Submit to Topical Collection Review for Healthcare

Journal Browser

► Journal Browser

Social Media and Public Health

Print Collection Flyer
Collection Editors
Collection Information
Keywords
Published Papers

A topical collection in Healthcare (ISSN 2227-9032). This collection belongs to the section "Health Assessments".

Viewed by 46929

Share This Topical Collection

Editor

Prof. Dr. Tingshao Zhu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
Interests: data mining; behavior analysis; computational cyber psychology; database
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Topical Collection Information

Dear Colleagues,

Social media has altered the way in which people use and perceive the world, providing an ideal platform for people exchanging information regarding both personal and public health, especially by making it easier for large populations to rapidly exchange information effectively.

Social media can help us understand how people react to health crises, disseminate health information, and promote information sharing to encourage behavioral changes during health crises. Meanwhile, social media can also be problematic in spreading rumors during health crises, such as during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is important to manage misinformation during health crises. Thus, it is crucial that public health agencies and organizations know how to provide useful information and timely feedback using social media.

This Special Issue of Healthcare seeks commentaries, original research, short reports, and reviews on social media and public health, especially relating to the COVID-19 pandemic. This Special Issue aims to provide an interdisciplinary view on social media and public health, and it is envisioned that public health agencies and organizations will use this Special Issue as a resource for making healthcare policies more effective.

Prof. Dr. Tingshao Zhu
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the collection website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Healthcare is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

social media
public health
COVID-19/pandemic/epidemic
preventive information delivery
preventive behaviors
stigma
big data analysis

Published Papers (13 papers)

Download All Papers

2022

Jump to: 2021

18 pages, 293 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Panel Data Analysis of Subjective Well-Being Based on Microblog User Information

by Shuijin Li and Tingshao Zhu

Healthcare 2022, 10(11), 2305; https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare10112305 - 17 Nov 2022

Viewed by 1395

Abstract

Big data modelling using microblogs is applied to acquire nationwide representative panel data on subjective well-being. The analysis directly validates the influence of China’s Livelihood Index on subjective well-being. Using panel data on subjective well-being collected for the period from 2010 to 2021 from users of the Weibo (Sina Corporation, Beijing, China) microblogging platform, this study finds Granger causality running from China’s Livelihood Index to subjective well-being and that the two are positively correlated. We also find Granger causality running from a life stress indicator to a life satisfaction indicator. The education indicator model is found to be positively correlated with life satisfaction and positive emotions, whereas the life stress indicator and life satisfaction are negatively correlated. Medical and health indicators are positively related to life satisfaction, while a negative correlation is found between the traffic indicator model and life satisfaction. The relationship between economic development and subjective well-being also displays bidirectional Granger causality and a positive correlation. However, in China’s provinces and prefecture-level cities with relatively strong economic growth, the correlation between the livelihood index and economic development appears to be weaker. We suggest boosting gross domestic product per capita and absolute per capita income to increase subjective well-being in less developed western China. Bridging the gross domestic product per capita gap nationwide may also positively influence subjective well-being. To achieve this, we suggest measures that include improving medical and health services, alleviating traffic congestion, increasing the teacher–student ratio and improving the education universalisation rate. These steps would improve the equitable and balanced development of China’s Livelihood Index across the country’s 31 provinces. Full article

12 pages, 1655 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Active Role of the Internet and Social Media Use in Nonpharmaceutical and Pharmaceutical Preventive Measures against COVID-19

by Tian Xie, Meihui Tang, Robert Jiqi Zhang and James H. Liu

Healthcare 2022, 10(1), 113; https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare10010113 - 06 Jan 2022

