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The fact that social media gives users easy access to online health information raises the question of what information evaluation strategies older adults use to distinguish trustworthy from unreliable health information. Identifying how older adults assess the credibility of health information that they acquire on social media is an important step toward understanding and reducing their susceptibility to health misinformation. In this study, we investigated the credibility assessment strategies used by older WeChat users in China. Following a qualitative approach, we conducted in-depth interviews with 40 WeChat users 65–85 years old (M = 71.75, SD = 6.65) in China who had acquired health information on WeChat. Results of theoretical thematic analysis revealed five source-based and content-based evaluative strategies: (1) determining the communicative orientation of the source, (2) assessing source reputation, (3) confirming content based on life experiences, (4) checking for exaggeration in claimed effects, and (5) assessing the consistency of content across sources. Older WeChat users’ reliance on certain heuristic cues and their self-reliant approach to assessing information credibility provide contextual explanations for the link between heuristic processing and susceptibility to health misinformation. The findings have implications for anti-misinformation interventions targeting the older population in China and potentially beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the majority of trauma survivors reside in low and middle income countries, these regions have historically been poorly represented in traumatic stress research. However, a recent review of geographic representation within traumatic stress journals is lacking. This study reviewed all articles published between 2006 and 2015 in six leading traumatic stress journals. When articles (n = 2530) were categorised by region, less than one tenth (9.76%; n = 247) were representative of low and middle income countries. All articles categorised as being from a low and middle income country were then coded for the regional and country representations of samples, author affiliations, and funding sources, and for type of research methodology. The majority of primary author teams (56.28%) and funding sources (55.87%) for articles based in low and middle income countries were located in high-income countries. The majority of low and middle income country articles (71.66%) used structured symptom questionnaires of which more than two thirds (70.6%) assessed symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder. These findings indicate that knowledge production about traumatic stress in domain-specific journals reflects a state of ongoing geographic inequality and that research published from low and middle income countries reflects predominantly etic methodologies centred on measuring posttraumatic stress disorder. The implications are discussed and recommendations are offered for developing a research base in domain-specific journals that better represents the experiences and needs of trauma survivors in low and middle income countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Singapore, the institutional preference for biomedicine and the cultural importance of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) have created tensions between the two medical systems and erected barriers to a more collaborative health-care system. This study foregrounds TCM physicians' voice to reveal ideological struggles and power imbalances that underlie the interprofessional tensions and accompanying marginalization of TCM. Through in-depth interviews with 22 TCM physicians in Singapore, this study reveals the incongruences in ideological underpinnings between biomedicine and TCM, reflected in their different worldviews and epistemological approaches to knowledge formation and evaluation. Power differentials between the two medical systems are manifest in TCM physicians' inferior position in relation to their biomedical peers, the patients' internalization of biomedical standards to question the TCM profession and their own interest in seeking TCM treatments, and the state's limited support for TCM research, subsidies, and service provision in hospital settings. The results suggest that more open dialogue about the dichotomous framings of biomedicine and TCM is key to disrupting the mutual reinforcement of ideology and power, as well as to creating increased mutual understanding between the two medical systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Singapore, the responsibility of caring for persons with dementia falls on family members who cope with a long-term caregiver burden, depending on available support resources. Hiring foreign domestic workers to alleviate caregiver burden becomes a prevalent coping strategy that caregivers adopt. This strategy allows caregivers to provide home care as part of fulfilling family obligations while managing the caregiver burden. This study aimed to investigate primary caregivers’ relationship with hired support and its impact on coping with caregiver burden. Twenty in-depth interviews were conducted with primary caregivers who hired live-in domestic helpers to take care of their family members with dementia. The findings revealed that caregivers perceived the normative obligations to provide home care to family members with dementia. They sought support from domestic helpers to cope with physical and mental burnout, disruption of normal routines, and avoidance of financial strain. A mutual-support relationship was built between caregivers and domestic helpers through trust and interdependence. The presence of domestic helpers as a coping resource reveals the positive outcomes of problem-, emotional-, and diversion-focused coping. This study illustrates that coping strategies are employed in different ways depending on the needs of caregivers, access to infrastructure, cultural expectations, and available resources. