Journal of Health Communication最新文献

Social media platforms, such as TikTok, offer an avenue by which users can post brief or extended videos about health topics, such as abortion. In a pair of studies, we examined TikTok videos about abortion and users' abortion-related beliefs. In Study 1, a content analysis of TikTok videos (N = 397) found that the beliefs most frequently conveyed include abortion being a right, being a choice for individuals rather than lawmakers, and being healthcare and abortion bans being dangerous for women and harming sexual assault victims. Additionally, several beliefs co-occurred in these videos, such as abortion being a right and abortion being an individual choice. In Study 2, a survey of adults across the United States (N = 578) found that greater use of TikTok was associated with greater endorsement of some of the most frequently conveyed beliefs from Study 1 as well as stronger connections among beliefs in a manner consistent with the co-occurring themes identified in Study 1. These findings offer some preliminary evidence that TikTok use impacts users' abortion-related beliefs.

This study examined the effects of opioid stigma marks (e.g. "dirty," "unclean") on stigma-related outcomes among a sample of Amazon Mechanical Turk workers (N = 371). Using a 2 (stigma mark: yes, no) by 3 (opioid type: prescription opioid, heroin, fentanyl) between subjects factorial experiment, results indicated that compared to those in the no mark conditions, participants in the mark conditions expressed greater desire for social distance from and behavioral regulation of people with opioid use disorders. Opioid stigma marks were also indirectly associated with more behavioral regulation, more stigma message sharing, and less support for opioid-related public health policies through stigma beliefs. Results advance theoretical understandings of the stigma message effects process and offer practical recommendations for public health communicators and journalists.

This study evaluates the efficacy of Media Aware, a comprehensive sex education program with a media literacy education approach, for improving sexual health cognitions among 1139 U.S. community college students (ages 18-19) from 23 campuses. Students were randomized to condition (intervention or delayed-intervention control) and completed pretest and posttest questionnaires. Several main effects of the intervention were found at posttest, including reduced perceived realism of media messages, positive attitudes about risky sex, and descriptive normative beliefs about unprotected and risky sexual activity, and increased self-efficacy to use dental dams. Gender and pretest levels moderated some intervention effects. Women in the intervention group reported less identification with media messages compared to women in the control group. Students in the intervention group who reported lower pretest levels of self-efficacy to use dental dams and to refuse unprotected sex had higher posttest levels on those outcomes as compared with the control group. Students in the intervention group who reported higher pretest levels of normative beliefs about risky sexual activity had lower posttest levels on those outcomes as compared with the control group. Results suggest that Media Aware is a promising method to improve the sexual health of young adults attending community college.

In our research, we examined how three dimensions of opinion leadership-connectivity, maven, and persuasiveness-are associated with sharing positive and negative information about vaccines among parents in Hong Kong through a mixed-methods approach. In two studies, we assessed opinion leadership following a sociometric approach that involved using data from social media (Study 1) and a self-assessment using survey data (Study 2), which yielded largely consistent results. In particular, whereas connectivity and maven were significantly associated with sharing positive information about vaccines, all three dimensions were significantly associated with sharing negative information about vaccines. Those findings suggest that different dimensions of opinion leadership play different roles in information sharing depending on the information's valence. Moreover, the similar pattern of findings from both studies suggested that the sociometric approach and self-assessment may capture the multidimensional nature of opinion leadership equally well. In sum, the findings advance theoretical discussions on the role of opinion leadership in information sharing and offer practical insights into promoting vaccination for children among parents.

With an intersectional orientation, we examine associations between discrimination, health communication, and information-seeking intention about HIV prevention in the context of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) among cisgender women through an online survey (N = 341). We elaborate on the idea that intersectional discrimination is a social determinant of health by considering the context with differing power relations-day-to-day life and the healthcare field-based on Bourdieu's field theory, and explore moderating roles of health communication in this relationship according to the structural influence model of communication (SIM). The relationships between intersectional discrimination and intention show different patterns by the context in which intersectional experiences are considered, and the relationships are moderated differently by the mode of health communication. We discuss how to conduct intersectionality-informed health communication research without sacrificing intersectionality's foundational foci.

