Examination of Gender Stereotypes and Norms in Health-Related Content Posted to Snapchat Discover Channels: Qualitative Content Analysis

[A gendered perspective of information behaviors, its drivers, and barriers : Results of an online survey of a sample stratified for the German population]

BACKGROUND

The gender perspective is an essential level of effective health communication approaches. Against the background of the gender perspective as an essential level of effective health communication approaches, we focus on health-related information behaviors. Complementary to information seeking, information avoidance is included. Both forms of information behavior are described in gender-specific ways, and their predictors are identified using a resource-centered approach covering the individual's health, empowerment, involvement, and social support.

METHOD

An online survey of a sample stratified for the German population (N = 3000) was conducted. The two modes of information behavior as well as their theoretically derived predictors were assessed. In addition to descriptive analyses, blockwise regression analyses were used to identify gender-specific predictors of information seeking and avoidance.

RESULTS

Information seeking occurs more frequently than information avoidance. Both differ only slightly between men and women and showed the strongest correlations with the respondents' involvement. For information seeking, coping resources are also a significant predictor, while information avoidance is associated with psychological well-being and social support. Similar patterns of association emerge across genders.

CONCLUSION

Across genders, it is evident that health communication measures should strengthen the involvement of the population and their coping resources to promote information seeking and counteract information avoidance. Additionally, the findings revealed that avoiders should be more focused as one of the main target groups of health communication.

[Contraception on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok : A content and quality analysis]

BACKGROUND

Young people and adults increasingly obtain information about contraception via social media.

RESEARCH AIM

Against this background, the aim of this study is to investigate for the first time the content and quality of German-language contraceptive posts on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok. Research questions on providers (F1), content (F2), and quality of contraceptive posts (F3) as well as audience reactions (F4) will be answered.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

A sample of N = 1000 contraceptive posts from YouTube (500), Instagram (250), and TikTok (250) was drawn. A maximum of 20 contraception-related audience comments per post were included in the comment sample (N = 12,454). Posts and comments were analyzed using reliability-tested codebooks. SPSS was used for data analysis. The study is preregistered and all data, materials, and analysis scripts are publicly available.

RESULTS

The majority of contraceptive posts were found to be from health laypersons (52%), followed by media professionals and health professionals (F1). In terms of content, contraceptive posts covered all available contraceptive methods, with the pill (69%) and condoms (40%) dominating (F2). According to common quality criteria, there were clear deficits, with YouTube videos scoring best in comparison (F3). TikTok videos, on the other hand, were top performers in terms of audience interaction, attracting the most views, likes, and comments. Comment columns were often used by the audience to share their own contraceptive experiences or ask follow-up questions (F4).

DISCUSSION

Future research as well as practice interventions are needed to further assess the quality of contraceptive information in social media and improve it in a more targeted way.

A Comparison of Women's and Men's Web-Based Information-Seeking Behaviors About Gender-Related Health Information: Web-Based Survey Study of a Stratified German Sample

BACKGROUND

Gender-sensitive approaches to health communication aim to integrate gender perspectives at all levels of communication, as an individual's biological sex and socially assigned gender identity have an impact on whether and how one acquires what type of health information. Due to the fast and low-cost opportunity to search for a wide range of information, the internet seems to be a particularly suitable place for gender-related health information about diseases of sex-specific organs and diseases where biological differences are associated with different health risks.

OBJECTIVE

This study aims to inform gender-related information provision and acquisition in 2 ways. The first objective was to provide a theory-driven analysis of web-based health information-seeking behavior (HISB) regarding gender-related issues. Therefore, the Planned Risk Information Seeking Model (PRISM), which is one of the most integrative models of HISB, was adapted and applied. Second, we asked for gender-specific motivational determinants of gender-related web-based HISB comparing the predictors in the groups of women and men.

METHODS

Data from a stratified web-based survey of the German population (N=3000) explained gender-related web-based HISB and influencing patterns comparing women and men. The applicability of PRISM to gender-related web-based HISB was tested using structural equation modeling and a multigroup comparison.

RESULTS

The results revealed PRISM as an effective framework for explaining gender-related web-based HISB. The model accounted for 28.8% of the variance in gender-related web-based HISB. Gender-related subjective norms provided the most crucial explanatory power, followed by perceived seeking control. The multigroup comparison revealed differences in the model's explanatory power and the relevance of predictors of gender-related web-based HISB. The share of explained variances of web-based HISB is higher in men than in women. For men, norms were a more relevant promoting factor, whereas web-based HISB of women was more strongly associated with perceived seeking control.

CONCLUSIONS

The results are crucial for gender-sensitive targeting strategies and suggest gender-related health information interventions that address gender-related subjective norms. Furthermore, programs (eg, web-based learning units) should be developed and offered to improve individuals' (perceived) abilities to perform web-based searches for health information, as those with higher control beliefs are more likely to access web-based information.

Nursing Students' Perception about Gender Inequalities Presented on Social Networks: A Qualitative Study

During the COVID-19 pandemic, gender inequalities in nurses have been exacerbated through the images shown on social networks. This study aimed to explore and describe nursing students' experiences and perceptions about gender inequalities in nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic. A descriptive qualitative study was carried out in two universities in 264 undergraduate nursing students. The photovoice method was used to guide the study. Results: Two main categories and four subcategories were described from the data: "gender-related stereotypes", with "male leadership in a female profession" and "sexualization of female nurses" and "women's vulnerability in the pandemic" with "the gender gap in the face of increased risk of contagion " and "women's emotional fragility". Over the years, care has been considered a female task, and nursing continues to be thought of in this way. The nurse has been discriminated against, poorly considered as a professional, and, as a woman, subjected to gender roles.