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study investigated the functions of family support in older Chinese Singaporean women's daily health management in a Confucian cultural context, wherein family solidarity and women's caregiving responsibilities are emphasized. Thirty-eight interviews were conducted with ethnic Chinese women above the age of 60 in Singapore. Our thematic analysis showed that older women played dual roles as support providers and recipients in the family. Their caregiver identity and intent to preserve tradition resulted in a downward transmission of informational and physical support and their hesitance to accept resources provided by younger family members. The asymmetrical flow of family support generated mixed impacts on the women's daily health management. In their transition between tradition and modernity, older women fulfilled their family responsibilities but did not require their children to do so. Our findings suggested an integration of familial and institutional resources to meet older women's support needs and help them enhance their health behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined effects of age and social psychological factors on women’s willingness to be mobile health information seekers. A national survey of 1,878 Singaporean women was conducted to obtain information on women’s mobile phone usage, experiences of health information seeking, and appraisals of using mobile phones to seek health information. Results showed that young, middle-aged, and older women exhibited distinct mobile phone usage behaviors, health information-seeking patterns, and assessments of mobile health information seeking. Factors that accounted for their mobile information-seeking intention also varied. Data reported in this study provide insights into mobile health interventions in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study explores teenage girls' narrations of the relationship between self-presentation and peer comparison on social media in the context of beauty. Social media provide new platforms that manifest media and peer influences on teenage girls' understanding of beauty towards an idealized notion. Through 24 in-depth interviews, this study examines secondary school girls' self-presentation and peer comparison behaviors on social network sites where the girls posted self-portrait photographs or “selfies” and collected peer feedback in the forms of “likes,” “followers,” and comments. Results of thematic analysis reveal a gap between teenage girls' self-beliefs and perceived peer standards of beauty. Feelings of low self-esteem and insecurity underpinned their efforts in edited self-presentation and quest for peer recognition. Peers played multiple roles that included imaginary audiences, judges, vicarious learning sources, and comparison targets in shaping teenage girls' perceptions and presentation of beauty. Findings from this study reveal the struggles that teenage girls face today and provide insights for future investigations and interventions pertinent to teenage girls’ presentation and evaluation of self on social media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Guided by the theory of motivated information management, this study investigated the extent to which Singaporean college students' sexual health information-seeking behaviour could be accounted for by their anxiety of uncertainty discrepancy, their perceived outcomes of information seeking and their perceived confidence in seeking and coping with sexual health information acquired from their best friends. Taking into account that issue relevance may play a role in individuals' health decision-making, this study also examined the effect of perceived vulnerability on respondents' sexual health information-seeking behaviour. An online survey was conducted with 202 undergraduate students at a university in Singapore. Respondents were asked to report the frequency with which they sought four types of sexual health information from their best friends: unwanted pregnancy, abortion, HIV/ AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections. Survey data showed that respondents' uncertainty discrepancy was positively associated with their anxiety. Anxiety had negative effects on efficacy and outcome expectancy. Outcome expectancy was positively associated with efficacy. Both efficacy and perceived vulnerability accounted for a significant amount of variance in respondents' sexual health information-seeking behaviour. Findings from this study contribute to a better understanding of young adults' sexual health information behaviour in a Singapore context. [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]

This study examines the communicative grounds of democratic legitimacy in a hybrid political system, Singapore, by applying Habermas's theory of communicative action. The theory holds that citizens will be more likely to accept the rightfulness of a political order to the extent that they recognize its orientation as being communicative, oriented to increasing reciprocal understanding with the public. Assessments of communicative action are indicated by 2 conditions: whether citizens agree with government claims and whether citizens perceive opportunities to engage in dialog with policymakers in public discourse. The communicative action approach is tested using the case of Singapore government's action on smoking control. National survey results indicate that selected validity conditions and speech conditions are positively associated with legitimacy appraisals. [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]

This article adopts an operational protocol for evaluating participation from Jürgen Habermas's theory of communicative action. The research setting is citizen participation in a city government's policy-making process on smoking in public places. Participation as communicative action is evaluated by the extent to which citizens accept the validity of what policy makers say and by whether citizens feel that they can raise concerns about a proposed policy in unrestricted communication environments. Findings indicate that citizens feel participatory in a decision-making process if they recognize policy makers' validity claims and perceive uncoerced speech conditions. Communicative action variables exercise significant predictability on a dependent variable indicating policy legitimacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chronic illness is the most prevalent and costly global public health challenge. To address this challenge, health information is essential for individuals to make informed decisions to self‐manage their health and prevent and monitor chronic