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

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Muhammad Riaz ◽  
Xiwei Wang ◽  
Sherani Sherani ◽  
Yu Guo
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Health Information ◽  
Health Professionals ◽  
Equation Modeling ◽  
Personal Health ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Information Behaviors ◽  
Emergency Situations

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.

scholarly journals Willingness to share personal health information: impact of attitudes, trust and control

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jari Juga ◽  
Jouni Juntunen ◽  
Timo Koivumäki
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Information Sharing ◽  
Health Information ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Personal Information ◽  
Personal Health Information ◽  
Equation Modeling ◽  
Personal Health ◽  
Content Type ◽  
And Control

Purpose This study aims to explicate the behavioral factors that determine willingness to share personal health data for secondary uses. Design/methodology/approach A theoretical model is developed and tested with structural equation modeling using survey data from Finland. Findings It is shown that attitude toward information sharing is the strongest factor contributing to the willingness to share personal health information (PHI). Trust and control serve as mediating factors between the attitude and willingness to share PHI. Research limitations/implications The measures of the model need further refinement to cover the various aspects of the behavioral concepts. Practical implications The model provides useful insights into the factors that affect the willingness for information sharing in health care and in other areas where personal information is distributed. Social implications Sharing of PHI for secondary purposes can offer social benefits through improvements in health-care performance. Originality/value A broad-scale empirical data gives a unique view of attitudes toward sharing of PHI in one national setting.

Mining Arabic Twitter conversations on health care: a new approach to analysing Arabic language on social media

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nael Alqtati ◽  
Jonathan A.J. Wilson ◽  
Varuna De Silva
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Data Science ◽  
Arabic Language ◽  
Marketing Communications ◽  
Social Media Analytics ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Social Media Platforms

Purpose This paper aims to equip professionals and researchers in the fields of advertising, branding, public relations, marketing communications, social media analytics and marketing with a simple, effective and dynamic means of evaluating consumer behavioural sentiments and engagement through Arabic language and script, in vivo. Design/methodology/approach Using quantitative and qualitative situational linguistic analyses of Classical Arabic, found in Quranic and religious texts scripts; Modern Standard Arabic, which is commonly used in formal Arabic channels; and dialectical Arabic, which varies hugely from one Arabic country to another: this study analyses rich marketing and consumer messages (tweets) – as a basis for developing an Arabic language social media methodological tool. Findings Despite the popularity of Arabic language communication on social media platforms across geographies, currently, comprehensive language processing toolkits for analysing Arabic social media conversations have limitations and require further development. Furthermore, due to its unique morphology, developing text understanding capabilities specific to the Arabic language poses challenges. Practical implications This study demonstrates the application and effectiveness of the proposed methodology on a random sample of Twitter data from Arabic-speaking regions. Furthermore, as Arabic is the language of Islam, the study is of particular importance to Islamic and Muslim geographies, markets and marketing. Social implications The findings suggest that the proposed methodology has a wider potential beyond the data set and health-care sector analysed, and therefore, can be applied to further markets, social media platforms and consumer segments. Originality/value To remedy these gaps, this study presents a new methodology and analytical approach to investigating Arabic language social media conversations, which brings together a multidisciplinary knowledge of technology, data science and marketing communications.

Patients’ experience sharing with online social media communities: a bottom-of-the-pyramid perspective

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Husain Salilul Akareem ◽  
Melanie Wiese ◽  
Wafa Hammedi
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Mediating Effect ◽  
Health Conditions ◽  
Equation Modeling ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Online Social Media ◽  
Patients Experience

Purpose Despite having inadequate resources, highly impoverished patients tend to seek and share health information over social media groups to improve each other’s well-being. This study aims to focus on access to health-care information for such patients and aims to provide an understanding of how online health-care communities (OHCs), as transformative service mediators, can be platforms for patients with chronic and nonchronic health conditions to share their experiences in a base-of-the-pyramid (BOP) context. Design/methodology/approach A large-scale survey among 658 respondents was conducted in a very low-income country. Structural equation modeling was used to test the hypotheses. Findings A model of patients’ experience sharing (PES), motivations and consequences for health-care services are introduced and tested. The result supports the PES model for patients with chronic health conditions, showing that utilitarian, hedonic and social value dimensions directly influence PES and indirectly influence patients’ continuance intention with OHCs and patient efforts. However, a mediating effect of PES was found only between the value dimensions and patients’ efforts. A negative moderation effect of medical mistrust was found in the relationship between utilitarian value and PES for both chronic and nonchronic patient groups. Originality/value This study is a pioneering attempt to develop and test a PES model in a BOP market.

Physician leaders’ cross-boundary use of social media: what are the implications in the current COVID-19 environment?

