Predicting Users’ willingness to diffuse healthcare knowledge in social media

Sharing health information across online platforms: A systematic review

Advanced Web 2.0 communication technologies have facilitated health-related information (HRI) sharing on the Internet. Especially, the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdowns around the world have forced more people to turn to the Internet for HRI. A better understanding of users' sharing content and sharing behavior can help communicators improve health literacy, raise community awareness, and facilitate social support exchanges. This paper reports the results of a systematic review of online HRI sharing literature, including key research topics, theories and methods used in past studies, and key factors of sharing behavior across online platforms. Following the PRISMA procedure for a systematic review, 58 articles were identified and analyzed using keyword matching, thematic analysis, and expert review. Guided by the platform theory, our findings differentiated five types of online platforms that differently influenced online users' sharing content and sharing purposes, including micro-blogs, social network sites, online health communities, social question and answer sites, and Wikis. The findings also clarify five main research topics and applicable theories used in each topic, including personal health sharing, health-related knowledge sharing, general health message diffusion, outcomes of HRI sharing, and exploratory research. Key factors of sharing behavior and potential sharing outcomes are also reviewed and summarized in the research framework developed from the motivation theory. Our study contributes to the understanding of online sharing behavior and provides implications for health communicators to develop effective health campaigns. Potential research directions are also identified and discussed.

Digging deeper into responsibility: an investigation of responses to online help-request marketing campaigns in social networking groups

Purpose

There is a growing trend among online merchants to conduct help-request marketing campaigns (HMCs), which refers to a kind of marketing campaign that leverages participants' help-request to encourage the subsequent engagement of participants' online friends. The paper aims to investigate how individuals respond to online HMCs in social networking groups (SNGs). Integrating the norm activation model and regulatory focus theory, this paper examines the mediation effects of the two facets of responsibility perception, i.e. perceived causality and perceived answerability.

Design/methodology/approach

A field experiment was conducted by organizing a real HMC on WeChat. To manipulate request individuation, experimental confederates were engaged to serve as requesters in the HMC. The actual responses provided by the recipients (subjects) were captured via the HMC pages. The multiple-group analysis was used for data analysis.

Findings

Empirical results reveal that request individuation strengthens the effect of relationship closeness on perceived causality but reverses the effect of relationship closeness on perceived answerability from being positive to negative. Except for the negligible impact of perceived answerability on inaction, both perceived causality and perceived answerability affect recipients' reactions to HMCs as expected.

Practical implications

First, social media platforms should promote other-oriented prosocial values when designing features or launching campaigns. Second, the designers of HMCs should introduce a “tagging” feature in HMCs and provide additional bonuses for requesters who perform tagging. Third, HMC requesters should prudently select tagging targets when making a request.

Originality/value

First, this paper contributes to the literature on social media engagement by identifying responsibility as an other-oriented motivation for individuals' social media engagement. Second, this paper also extends our understanding of responsibility by dividing it into perceived causality and answerability as well as measuring them with self-developed instruments. Third, this study contributes to the research on WOM by demonstrating that individuals' response behaviors toward help-requests embedded in HMCs can take the form of proactive helping, reactive helping or inaction.

Health IT in our daily life: impact of mobile phone use on the emotions and compliance of diabetes patients

Purpose

Leveraging information technology (IT) to improve the treatment and support of patients is a widely studied topic in healthcare. For chronic diseases, such as diabetes, the use of information technology is even more important since its effect extends from a clinic environment to patients’ daily life. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impacts of one widely adopted information technology, the mobile phone, on diabetes treatment, specifically on the complicated process of patients’ health, emotions and compliance.

Design/methodology/approach

We leverage a unique longitudinal dataset on diabetes patients’ health status in rural areas of China to study the problem. We also cross-link the dataset with mobile carrier data to further differentiate mobile phone use to phone calls and network use. To address the endogeneity concerns, we apply PSM and a series of instrument variables.

Findings

We identify clear evidence that mobile phone use can significantly improve patients’ emotions and compliance, where the effect is generally larger on patients in worse health conditions. While mobile phone calls clearly benefit diabetes patients, we do notice that mobile phone network use has a negative moderating effect with patients’ health condition on improving compliance.

Originality/value

This study not only enriches our theoretical understanding of the role of mobile phones in diabetes management, it also shows the economic benefit of promoting patients’ use of mobile phones, which should be considered by medical care providers and medical policymakers.

What determines online rumour sharing on COVID-19? A stimulus–response framework

Based on the stimulus–response framework, this study examines the external environmental stimuli influencing online rumour sharing about COVID-19 and considers the contingent effect of fear. A large-scale online survey was used to test the proposed research model and hypotheses. The final data set comprised 2807 valid responses. The results indicate that perceptions of community safety and infection risk negatively affect online rumour sharing, while social influence positively affects online rumour sharing. Fear weakens the negative effects of community safety on online rumour sharing but strengthens the positive effect of social influence on online rumour sharing. This study provides a comprehensive analysis by applying the stimulus–response framework to explore the underlying drivers of online rumour sharing with regard to COVID-19 and the moderating effects of fear in the Chinese context.