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1771

Abstract

During the COVID-19 pandemic, does more internet and social media use lead to taking more- or less-effective preventive measures against the disease? A two-wave longitudinal survey with the general population in mainland China in mid-2020 found that during the COVID-19 pandemic, internet and social media use intensity promoted the adoption of nonpharmaceutical and pharmaceutical antipandemic measures. The first wave of data (n = 1014) showed that the more intensively people used the internet/social media, the more they perceived the threat of the pandemic, and took more nonpharmaceutical preventive measures (e.g., wearing masks, maintaining social distance, and washing hands) as a result. The second wave (n = 220) showed firstly the predicted relationship between internet/social media use intensity and the perceived threat of the pandemic and the adoption of nonpharmaceutical preventive measures by cross-lagged analysis; secondly, the predictive effect of internet/social media use on the adoption of pharmacological measures (i.e., willingness to vaccinate against COVID-19) and the mediating role of perceived pandemic threat were verified. The article concludes with a discussion of the role of the internet and social media use in the fight against COVID-19 in specific macrosocial contexts. Full article

► Show Figures

Figure 1

2021

Jump to: 2022

15 pages, 10734 KiB

Open AccessReview

Online Health Information Seeking Behavior: A Systematic Review

by Xiaoyun Jia, Yan Pang and Liangni Sally Liu

Healthcare 2021, 9(12), 1740; https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare9121740 - 16 Dec 2021

Cited by 99 | Viewed by 10409

Abstract

The last five years have seen a leap in the development of information technology and social media. Seeking health information online has become popular. It has been widely accepted that online health information seeking behavior has a positive impact on health information consumers. Due to its importance, online health information seeking behavior has been investigated from different aspects. However, there is lacking a systematic review that can integrate the findings of the most recent research work in online health information seeking, and provide guidance to governments, health organizations, and social media platforms on how to support and promote this seeking behavior, and improve the services of online health information access and provision. We therefore conduct this systematic review. The Google Scholar database was searched for existing research on online health information seeking behavior between 2016 and 2021 to obtain the most recent findings. Within the 97 papers searched, 20 met our inclusion criteria. Through a systematic review, this paper identifies general behavioral patterns, and influencing factors such as age, gender, income, employment status, literacy (or education) level, country of origin and places of residence, and caregiving role. Facilitators (i.e., the existence of online communities, the privacy feature, real-time interaction, and archived health information format), and barriers (i.e., low health literacy, limited accessibility and information retrieval skills, low reliable, deficient and elusive health information, platform censorship, and lack of misinformation checks) to online health information seeking behavior are also discovered. Full article

► Show Figures

Figure 1

14 pages, 1024 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Qualitative Content Analysis of Cardiovascular Diseases Related Health Information Targeted at the Hui Minority on Chinese WeChat Official Accounts

by Lei Yang, Yuping Mao and Jeroen Jansz

Healthcare 2021, 9(10), 1359; https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare9101359 - 13 Oct 2021

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2293

Abstract

In this study, we focus on the information available in WeChat official accounts about cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), which are a leading cause of death in China. We are particularly interested in information targeting the Chinese Hui minority people, who have a high prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors (CVRFs). Our exploratory research therefore investigates whether and how the articles on WeChat official accounts are targeted at the Hui people. We used a qualitative approach to analyze 108 articles. Two related themes emerged: descriptions of how to live a healthy life; and explanations of CVDs and CVRFs. Traditional Chinese medicine likewise surfaced from the analysis as a specific and unique theme in the Chinese social and cultural context. Despite the high prevalence of CVRFs among the Hui, none of the articles included information tailored to them. Full article

► Show Figures

Figure 1

23 pages, 2200 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Sentiment Analysis of Rumor Spread Amid COVID-19: Based on Weibo Text

by Peng Wang, Huimin Shi, Xiaojie Wu and Longzhen Jiao

Healthcare 2021, 9(10), 1275; https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare9101275 - 27 Sep 2021