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott Comber ◽  
Lisette Wilson ◽  
Scarlett Kelly ◽  
Lori McCay-Peet
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Literature Review ◽  
Health Information ◽  
Role Models ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Boundary Practices ◽  
Physician Leaders ◽  
Effective Use ◽  
Regulations And Guidelines

Purpose The purpose of this study is to better understand social media (SM) factors that physician leaders need to consider, as they adapt their cross-boundary practices to engage with colleagues and patients. Firstly, this study explores why SM is being used by physicians to cross horizontal (physician to physician) and stakeholder (physician to patient) boundaries prior to COVID-19. Secondly, based on the studies reviewed, this study provides insights on the practical SM implications for physician leaders working in the COVID-19 environment to actively enhance their practices, reduce public confusion and improve patient care, thus informing health-care practices. Design/methodology/approach A systematic literature review was used to conduct a structured transparent overview of peer reviewed articles that describe physicians’ use of cross-boundary SM across several disciplines (e.g. health, information science). As a baseline assessment prior to COVID-19, the review synthesized 47 articles, identified and selected from six databases and Novanet. This study used NVivo 12 to thematical code the articles, leading to the emergence of four broad factors that influence SM use. Findings A key reason noted in the literature for physicians use of SM to cross horizontal boundaries is to share knowledge. Regarding stakeholder boundaries, the most cited reasons are to improve patient’s health and encourage behavioural changes. Insights garnered on the practical SM implications include the need for physicians to be stronger leaders in presenting trustworthy and consistent facts about health information to the public and fellow peers. As role models for the effective use of SM tools, physician leaders can mentor and coach their colleagues and counterparts. Research limitations/implications As this was a literature review, the authors did not collect primary data to further explore this rapidly changing and dynamic SM world. Next steps could include a survey to determine firstly, how physicians currently use SM in this COVID-19 environment, and secondly, how they could leverage it for their work. Findings from this survey will help us better understand the role of physician leaders as health-care influencers and how they could better create trust and inform the Canadian public in the health information that is being conveyed. Practical implications Physician leaders can play a key role in positively influencing institutional support for ethical and safe SM use and engagement practices. Physicians need to participate in developing regulations and guidelines that are fundamentally to physician leader’s SM use. Central to this research would be the need to understand how physicians cross-boundary practices have changed during and potentially post COVID-19. Physician leaders also need to monitor information sources for credibility and ensure that these sources are protected. As role models for the effective use of SM tools, physician leaders can mentor and coach their colleagues and counterparts in this area. Originality/value Although there have been studies of how physicians use SM, fewer studies explore why physician leaders’ cross boundaries (horizontal and stakeholder) using SM. Important insights are gained in physician leaders practical use of SM. Key themes that emerged included: organizational and individual, information, professional and regulations and guideline factors. These factors strengthen physician leaders understanding of areas of foci to enhance their cross-boundary interactions. There is an urgency to study the complexity of SM and the effectiveness of regulations and guidelines for physicians, who are being required, at an accelerated rate, to strengthen and increase their cross-boundary practices.

scholarly journals Public Disclosure on Social Media of Identifiable Patient Information by Health Professionals: Content Analysis of Twitter Data

10.2196/19746 ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (9) ◽  
pp. e19746 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wasim Ahmed ◽  
Reshma Jagsi ◽  
Thomas G Gutheil ◽  
Matthew S Katz
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Content Analysis ◽  
Health Care Providers ◽  
Health Professionals ◽  
Health Care Professionals ◽  
Care Providers ◽  
Patient Privacy ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Intercoder Reliability

Background Respecting patient privacy and confidentiality is critical for doctor-patient relationships and public trust in medical professionals. The frequency of potentially identifiable disclosures online during periods of active engagement is unknown. Objective The objective of this study was to quantify potentially identifiable content shared on social media by physicians and other health care providers using the hashtag #ShareAStoryInOneTweet. Methods We accessed and searched Twitter’s API using Symplur software for tweets that included the hashtag #ShareAStoryInOneTweet. We identified 1206 tweets by doctors, nurses, and other health professionals out of 43,374 tweets shared in May 2018. Tweet content was evaluated in January 2019 to determine the incidence of instances where names or potentially identifiable information about patients were shared; content analysis of tweets in which information about others had been disclosed was performed. The study also evaluated whether participants raised concerns about privacy breaches and estimated the frequency of deleted tweets. The study used dual, blinded coding for a 10% sample to estimate intercoder reliability using Cohen κ statistic for identifying the potential identifiability of tweet content. Results Health care professionals (n=656) disclosing information about others included 486 doctors (74.1%) and 98 nurses (14.9%). Health care professionals sharing stories about patient care disclosed the time frame in 95 tweets (95/754, 12.6%) and included patient names in 15 tweets (15/754, 2.0%). It is estimated that friends or families could likely identify the clinical scenario described in 242 of the 754 tweets (32.1%). Among 348 tweets about potentially living patients, it was estimated that 162 (46.6%) were likely identifiable by patients. Intercoder reliability in rating the potential identifiability demonstrated 86.8% agreement, with a Cohen κ of 0.8 suggesting substantial agreement. We also identified 78 out of 754 tweets (6.5%) that had been deleted on the website but were still viewable in the analytics software data set. Conclusions During periods of active sharing online, nurses, physicians, and other health professionals may sometimes share more information than patients or families might expect. More study is needed to determine whether similar events arise frequently and to understand how to best ensure that patients’ rights are adequately respected.