Emerging technologies adoption in healthcare: A SOHI model

The internet and emerging technologies have increased the utilisation of digital platforms. This study aims to draw on performance expectancy, social influence, and satisfaction to investigate a proposed model which is geared toward social media healthcare information (SOHI) adoption. The proposed model uses a structured online questionnaire, and 300 responses were evaluated using partial least squares and structural equation modelling [PLS-SEM]. From the findings, performance expectancy of social media (PESM) and satisfaction with social media (SATSM) were revealed to be significant predictors of behavioural intention towards social media (BISM). Satisfaction with social media (SATSM) had the greatest impact on BISM, accounting for 63.8 per cent of the variance in users' intentions to utilise SOHI. Similarly, PESM and social influence on social media (SISM) had the most predictive influence on SATSM, accounting for 50.5 per cent of the variance in users' social media satisfaction, which led to SOHI adoption. Unlike others, the social influence on social media (SISM) did not have a significant effect on BISM. BISM and satisfaction with social media (SATSM) were significant predictors of SOHI adoption, accounting for 54.5 per cent of the variance in SOHI adoption. The recommendations in this study would help healthcare professionals change their approach to digital healthcare engagement.

Apps within apps: predicting government WeChat mini-program adoption from trust–risk perspective and innovation diffusion theory

Purpose

The WeChat mini-program is a new channel for the delivery of online and mobile services, including electronic government services. Given the distinguishing characteristics and new business model of WeChat mini-programs, additional studies of mini-program-based government services are warranted. The purpose of this paper is to identify the factors that determine user adoption and usage of government WeChat mini-programs (GWMPs).

Design/methodology/approach

An empirical study was conducted through an online survey of Chinese GWMPs users. The proposed model was tested by analyzing the collected data using the covariance-based structural equation modeling approach.

Findings

The findings show that trust in government, trust in WeChat, trust in GWMPs and perceived convenience have significant effects on the usage of GWMPs.

Originality/value

This study contributes to the understanding of the GWMPs and mini-program-based government phenomenon. Theoretical implications for future e-government research as well as practical suggestions for GWMPs operators are also discussed.

Accessing the Influence of Perceived Value on Social Attachment: Developing Country Perspective

Perceived value has a positive impact on users' social attachment in social media usage contexts and is a topic at the forefront of current research in consumer behavior. Although studies have begun to investigate the factors influencing social attachment, there is a lack of research on how perceived value affects social attachment. Therefore, this study uses privacy concern theory, to build a theoretical model with moderated and mediation roles, using Chinese Tik Tok users as data and survey sample, and applying Mplus7.0 to analyze the mediation mechanism and boundary conditions of the relationship between perceived value and social attachment through the structural equation model. In Study 1, data were collected from 600 Tik Tok users to verify the mediating role of the sense of belonging in perceived value and social attachment relationship. The users participating in the questionnaire survey were mainly from mainland China. In Study 2, two waves of data were collected from 500 Tik Tok users to verify the mediating role of the sense of belonging, and support part of the moderating role of privacy concern. However, except that the relationship between information value and social attachment is inhibited by privacy concern, the relationship between entertainment and social value and social attachment is not regulated by privacy concern. This research examines the practical effects of perceived value in the context of social media use, reveals the internal mechanism of the impact of perceived value on social attachment, and provides a reference for the innovative management and commercial practice of social media.

Why Do Citizens Share COVID-19 Fact-Checks Posted by Chinese Government Social Media Accounts? The Elaboration Likelihood Model

Widespread misinformation about COVID-19 poses a significant threat to citizens long-term health and the combating of the disease. To fight the spread of misinformation, Chinese governments have used official social media accounts to participate in fact-checking activities. This study aims to investigate why citizens share fact-checks about COVID-19 and how to promote this activity. Based on the elaboration likelihood model, we explore the effects of peripheral cues (social media capital, social media strategy, media richness, and source credibility) and central cues (content theme and content importance) on the number of shares of fact-checks posted by official Chinese Government social media accounts. In total, 820 COVID-19 fact-checks from 413 Chinese Government Sina Weibo accounts were obtained and evaluated. Results show that both peripheral and central cues play important roles in the sharing of fact-checks. For peripheral cues, social media capital and media richness significantly promote the number of shares. Compared with the push strategy, both the pull strategy and networking strategy facilitate greater fact-check sharing. Fact-checks posted by Central Government social media accounts receive more shares than local government accounts. For central cues, content importance positively predicts the number of shares. In comparison to fact-checks about the latest COVID-19 news, government actions received fewer shares, while social conditions received more shares.

How social media fosters the elders' COVID-19 preventive behaviors: perspectives of information value and perceived threat

Purpose

Although crisis communication via social media has engaged academia's attention during the disease outbreak, information value for preventive behaviors is inadequately studied. The purpose of this paper is to cast light on how to strengthen the uptake of older people's coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) behavioral outcomes due to information value and perceived threat through social media.