Cited by 15 | Viewed by 3359

Abstract

(1) Background: in early 2020, COVID-19 broke out. Driven by people’s psychology of conformity, panic, group polarization, etc., various rumors appeared and spread wildly, and the Internet became a hotbed of rumors. (2) Methods: the study selected Weibo as the research media, using topic models, time series analysis, sentiment analysis, and Granger causality testing methods to analyze the social media texts related to COVID-19 rumors. (3) Results: in study 1, we obtained 21 topics related to “COVID-19 rumors” and “outbreak rumors” after conducting topic model analysis on Weibo texts; in study 2, we explored the emotional changes of netizens before and after rumor dispelling information was released and found people’s positive emotions first declined and then rose; in study 3, we also explored the emotional changes of netizens before and after the “Wuhan lockdown” event and found positive sentiment of people in non-Wuhan areas increased, while negative sentiment of people in Wuhan increased; in study 4, we studied the relationship between rumor spread and emotional polarity and found negative sentiment and rumor spread was causally interrelated. (4) Conclusion: These findings could help us to intuitively understand the impact of rumors spread on people’s emotions during the COVID-19 pandemic and help the government take measures to reduce panic. Full article

► Show Figures

Figure 1

16 pages, 375 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Research on the Influencing Factors of Audience Popularity Level of COVID-19 Videos during the COVID-19 Pandemic

by Jingfang Liu, Caiying Lu and Shuangjinhua Lu

Healthcare 2021, 9(9), 1159; https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare9091159 - 04 Sep 2021

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2755

Abstract

(1) Background: During the COVID-19 pandemic, users share and obtain COVID-19 information through video platforms, but only a few COVID-19 videos become popular among most audiences. Therefore, it is a very interesting and important research question to explore the influencing factors of the popularity of COVID-19 videos during the COVID-19 pandemic; (2) Our research collects video data related to the keyword “COVID-19” on video platform, the data are analyzed by content analysis and empirical analysis. We then constructed a theoretical model based on the information adoption model; (3) A total of 251 videos were divided into three categories. The least common category was the data and analysis category (11.2%), followed by the prevention and control status category (13.5%); the knowledge and general science category was the most common (75.3%). From the perspective of video quality, the information sources of most videos are relatively reliable, and the content of medical information is low. The research results showed that short video lengths, longer descriptions, more reliable video sources and lower medical information content were more popular with audiences. Audiences are more likely to be attracted to videos in the prevention and control status category and knowledge and general science category. Videos uploaded by uploaders who have a higher influence are more popular with audiences; (4) Conclusions: During the COVID-19 pandemic, information quality (video length, description length, video content type, and medical information and content index) and source credibility (information source reliability, influence and certification type) all significantly influence the popularity level of COVID-19 videos. Our research conclusions can provide management suggestions for the platform, make videos released by uploaders more popular with audiences, and help audiences better understand COVID-19 information and make prevention and control efforts. Full article

► Show Figures

Figure 1

11 pages, 271 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Effects of Social Media Use on the Health of Older Adults: An Empirical Analysis Based on 2017 Chinese General Social Survey

by Liping Fu and Yu Xie

Healthcare 2021, 9(9), 1143; https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare9091143 - 01 Sep 2021

Cited by 19 | Viewed by 4702

Abstract

An aging population and social informatization are currently the two main social phenomena affecting China. Under their influences, the real-life experiences of older adults are becoming more and more closely connected to the online world, and the influences of the Internet on healthy aging cannot be ignored. This work aimed to study whether Internet use had an effect on the physical and mental health of older adults, whether the effect was positive or negative, and whether its influence on physical and mental health was heterogeneous. In this study, data from the 2017 Chinese General Social Survey (CGSS) was used to analyze the effects of social media use on the physical and mental health of older adults. The results indicated that there was a significant positive relationship between social media use and the health of older adults. The correlation between social media use and mental health of older adults was more significant than physical health. These results could help us further study the effects of Internet use on the health of older adults. Full article

32 pages, 6056 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Public Perceptions of COVID-19 Vaccines: Policy Implications from US Spatiotemporal Sentiment Analytics

by G. G. Md. Nawaz Ali, Md. Mokhlesur Rahman, Md. Amjad Hossain, Md. Shahinoor Rahman, Kamal Chandra Paul, Jean-Claude Thill and Jim Samuel

Healthcare 2021, 9(9), 1110; https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare9091110 - 27 Aug 2021

