Health Information Engagement Research Articles

Effects of Exposure to Conflicting Health Information on Topic-Specific Information Sharing and Seeking Intentions

ABSTRACT Despite considerable evidence that exposure to conflicting health information can have undesirable effects on outcomes including public understanding about and trust in health recommendations, comparatively little is known about whether such exposure influences intentions to engage in two communication behaviors central to public health promotion: information sharing and information seeking. The purpose of the current study is to test whether exposure to conflicting information influences intentions to share and seek information about six health topics. We analyzed data from two waves of a longitudinal survey experiment with a nationally representative sample of U.S. adults (N = 3,920). Participants were randomly assigned to either a conflict or no-conflict message condition, in which they read news stories and social media posts about three (of six) randomly selected health topics at Time 1 and the remaining three at Time 2. The dependent variables, which were measured at Time 2, asked participants whether they intended to share or seek information about the three topics they had just viewed. Linear mixed effects models showed that exposure to conflict reduced intentions to share and seek information, regardless of health topic. These findings suggest that exposure to conflicting health information discourages two important types of health information engagement, thus adding to the growing evidence base documenting the adverse consequences of conflicting information for public health.

Assessing the impact of health information orientation and health information literacy on patients’ engagement with health information

Health information engagement can help individuals to find and use reliable sources of health information to make informed decisions about their health. This helps to improve their health outcomes and prevent unnecessary healthcare costs. Drawing upon the cognitive behavioural theory, this pilot study postulated a model to understand that the consequences of information orientation in terms of information engagement (behaviour), information literacy (cognition) and information avoidance (behaviour) in post-COVID era under health context. Furthermore, the moderation effects of health information literacy (HIL) are also calculated in managing health information avoidance beahvior. This pilot study is conducted in the context of social media exposure to health information by diabetic patients in Pakistani community. The proposed model was tested using Partial Lease Square Structural Equational Modelling (PLS-SEM). The data were collected from 166 diabetic patients (active social media users) through a survey. The study findings suggest that health information orientation on social media leads to HIL and engagement. Whereas, it has significant negative impact towards health information avoidance behaviour. Furthermore, HIL significantly increases health information engagement of diabetic patients. Also, HIL moderates the relationship between health information orientation and information engagement positively, whereas between health information orientation and health information avoidance negatively.

Engaging Audience on Social Media: The Persuasive Impact of Fit Between Humor and Regulatory Focus in Health Messages

ABSTRACT Drawing upon construal level theory and regulatory fit literature, this research examined the effect of fit between humor and regulatory focus on audience engagement with health information on social media. The results of two studies showed that incongruity humor (vs. aggressive humor) induced greater social proximity between the source and the viewer, and humor type interacted with regulatory focus of a message to impact audience engagement. Specifically, incongruity humor paired with a prevention-focused message (vs. a promotion-focused message) resulted in greater content endorsement and health information engagement, whereas aggressive humor combined with a promotion-focused message (vs. a prevention-focused message) led to greater content endorsement. Results further identified processing fluency as a mediator of the fit effect on audience engagement. This research offers important theoretical and practical implications for public health interventions on social media.

The Effects of Receiving and Expressing Health Information on Social Media during the COVID-19 Infodemic: An Online Survey among Malaysians.

Social media is used by the masses not only to seek health information but also to express feelings on an array of issues, including those related to health. However, there has been little investigation on the influence of expressing and receiving information in terms of health-related engagement on social media. Moreover, little is known of the cognitive mechanisms underlying the expression and reception of health information on information overload (IO) during an infectious disease outbreak. Guided by the Cognitive Mediation Model (CMM), this study proposes a conceptual model to understand the effects of receiving and expressing COVID-19 information on social media on IO. Using an online survey conducted in Malaysia, our results indicated that risk perception positively predicted the reception and expression of information which, in turn, was positively associated with perceived stress and IO. Additionally, perceived stress triggered IO, indicating that the greater the perceived stress from health information engagement, the higher the likelihood of one experiencing IO during the pandemic. We conclude that the CMM can be extended to study IO as an outcome variable. More studies in diverse health contexts need to be conducted to enhance the conceptualization and operationalization of IO in health information processing.

Contextualizing Engagement With Health Information on Facebook: Using the Social Media Content and Context Elicitation Method.