A Content Analysis of Reddit Users' Posts about Challenges to Contraceptive care-seeking during COVID-19-related Restrictions in the United States

The COVID-19 pandemic in the United States caused disruptions in care seeking and delivery during the spring of 2020, including for contraceptive care. We examined how some individuals experienced and responded to barriers to accessing contraceptive care by conducting a content analysis of relevant Reddit posts. We collected 2666 posts by scraping relevant subreddits from February 1, 2020, to April 15, 2020, and filtering by selected keywords. Among the 101 posts on contraception and the COVID-19 pandemic, we explored three main themes: barriers to accessing general healthcare during the early pandemic, problems and concerns specific to contraceptive use, and attempts to navigate the obstacles to contraceptive care or use-related concerns. The Reddit posts demonstrated the disruptive force the early pandemic had on contraceptive care and provided a unique window into the concerns posters expressed on Reddit during this time. Many posters asked questions related to accessing contraception and side effects and sought reassurance from these online forums. Our results suggest that there were barriers to accessing reliable, high-quality, and evidence-based information about contraception during this disruption in care. The findings also underscore that conversational and interactive means of seeking out information are important modes for learning about and discussing contraception for some and may be especially helpful during clinic closures and other restrictions on access.

[Contraception in the German-language Wikipedia: a content and quality analysis]

BACKGROUND

Adolescents and adults today often obtain information about contraception from the Internet, especially from the online encyclopedia Wikipedia. This is because Google searches usually return Wikipedia entries as top hits.

RESEARCH AIM

Against this background, the aim of the current study is to systematically analyze for the first time the content and quality of Wikipedia articles on contraceptive methods. Five central quality dimensions are examined: the degree of correctness (research question RQ1), completeness (RQ2), neutrality (RQ3), comprehensibility (RQ4), and currency (RQ5) of the contraceptive information - and on this basis the overall quality of the articles (RQ6).

MATERIALS AND METHODS

A sample of all German-language Wikipedia articles on all contraceptive methods was formed (N = 25). These articles were analyzed by three independent, trained coders using a codebook that was developed based on the current state of the research and tested for reliability. Data analysis was performed using SPSS. The study is preregistered and all data, materials, and analysis scripts are publicly available.

RESULTS

The 25 Wikipedia articles on contraceptive methods were found to vary widely in content quality. While they showed good quality on average in terms of correctness (RQ1) and neutrality (RQ3), they scored mediocre in terms of completeness (RQ2), comprehensibility (RQ4), and currency (RQ5), resulting in moderate overall quality (RQ6).

DISCUSSION

More research as well as practice measures are needed to further assess and improve the quality of contraceptive information on Wikipedia and in other social media in a more targeted way.

#WuhanDiary and #WuhanLockdown: gendered posting patterns and behaviours on Weibo during the COVID-19 pandemic

Social media can be both a source of information and misinformation during health emergencies. During the COVID-19 pandemic, social media became a ubiquitous tool for people to communicate and represents a rich source of data researchers can use to analyse users’ experiences, knowledge and sentiments. Research on social media posts during COVID-19 has identified, to date, the perpetuity of traditional gendered norms and experiences. Yet these studies are mostly based on Western social media platforms. Little is known about gendered experiences of lockdown communicated on non-Western social media platforms. Using data from Weibo, China’s leading social media platform, we examine gendered user patterns and sentiment during the first wave of the pandemic between 1 January 2020 and 1 July 2020. We find that Weibo posts by self-identified women and men conformed with some gendered norms identified on other social media platforms during the COVID-19 pandemic (posting patterns and keyword usage) but not all (sentiment). This insight may be important for targeted public health messaging on social media during future health emergencies.

[Sexual health information on social media: a systematic scoping review]

BACKGROUND

Information on sexual and reproductive health is increasingly disseminated via social media and reaches a large audience.

RESEARCH AIM

Against this background, the aim of this paper is to systematically summarize the international state of research on sexual health information on social media for the first time with a scoping review. Seven research questions were explored, relating to the amount (F1), methods (F2: content analysis, F3: quality analysis), and results (F4: providers, F5: target groups, F6: topics, F7: quality of information) of previous studies.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The study follows the PRISMA framework for scoping reviews as well as the Open Science approach. It is preregistered, and all materials (codebook with reliability coefficients) and data (list of identified studies and coding of studies) are available on the Open Science Foundation server.

RESULTS

A total of 69 studies with 72 data sets were identified, with more than half of the publications referring to YouTube (F1). Qualitative and quantitative methods of content analysis are used equally (F2) and quality analyses are rare (F3). Health laypersons dominate as the information providers (F4). The target groups are mostly unspecified (F5). The health information on social media examined in the previous studies covers a broad range of topics (F6). Where quality assessments were made, they tended to be negative (F7).

DISCUSSION

More research is needed to better understand sexual and reproductive health information on social media and to promote its quality and constructive use.

Investigating Public Discourses Around Gender and COVID-19: a Social Media Analysis of Twitter Data

We collected over 50 million tweets referencing COVID-19 to understand the public’s gendered discourses and concerns during the pandemic. We filtered the tweets based on English language and among three gender categories: men, women, and sexual and gender minorities. We used a mixed-method approach that included topic modelling, sentiment analysis, and text mining extraction procedures including words’ mapping, proximity plots, top hashtags and mentions, and most retweeted posts. Our findings show stark differences among the different genders. In relation to women, we found a salient discussion on the risks of domestic violence due to the lockdown especially towards women and girls, while emphasizing financial challenges. The public discourses around SGM mostly revolved around blood donation concerns, which is a reminder of the discrimination against some of these communities during the early days of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Finally, the discourses around men were focused on the high death rates and the sentiment analysis results showed more negative tweets than among the other genders. The study concludes that Twitter influencers can drive major online discussions which can be useful in addressing communication needs during pandemics.