Cited by 13 | Viewed by 4895

Abstract

There is a compelling and pressing need to better understand the temporal dynamics of public sentiment towards COVID-19 vaccines in the US on a national and state-wise level for facilitating appropriate public policy applications. Our analysis of social media data from early February and late March 2021 shows that, despite the overall strength of positive sentiment and despite the increasing numbers of Americans being fully vaccinated, negative sentiment towards COVID-19 vaccines still persists among segments of people who are hesitant towards the vaccine. In this study, we perform sentiment analytics on vaccine tweets, monitor changes in public sentiment over time, contrast vaccination sentiment scores with actual vaccination data from the US CDC and the Household Pulse Survey (HPS), explore the influence of maturity of Twitter user-accounts and generate geographic mapping of tweet sentiments. We observe that fear sentiment remained unchanged in populous states, whereas trust sentiment declined slightly in these same states. Changes in sentiments were more notable among less populous states in the central sections of the US. Furthermore, we leverage the emotion polarity based Public Sentiment Scenarios (PSS) framework, which was developed for COVID-19 sentiment analytics, to systematically posit implications for public policy processes with the aim of improving the positioning, messaging, and administration of vaccines. These insights are expected to contribute to policies that can expedite the vaccination program and move the nation closer to the cherished herd immunity goal. Full article

► Show Figures

Figure 1

17 pages, 6899 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Social Media Behavior and Emotional Evolution during Emergency Events

by Mingyun Gu, Haixiang Guo and Jun Zhuang

Healthcare 2021, 9(9), 1109; https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare9091109 - 27 Aug 2021

Cited by 8 | Viewed by 2514

Abstract

Online social networks have recently become a vital source for emergency event news and the consequent venting of emotions. However, knowledge on what drives user emotion and behavioral responses to emergency event developments are still limited. Therefore, unlike previous studies that have only explored trending themes and public sentiment in social media, this study sought to develop a holistic framework to assess the impact of emergency developments on emotions and behavior by exploring the evolution of trending themes and public sentiments in social media posts as a focal event developed. By examining the event timelines and the associated hashtags on the popular Chinese social media site Sina-Weibo, the 2019 Wuxi viaduct collapse accident was taken as the research object and the event timeline and the Sina-Weibo tagging function focused on to analyze the behaviors and emotional changes in the social media users and elucidate the correlations. It can conclude that: (i) There were some social media rules being adhered to and that new focused news from the same event impacted user behavior and the popularity of previous thematic discussions. (ii) While the most critical function for users appeared to express their emotions, the user foci changed when recent focus news emerged. (iii) As the news of the collapse deepened, the change in user sentiment was found to be positively correlated with the information released by personal-authentication accounts. This research provides a new perspective on the extraction of information from social media platforms in emergencies and social-emotional transmission rules. Full article

► Show Figures

Figure 1

10 pages, 393 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Online Suicide Identification in the Framework of Rhetorical Structure Theory (RST)

by Xingyun Liu and Xiaoqian Liu

Healthcare 2021, 9(7), 847; https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare9070847 - 05 Jul 2021

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2068

Abstract

Background: Suicide is a serious social problem. Substantial efforts have been made to prevent suicide for many decades. The internet has become an important arena for suicide prevention and intervention. However, to the best of our knowledge, only one study has analyzed suicidal comments online from the perspective of rhetorical structure with incomplete rhetorical relations. We aimed to examine the rhetorical differences between Chinese social media users who died by suicide and those without suicidal ideation. Methods: The posts of 15 users who died by suicide and 15 not suffering from suicide ideation were annotated by five postgraduates with expertise in analyzing suicidal posts based on rhetorical structure theory (RST). Group differences were compared via a chi-square test. Results: Results showed that users who died by suicide posted significantly more posts and used more rhetorical relations. Moreover, the two groups displayed significant differences in 17 out of 23 rhetorical relations. Limitations: Because this study is largely exploratory and tentative, caution should be taken in generalizing our findings. Conclusions: Our results expand the methods of RST to the online suicidal identification field. There are implications for population-based suicide prevention by combining rhetorical structures with context analysis. Full article

