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The lockdown that was deployed in Wuhan, China to combat the COVID-19 pandemic curbed the infection but also created great information challenges for people in social isolation. This resulted in surge in online health information seeking (OHIS) behaviors of the patients and their families. While the Internet has been widely used by Chinese public to access and search health information, there is relatively little research in the context of pandemic outbreaks, especially at the onset of a strong lockdown while many people were panicking. From a total of 10 908 '#COVID-19 Patient Seeking Help' posts on Weibo in a period of 20 days when the lockdown policy was first initiated, we identified 1496 unique patients living in or with family in Wuhan, China. Using textual analysis, we explored OHIS behaviors at the onset of the pandemic. Many faced increased difficulties accessing offline healthcare services and such turned to social media for help and information. In particular, the findings highlight the following themes: ' OHIS for medical treatment ', ' OHIS to manage self-quarantine ', ' OHIS for tangible support ' and ' OHIS to navigate information discrepancy '. Overall, our findings provide important insights into health information seeking behaviors and the role of social media during a pandemic. Our findings also highlight the importance of considering people's information need and challenges created due to the lockdown policies in the future pandemic communication and preparedness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination uptake in Singapore is low among young women. Low uptake has been found to be linked to low awareness. Thus, this study aimed to understand active and passive vaccine information-seeking behavior. Furthermore, guided by the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM), this study examined young women’s (aged 21-26 years) processing of information they acquired in their decision to get vaccinated. ELM postulates that information processing could be through the central (i.e., logic-based) or peripheral (i.e., heuristic-based) route. Twenty-six in-depth interviews were conducted from January to March 2016. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis. Two meta-themes—information acquisition and vaccination decision—revealed the heuristic-based information processing was employed. These young women acquired information passively within their social network and actively in healthcare settings. However, they used heuristic cues, such as closeness and trust, to process the information. Similarly, vaccination decisions revealed that women relied on heuristic cues, such as sense of belonging and validation among peers and source credibility and likability in medical settings, in their decision to get vaccinated. The findings of this study highlight that intervention efforts should focus on strengthening social support among personal networks to increase the uptake of the vaccine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information behavior includes activities of active information seeking, passive acquisition of information, and information use. Guided by the Elaboration Likelihood Model, this study explored elderly Singaporean women’s health information behavior to understand how they sought, evaluated, and used health information in everyday lives. Twenty-two in-depth interviews were conducted with elderly Chinese women aged 61 to 79. Qualitative analysis of the interview data yielded three meta-themes: information-seeking patterns, trustworthiness of health information, and peripheral route of decision making. Results revealed that elderly women took both systematic and heuristic approaches to processing information but relied on interpersonal networks to negotiate health choices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social media have become an important platform for health promotion. Based on the Information-Community-Action Framework, we conducted a content analysis of 1,481 Facebook postings by Singapore's Health Promotion Board. Results showed that organizational information and health benefit information dissemination were positively associated with online audience engagement. Also, organization-audience interaction had a positive relationship with online audience engagement. In addition, messages that help build confidence for health behavior change increased online audience engagement. In addition to these main effects, organization-audience interaction also played a moderating role that strengthened the effects of information dissemination and action confidence building on online audience engagement. This study offers important theoretical contributions to the Information-Community-Action Framework and has practical implications for enhancing the effectiveness of health promotion in this digital era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the increasing amount of new information that is emerging about COVID-19, traditional and web-based information sources are commonly used to spread and seek information. This study compared differences in information seeking, trust of information sources, and use of protective behaviors (e.g., mask wearing) among individuals in the US and China during the COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 722 valid responses in the US and 493 valid responses in China were collected via online surveys in May 2020. Pearson's Chi-square tests, independent samples t-tests, and multiple linear regressions were used to conduct the analyses. Results showed that US respondents accessed significantly fewer COVID-19 information sources, rated significantly lower levels of trust in these sources, and reported significantly lower levels of protective behaviors than the Chinese respondents. In both countries, trust in newspapers, radio/community broadcasting, and news portals were significantly positively correlated with protective behaviors. While trust of TV was significant in both populations, in China it was positively correlated, whereas in the US was negatively correlated, with protective behaviors. Findings from this study showed that coordinated and consistent messages from governmental officials, health authorities, and media platforms are important to promote and encourage protective behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]