BackgroundMost of what is known regarding health information engagement on social media stems from quantitative methodologies. Public health literature often quantifies engagement by measuring likes, comments, and/or shares of posts within health organizations’ Facebook pages. However, this content may not represent the health information (and misinformation) generally available to and consumed by platform users. Furthermore, some individuals may prefer to engage with information without leaving quantifiable digital traces. Mixed methods approaches may provide a way of surpassing the constraints of assessing engagement with health information by using only currently available social media metrics.ObjectiveThis study aims to discuss the limitations of current approaches in assessing health information engagement on Facebook and presents the social media content and context elicitation method, a qualitatively driven, mixed methods approach to understanding engagement with health information and how engagement may lead to subsequent actions.MethodsData collection, management, and analysis using the social media content and context elicitation method are presented. This method was developed for a broader study exploring how and why US Latinos and Latinas engage with cancer prevention and screening information on Facebook. The study included 20 participants aged between 40 and 75 years without cancer who participated in semistructured, in-depth interviews to discuss their Facebook use and engagement with cancer information on the platform. Participants accessed their Facebook account alongside the researcher, typed cancer in the search bar, and discussed cancer-related posts they engaged with during the previous 12 months. Engagement was defined as liking, commenting, and/or sharing a post; clicking on a post link; reading an article in a post; and/or watching a video within a post. Content engagement prompted questions regarding the reasons for engagement and whether engagement triggered further action. Data were managed using MAXQDA (VERBI GmbH) and analyzed using thematic and content analyses.ResultsData emerging from the social media content and context elicitation method demonstrated that participants mainly engaged with cancer prevention and screening information by viewing and/or reading content (48/66, 73%) without liking, commenting, or sharing it. This method provided rich content regarding how US Latinos and Latinas engage with and act upon cancer prevention and screening information on Facebook. We present 2 emblematic cases from the main study to exemplify the additional information and context elicited from this methodology, which is currently lacking from quantitative approaches.ConclusionsThe social media content and context elicitation method allows a better representation and deeper contextualization of how people engage with and act upon health information and misinformation encountered on social media. This method may be applied to future studies regarding how to best communicate health information on social media, including how these affect assessments of message credibility and accuracy, which can influence health outcomes.

How does WeChat's active engagement with health information contribute to psychological well-being through social capital?

This study aims to examine how the users’ engagement with health information benefits their well-being and to demonstrate the underlying mechanism of the relationships through bonding and bridging social capital. An online survey was conducted with 522 WeChat users in China. Structural equation modeling using the maximum likelihood of estimation was employed to test the study’s hypothesized model. Bootstrapping methods were used to examine mediation effects. The results revealed that users’ liking, sharing, and commenting behaviors were positively related to the bonding and bridging capital accumulated on WeChat. These two forms of social capital were also positively associated with users’ psychological well-being, though bridging capital exerted more power in our research model. Moreover, both bonding and bridging capital mediated the relationship between WeChat affordances and psychological well-being. The findings shed new light on directions for leveraging mobile social media as an alternative means to bring about improvements in well-being in mobile-phone-saturated China. This is likely to be the first study that examines the mediating roles of bonding and bridging social capital on the relationship between users’ health information engagement and users’ psychological well-being. By providing robust findings by adopting the variable-centered approach in a health context, the findings of this study are promising for the extension and theoretical development of mobile social media research in the context of health information engagement.

Health Information Seeking versus Avoiding: How Do College Students Respond to Stress-related Information?

Objectives: Given the prevalence of stress among young adults and its impact on overall health, it is important to understand how college students respond to stress and stress management messages and which factors influence subsequent health information engagement. Methods: In the current study, I used an experimental design to test whether the variables of risk percep tion, response efficacy, and source credibility can exert an impact on a convenient sample of undergraduate students at a large Midwestern public university in the health context of stress and stress management. Results: Both risk perception and response efficacy were positively associated with health information seeking and negatively associated with health information avoiding, but only risk perception had a strong and statistically significant influence on information engagement. I found no statistically significant interaction between risk perception and response efficacy or moderating effects of source credibility. Conclusions: This study provides empirical support for the claim that stress-related risk perception can influence young adults' information engagement significantly. Health communication strategists addressing the issue of stress among college students should consider eliciting risk perception.

