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...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal of environmental research and public health 2022-06, Vol.19 (13), p.7991
Main Authors: Zhang, Hongjie Thomas, Tham, Jen Sern, Waheed, Moniza
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Coronaviruses
COVID-19
COVID-19 - epidemiology
COVID-19 vaccines
Data processing
Digital media
Disease transmission
Humans
Immunization
Infectious diseases
Infodemic
Information processing
Knowledge acquisition
Pandemics
Public health
Risk perception
SARS-CoV-2
Social Media
Social networks
Stress
Surveys
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Summary: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.
ISSN:1660-4601
1661-7827
1660-4601
DOI:10.3390/ijerph19137991