scholarly journals Public Disclosure on Social Media of Identifiable Patient Information by Health Professionals: Content Analysis of Twitter Data (Preprint)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wasim Ahmed ◽  
Reshma Jagsi ◽  
Thomas G Gutheil ◽  
Matthew S Katz
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Content Analysis ◽  
Health Care Providers ◽  
Health Professionals ◽  
Health Care Professionals ◽  
Care Providers ◽  
Patient Privacy ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Intercoder Reliability

BACKGROUND Respecting patient privacy and confidentiality is critical for doctor-patient relationships and public trust in medical professionals. The frequency of potentially identifiable disclosures online during periods of active engagement is unknown. OBJECTIVE The objective of this study was to quantify potentially identifiable content shared on social media by physicians and other health care providers using the hashtag #ShareAStoryInOneTweet. METHODS We accessed and searched Twitter’s API using Symplur software for tweets that included the hashtag #ShareAStoryInOneTweet. We identified 1206 tweets by doctors, nurses, and other health professionals out of 43,374 tweets shared in May 2018. Tweet content was evaluated in January 2019 to determine the incidence of instances where names or potentially identifiable information about patients were shared; content analysis of tweets in which information about others had been disclosed was performed. The study also evaluated whether participants raised concerns about privacy breaches and estimated the frequency of deleted tweets. The study used dual, blinded coding for a 10% sample to estimate intercoder reliability using Cohen κ statistic for identifying the potential identifiability of tweet content. RESULTS Health care professionals (n=656) disclosing information about others included 486 doctors (74.1%) and 98 nurses (14.9%). Health care professionals sharing stories about patient care disclosed the time frame in 95 tweets (95/754, 12.6%) and included patient names in 15 tweets (15/754, 2.0%). It is estimated that friends or families could likely identify the clinical scenario described in 242 of the 754 tweets (32.1%). Among 348 tweets about potentially living patients, it was estimated that 162 (46.6%) were likely identifiable by patients. Intercoder reliability in rating the potential identifiability demonstrated 86.8% agreement, with a Cohen κ of 0.8 suggesting substantial agreement. We also identified 78 out of 754 tweets (6.5%) that had been deleted on the website but were still viewable in the analytics software data set. CONCLUSIONS During periods of active sharing online, nurses, physicians, and other health professionals may sometimes share more information than patients or families might expect. More study is needed to determine whether similar events arise frequently and to understand how to best ensure that patients’ rights are adequately respected.

scholarly journals Source Trust and COVID-19 Information Sharing: The Mediating Roles of Emotions and Beliefs About Sharing

2020 ◽  
pp. 109019812098476
Author(s):  
Linqi Lu ◽  
Jiawei Liu ◽  
Y. Connie Yuan ◽  
Kelli S. Burns ◽  
Enze Lu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Information Sharing ◽  
Health Information ◽  
News Media ◽  
Health Professionals ◽  
Government Agencies ◽  
Specific Information ◽  
Academic Institutions ◽  
Source Trust ◽  
Health Information Sharing

Health information sharing has become especially important during the COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) pandemic because people need to learn about the disease and then act accordingly. This study examines the perceived trust of different COVID-19 information sources (health professionals, academic institutions, government agencies, news media, social media, family, and friends) and sharing of COVID-19 information in China. Specifically, it investigates how beliefs about sharing and emotions mediate the effects of perceived source trust on source-specific information sharing intentions. Results suggest that health professionals, academic institutions, and government agencies are trusted sources of information and that people share information from these sources because they think doing so will increase disease awareness and promote disease prevention. People may also choose to share COVID-19 information from news media, social media, and family as they cope with anxiety, anger, and fear. Taken together, a better understanding of the distinct psychological mechanisms underlying health information sharing from different sources can help contribute to more effective sharing of information about COVID-19 prevention and to manage negative emotion contagion during the pandemic.