Health Information Engagement Factors in Malaysia: A Content Analysis of Facebook Use by the Ministry of Health in 2016 and 2017.

Health organizations have widely adopted social media for health promotion, public health communication conveyance, and organizational promotion activities. However, little published data exists on the factors that facilitate health information diffusion in South East Asia, especially Malaysia compared with Western countries. This study aimed to investigate factors associated with good engagement rates among internet users on the Facebook (FB) page of Ministry of Health Malaysia. In this observational study, 2123 FB posts were randomly selected. Data dated from 1 November 2016 to 31 October 2017 was gathered from the Facebook Insight. The logistic regression model was applied to identify factors associated with good engagement rates. This study found that a FB post with a good engagement rate was significantly associated with a health education post (Adjusted Odd Ratio (AOR): 3.80, 95% Confidence Interval CI: 3.02–4.78, p < 0.001), a risk communication post (AOR: 1.77, 95% CI: 1.39–2.26, p < 0.001), a post in the afternoon (AOR: 1.76, 95% CI: 1.34–2.31, p < 0.001) or in the evening (AOR: 1.48, 95% CI: 1.20–1.82, p < 0.001), and a video format (AOR: 3.74, 95% CI: 1.44–9.71, p = 0.007). Therefore, we present the first comprehensive analysis of health information engagement among internet users in Malaysia. The growing trends of online health information-seeking behaviors and demand for the availability of validated health information require effective strategies by public health organizations to disseminate health information and achieve better audience engagement on social media.

Health Information Engagement Factors: A Content Analysis of Facebook of Ministry of Health, Malaysia. (Preprint)

Health Information Engagement Factors: A Content Analysis of Facebook of Ministry of Health, Malaysia. (Preprint)

I Sought It, I Reddit: Examining Health Information Engagement Behaviors among Reddit Users

Given the wide use of social media, these platforms have become important channels for understanding health-related information engagement processes. Reddit is a social media platform dedicated to user-generated content and discourse around the world. However, little research exists regarding use of the platform. Guided by the diffusion of innovation theory, the purpose of this study was to analyze Reddit users’ behaviors on the platform related to perceptions of information credibility, health information seeking, and behavioral enactment of information found. Data were collected via survey from Reddit users around the world (n = 389). Data suggest that although Reddit use and perceived information credibility are unrelated to acting on the information found on Reddit, users who are specifically seeking health-related information are more likely to enact the information in their lives. Implications from the findings suggest important considerations for communication scholars, media advocates, and health promotion practitioners.

Older Adults’ Use of Online and Offline Sources of Health Information and Constructs of Reliance and Self-Efficacy for Medical Decision Making

We know little about older adults' use of online and offline health information sources for medical decision making despite increasing numbers of older adults who report using the Internet for health information to aid in patient–provider communication and medical decision making. Therefore we investigated older adult users and nonusers of online and offline sources of health information and factors related to medical decision making. Survey research was conducted using random digit dialing of Florida residents' landline telephones. The Decision Self-Efficacy Scale and the Reliance Scale were used to measure relationships between users and nonusers of online health information. Study respondents were 225 older adults (age range = 50−92 years, M = 68.9, SD = 10.4), which included users (n = 105) and nonusers (n = 119) of online health information. Users and nonusers differed in frequency and types of health sources sought. Users of online health information preferred a self-reliant approach and nonusers of online health information preferred a physician-reliant approach to involvement in medical decisions on the Reliance Scale. This study found significant differences between older adult users and nonusers of online and offline sources of health information and examined factors related to online health information engagement for medical decision making.

Seekers and avoiders: Using health information orientation to explore audience segmentation

Differentiation of health communication strategies can address a new type of health disparity, a communication inequity. This exploratory study collected survey data to identify online health information audience groups based on health information orientation and objective and perceived health literacy. Two groups were identified and compared showing that health information orientation could be used for systematic segmentation of the consumers of online health information. The two distinct information behaviors, health information engagement and health information apprehension, provided a stable foundation for audience segmentation. The paper discusses how the segmentation of audiences based on the reported information behaviors and information orientation can facilitate the development of targeted health communication and information engagement approaches.