Design/methodology/approach

This study designs a survey and applies structural equation modeling to examine a research framework. A sample comprises 334 Vietnamese older participants who have utilized social media.

Findings

The results illustrate that preventive behaviors are determined by perceived threat (i.e. severity and susceptibility). Furthermore, older people heighten risk perceptions based on information characteristics, including information relevance, informative support and source credibility. Lastly, information relevance is a strong predictor of source credibility.

Practical implications

The findings assist practitioners to enhance crisis communication effectiveness via social media by imparting valuable information to the public. Moreover, this paper offers overarching guidelines on the improvement in credibility with creators, risk consciousness and preventive behaviors.

Originality/value

Although earlier studies focused attentiveness on the power of social media for raising threat perceptions, this work seems the first to unveil informative motives for perceived COVID-19 threat across older individuals, which subsequently presents plausible reasons for behavioral disclosure, including facemask-wearing, hand-washing and social distancing.

When a luxury brand bursts: Modelling the social media viral effects of negative stereotypes adoption leading to brand hate

In early 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) developed the term "infodemic" to describe the velocity at which data can be exchanged among people, in a free virtual space where firms have limited control over the information diffusion. In particular, the diffusion of information on social media has analogies with the transmission (contagion) of social phenomena and infectious diseases. The aim of this research is to model the viral effects of a luxury marketing campaign when adopting negative stereotypes to increase the market share in a growing market. The campaign generated 506,127 likes of celebrity endorsers/influencers and 17,984 comments spread worldwide in a relatively short period, producing a "burst". Findings revealed the unexpected social burst occurred with negative consumers' evaluation, which has been amplified becoming dramatically damaging for the brand (brand hate).

Can the adoption of health information on social media be predicted by information characteristics?

Purpose

This paper aims to explore the relationship between the characteristics of social media health information and its adoption. The purpose is to identify information characteristics that can be used to estimate the level of health information adoption in advance.

Design/methodology/approach

According to the Information Adoption Model (IAM), the study extracted ten information characteristics from the aspects of information quality and information source credibility. The sample data was collected from the top ten influential health accounts based on the Impact List of Sina Weibo to test the effectiveness of these characteristics in distinguishing information at different levels of adoption. The forecasting of information adoption level is regarded as a binary classification question in the study and support vector machine (SVM) is used to do the research.

Findings

The results indicate that ten information characteristics chosen in this study are related to information adoption. Based on these information characteristics, it is feasible to estimate the level of health information adoption, and the estimation accuracy is relatively high.

Originality/value

A lot of work has been done in previous researches to reveal the factors that influence information adoption. The theoretical contribution of this work is to further discuss how to use the influencing factors to do some predictive work for information adoption. In practice, it will help health information publishers to disseminate high-quality health information more effectively as well as promote the adoption of health information.

An empirical investigation of precursors influencing social media health information behaviors and personal healthcare habits during coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic

Purpose

Drawing upon the communicative ecology theory (CET), this study aims to identify the potential precursors of social media health information seeking intentions (ISI) and examine their effects on health information re-sharing behaviors and PHH during coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Design/methodology/approach

The data is collected through an online survey conducted in two different universities situated in highly COVID-19-affected cities – Wuhan and Zhengzhou, China. The valid data consists of 230 useful responses from WeChat users and to analyze the final data set structural equation modeling (SEM) is used.

Findings

The results indicate that perceived health information credibility (PIC), trust on the medium (TRM) and peer influence (PI) significantly affect health ISI which further affects health information re-sharing behaviors (IRB) and personal health-care habits (PHH). Besides, the results also identify that PI has a direct, positive and significant effect on health IRB via social media during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Research limitations/implications

This study investigates the health information intentional behavior precursors and their consequences via WeChat (taken as social media platform) during COVID-19 pandemic. Future studies may conduct research by examining online information behaviors on other social media platforms – Twitter, WhatsApp, Facebook, etc. – in health emergency situations.

Practical implications

The health information producers and providers have to deal with communicative ecology sentiments elegantly in emergency situations such as during the COVID-19 pandemic. They need to do collective efforts by introducing new tools or social apps which deal with valuable, reliable and accurate health content and information generated by the pandemic experts and health professionals. In such a way, the social apps and tools (Information providers) will act as mediators between the health professionals (Information producers) and general social media users (information seekers). Such initiatives will ultimately bring forth positive effect on individuals’ PHH as a whole within a network, community, environment or nations during a health emergency – COVID-19 pandemic.

Originality/value

This research is one of the first studies to examine the potential precursors of social media health ISIs and their resultant effects on individual’s health IRB and PHH during the COVID-19 pandemic. As currently it is noticed, an incredible upsurge of health information via social media has intense impacts on personal health-care research and practice, particularly during health emergency situations such as COVID-19 pandemic conditions.