Patient hospital experience and satisfaction on social media

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Subhajit Chakraborty ◽  
E. Mitchell Church
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Patient Satisfaction ◽  
Mixed Methods ◽  
Negative Binomial ◽  
Negative Binomial Regression ◽  
Health Service Delivery ◽  
Health Care Team ◽  
Care Team ◽  
Content Type

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to show the value of open-ended narrative patient reviews on social media for elucidating aspects of hospital patient satisfaction. Design/methodology/approach Mixed methods analyses using qualitative (manual content analyses using grounded theory and algorithmic analyses using the Natural Language Toolkit) followed by quantitative analyses (negative binomial regression). Findings Health-care team communication, health-care team action orientation and patient hospital room environment are positively related to patient hospital satisfaction. Patients form their hospital satisfaction perceptions based on the three facets of their hospital stay experience. Research limitations/implications In the spirit of continuous quality improvement, periodically analyzing patient social media comments could help health-care teams understand the patient satisfaction inhibitors that they need to avoid to offer patient-centric care. Practical implications By periodically analyzing patient social media comments hospital leaders can quickly identify the gaps in their health service delivery and plug them, which could ultimately give the hospital a competitive advantage. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is one of the first studies to apply mixed methods to patient hospital review comments given freely on social media to critically understand what drives patient hospital satisfaction ratings.

Should I suggest this YouTube clip? The impact of UGC source credibility on eWOM and purchase intention

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mazzini Muda ◽  
Muhammad Iskandar Hamzah
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Structural Equation Modeling ◽  
Purchase Intention ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Word Of Mouth ◽  
Source Credibility ◽  
Equation Modeling ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Impact

PurposeIn spite of the increasing organic and interactive marketing activities over social media, a general understanding of the source credibility of voluntary user-generated content (UGC) is still limited. In line with the social identity theory, this paper examines the effects of consumers' perceived source credibility of UGC in YouTube videos on their attitudes and behavioral intentions. Additionally, source homophily theory is included to predict the antecedent of source credibility.Design/methodology/approachThree hundred and seventy two Generation Y respondents were interviewed using snowball sampling. Data were analyzed with component-based structural equation modeling technique of partial least squares-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM).FindingsFindings confirmed that perceived source credibility indirectly affects purchase intention (PI) and electronic word-of-mouth via attitude toward UGC. Besides, perceived source credibility mediates the effect of perceived source homophily on attitude toward UGC.Practical implicationsSince today's consumers have begun to trust and rely more on UGC than company-generated content on social media when making purchase decisions, companies may reconsider democratizing certain aspects of their branding strategies. Firms may fine-tune their marketing communication budgets – not only just by sponsoring public figures and celebrities but also by nurturing coproductive engagements with independent content creators who are ordinary consumers. Endowed with their imposing credibility, these micro-influencers and prosumers have high potentials to be uplifted to brand ambassadors.Originality/valueWhile consumers' purchase outcome can be measured easily using metrics and analytics, the roles of source homophily in stages leading up to the purchase is still elusive. Drawing on the rich theoretical basis of source homophily may help researchers to understand not only how credibility and attitude are related to PI but also how this nexus generates positive word of mouth among UGC followers within the social media circles.

Learning to effectively manage your emotions: the impact of Emotional Intelligence (EI) in caring roles

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Smarty P. Mukundan ◽  
Dhanya M.
Keyword(s):  
Job Satisfaction ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Emotional Intelligence ◽  
Emotional Labor ◽  
Care Setting ◽  
Health Care Setting ◽  
Equation Modeling ◽  
Surface Acting ◽  
Employee Outcomes ◽  
Content Type

Purpose Psychological constructs like emotional labor, emotional intelligence etc. are gaining importance now to understand employee outcomes such as job satisfaction in a health care setting. The study aims to investigate the relationship between Surface Acting (SA) an emotional labor strategy, and Job satisfaction, and the moderating effect of Emotional intelligence (EI) among practicing nurses. Design/methodology/approach The authors collected data through self-reporting questionnaires administered to a sample of 141 nurses working in multi-specialty hospitals in a prominent city in India and analyzed using structural equation modeling. Findings A negative relationship was found between surface acting and job satisfaction but was found positive when EI was introduced as a moderator. Research limitations/implications The respondent population was females only and diversity in terms of gender was not obtained. Practical implications The study finds significant practical and theoretical contributions to the primary caregivers in a health care setting. It helps to understand the interplay of emotions in this job and use EI as an internal resource to mitigate the harmful effects of continued SA emotional labor strategy to job satisfaction. Social implications It gains a better understanding of the emotion-related parameters in the nursing profession and gives inputs to the community. It throws light on how internal resources can be used for better job satisfaction which in turn leads to better quality care in the health care industry. Originality/value Extant literature has been discussing SA as a negative strategy for positive employee outcomes, but the present study gives insights on how this can be mitigated by using EI as a resource.

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