► Show Figures

Figure 1

12 pages, 706 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperArticle

Longitudinal Change of Mental Health among Active Social Media Users in China during the COVID-19 Outbreak

by Tianli Liu, Sijia Li, Xiaochun Qiao and Xinming Song

Healthcare 2021, 9(7), 833; https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare9070833 - 01 Jul 2021

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2068

Abstract

During the COVID-19 pandemic, every day, updated case numbers and the lasting time of the pandemic became major concerns of people. We collected the online data (28 January to 7 March 2020 during the COVID-19 outbreak) of 16,453 social media users living in mainland China. Computerized machine learning models were developed to estimate their daily scores of the nine dimensions of the Symptom Checklist—90 (SCL-90). Repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to compare the SCL-90 dimension scores between Wuhan and non-Wuhan residents. Fixed effect models were used to analyze the relation of the estimated SCL-90 scores with the daily reported cumulative case numbers and lasting time of the epidemic among Wuhan and non-Wuhan users. In non-Wuhan users, the estimated scores for all the SCL-90 dimensions significantly increased with the lasting time of the epidemic and the accumulation of cases, except for the interpersonal sensitivity dimension. In Wuhan users, although the estimated scores for all nine SCL-90 dimensions significantly increased with the cumulative case numbers, the magnitude of the changes was generally smaller than that in non-Wuhan users. The mental health of Chinese Weibo users was affected by the daily updated information on case numbers and the lasting time of the COVID-19 outbreak. Full article

► Show Figures

Figure 1

11 pages, 560 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Bereaved: A Study of Bereaved Weibo Users

by Nuo Han, Gewei Chen, Sijia Li, Feng Huang, Xiaoyang Wang, Xiaopeng Ren and Tingshao Zhu

Healthcare 2021, 9(6), 724; https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare9060724 - 12 Jun 2021

Cited by 8 | Viewed by 3016

Abstract

The global COVID-19 pandemic may significantly affect the experiences of death and bereavement. This study aimed to learn from recent outbreaks of infectious diseases and further understand their impacts on bereavement. We obtained psychological status scores for 32 individuals bereaved due to COVID-19 and 127 individuals bereaved due to non-COVID-19 causes using the online ecological recognition (OER) approach. Next, a sentiment analysis and independent sample t-test were performed to examine the differences between these two groups. The results indicated that the individuals bereaved due to COVID-19 were more insecure and more preoccupied with the grief of the moment than those bereaved due to non-COVID-19 reasons, while the latter group had higher depression scores than the former group. This study can guide policy-makers and clinical practitioners to provide more targeted and sustainable post-bereavement support for both bereaved groups during the COVID-19 period. Full article

► Show Figures

Figure 1

14 pages, 2552 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Comparative Study on Distancing, Mask and Vaccine Adoption Rates from Global Twitter Trends

by Satyaki Roy and Preetam Ghosh

Healthcare 2021, 9(5), 488; https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare9050488 - 21 Apr 2021

Cited by 11 | Viewed by 2933

Abstract

COVID-19 is a global health emergency that has fundamentally altered human life. Public perception about COVID-19 greatly informs public policymaking and charts the course of present and future mitigation strategies. Existing approaches to gain insights into the evolving nature of public opinion has led to the application of natural language processing on public interaction data acquired from online surveys and social media. In this work, we apply supervised and unsupervised machine learning approaches on global Twitter data to learn the opinions about adoption of mitigation strategies such as social distancing, masks, and vaccination, as well as the effect of socioeconomic, demographic, political, and epidemiological features on perceptions. Our study reveals the uniform polarity in public sentiment on the basis of spatial proximity or COVID-19 infection rates. We show the reservation about the adoption of social distancing and vaccination across the world and also quantify the influence of airport traffic, homelessness, followed by old age and race on sentiment of netizens within the US. Full article

► Show Figures

Figure 1

Journal Menu

Journal Browser

Social Media and Public Health

Share This Topical Collection

Editor

Topical Collection Information

Keywords

Published Papers (13 papers)

2022

Jump to: 2021

2021

Jump to: 2022

Further Information

Guidelines

MDPI Initiatives

Follow MDPI