sectional design during 17 weeks of the pandemic, a national sample of US residents from 20 states (N = 8,778) participated in the study. The findings show that perceived descriptive norms, injunctive norms, and group orientation are significantly associated with physical distancing. The descriptive norm-behavior relationship and injunctive norm-behavior relationship are moderated by group orientation and the other predicted moderators in the TNSB. The findings extend the TNSB and highlight the need to understand social norms and group orientation in formative research for health communication campaigns designed to promote prevention behaviors.