This study explored how online media consumption, fear, mental wellbeing, and behavioral compliance with COVID-19 measures were related to one another during the COVID-19 pandemic. Employing a four-wave longitudinal survey research design (n = 1,092), this study found positive relationships between online media consumption and fear of COVID-19, between fear of COVID-19 and behavioral compliance, and between behavioral compliance and mental wellbeing in the general Dutch population. Results showed a negative relationship between fear of COVID-19 and mental wellbeing. Repeated measures ANOVAs indicated that participants' online media consumption, fear of COVID-19, and behavioral compliance with COVID-19 measures all gradually decreased as the pandemic progressed, while mental wellbeing gradually recovered as the pandemic progressed. Recognizing the negative relationship between fear of COVID-19 and mental wellbeing, policymakers may be encouraged to focus on implementing interventions and communication strategies to support mental health during pandemics. Using other types of appeals (e.g. hope appeals) in addition to the commonly used fear appeals when developing online public health messages could ensure behavioral compliance during pandemics without triggering high levels of fear. This can contribute to maintaining people's mental wellbeing when they have to cope with life-threatening public health crises while still promoting behavioral compliance with necessary public health measures.

Media coverage of depression on social media with specific framings could shape people's perception and attitude, which is significant in reducing the stigma and promoting support for depression sufferers. Adopting the lens of moral foundation theory (MFT), this study aims to explore the effect of inherent moral framings within depression coverage on social media on the stigma and approval attitudes toward depression in audiences' responses. A large language model and a dictionary-based approach were respectively adopted to score depression-related media coverages (n = 919) and corresponding comments (n = 92,505) collected from the Weibo platform against MFT's five dimensions and (de)stigma attitudes. The results indicated that care, purity, and fairness framings are prevalent in depression coverage, surpassing moral framings such as betrayal, harm, and cheating. Most responses expressed approval rather than stigma. Moreover, the use of care and loyalty framings can elicit approval responses but decrease audience engagement.

In a secondary analysis, we examine how trust in pro-recommendation versus alternative communication channels mediated effects of demographic, personality, lifestyle, and political variables on COVID-19 protective behavior in England. In so doing, we adapt the media-as-mediator approach to the pandemic context. Respondents reported that family, close friends, primary care medical providers, and mainstream news media were relatively supportive of public health recommendations, and social media friend networks, faith/community groups, alternative news sites, and alternative health practitioners were relatively unsupportive. Parallel mediation analyses showed that effects of age, dutiful civic-mindedness, sensation-seeking, healthy lifestyle orientation, and more marginally, race on COVID-19 protective behavior were mediated by trust in these pro-recommendation and/or alternative communication channels. In some cases, trust in exemplars of both types of channels resulted in these channels influences largely canceling one another out.

With COVID-19 vaccination rates remaining below optimal levels, scalable interventions to shift vaccination intentions are needed. We embedded two randomized experiments in South Africa's COVID-19 Vaccine Survey (CVACS) to investigate the potential to change vaccine intentions and behavior. In Experiment 1, 3510 unvaccinated South African adults were randomly assigned to a no-message control group, a social norm message, or a message highlighting that vaccines were free, available and easy to obtain. The free and easy message significantly increased vaccine intentions but did not increase other outcome measures. The social proof message was associated with an increase in self-reported vaccination status at follow-up (not significant at traditional statistical thresholds). In Experiment 2, 3608 unvaccinated South African adults were randomly assigned to a no-message control group, a message highlighting gaining greater freedoms, or a message highlighting being part of the solution to the pandemic. Neither value proposition message increased vaccination intentions. Light-touch and scalable messages informed by behavioral science and social marketing principles may increase vaccination intentions and uptake, However, more attention should be paid to understanding the behavioral barriers experienced by different population segments, and to tailoring and targeting messaging to those barriers and segments.