illness. Although previous studies show that health information scanning—a form of information gathering behavior to obtain health information, incidentally, when health topics of interest arise during daily conversations with others or through regular use of the media—positively influenced health decisions, little is known about information scanning in the context of chronic illness. This study applied the Comprehensive Model of Information Seeking to examine factors that influence individuals' use of different channels for health information scanning. Using quota sampling to resemble population demographic characteristics, we collected 1100 online survey responses from Chinese‐speaking Hong Kong residents aged from 18 to 65 or older. Three structural equation modeling analyses were performed to examine how antecedent factors and information carrier factors influenced the use of interpersonal/group channels, the Internet‐related channels, and the traditional media channels for scanning chronic illness‐related information. The findings supported that channel utility was an important determinant of health scanning behavior, and channel characteristics were strong predictors of channel utility. However, mixed findings were observed on the relationship between antecedent factors and channel utility across the three‐channel categories, because some antecedent factors had direct influence on health information scanning. These findings will inform the information dissemination and promotional message design for chronic illness prevention and care. Key points: Consistent with predictions of the comprehensive model of information seeking, the more individuals perceive that messages carried by an information channel are personally relevant and useful to them, the more likely they will scan health information using that channel. Furthermore, the more individuals perceive the message content to contain positive characteristics, the more likely they perceive the messages carried by the channels as relevant and useful to them. Of antecedent factors, belief‐related variables (perceived benefits and drawbacks of regular physical checkups, and efficacy belief) showed significant influences on people's perception of information channel utility and their health information scanning behavior. When designing promotional messages and disseminating information related to chronic illness care and prevention, it is important to consider factors of perceived benefits and drawbacks of regular physical checkups, efficacy belief, age, worry, and insurance/subsidy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the widespread involvement of distributed collaboration triggered by COVID-19, it has become a new trend that has continued into the post-pandemic era. This study investigated collective performance within two collaborative environments (co-located and distancing settings) by assessing inter-brain synchrony patterns (IBS) among design collaborators using functional near-infrared spectroscopy. The preliminary study was conducted with three dyads who possessed 2–3 years of professional product design experience. Each dyad completed two designated design tasks in distinct settings. In the distributed condition, participants interacted through video conferencing in which they were allowed to communicate by verbalization and sketching using a shared digital whiteboard. To prevent the influences of different sketching tools on design outputs, we employed digital sketching for both environments. The interactions between collaborators were identified in three behaviors: verbal only, sketch only, and mixed communication (verbal and sketch). The consequences revealed a higher level of IBS when mixed communication took place in distributed conditions than in co-located conditions. Comparably, the occurrence of IBS increased when participants solely utilized sketching as the interaction approach within the co-located setting. A mixed communication method combining verbalization and sketching might lead to more coordinated cognitive processes when in physical isolation. Design collaborators are inclined to adjust their interaction behaviors in order to adapt to different design environments, strengthen the exchange of ideas, and construct design consensus. Overall, the present paper discussed the performance of virtual collaborative design based on a neurocognitive perspective, contributing valuable insights for the future intervention design that promotes effective virtual teamwork. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Objective: This is an exploratory study examining the perceived attitudes and readiness of women aged 50years or older on adopting a mobile phone-based intervention named as Infohealth in Singapore. Method: Infohealth is designed as a health informatics to tailor personalized healthcare advice for the well-being for women – very little is known about the acceptability level of self-care technology, especially the older among the female population. To explore participants’ perceptions and acceptance, a telephone survey was developed from concepts identified from various user acceptance theories and models. Correlation was used to identify significant dependent variables while partial least square and boot-strapping procedures were used to estimate the significance of the path coefficients. Results: Analysis supports the validity and reliability of the 27-item research model consisting of 8 constructs. 700 women aged 50years and older responded to the survey. Findings show the extent of ageing women''s existing dependency on others for help, regard for close ones whom they care for, opinion from family and friends, and guarding the health of people who are important for them do not directly affect the intention of using Infohealth, but are rather mediated by perceived usefulness. This study validated some ageing-specific and female-posited variables to suggest as main constructs in future innovation adoption studies about older women. Technological anxiety and perceived physical condition both have no direct relationship with perceived ease of use and usefulness, lifestyle and intention to use. Conclusion: Findings reinforced the significant roles of perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use, compatibility, and subjective norm in predicting the adoption intention of Infohealth among ageing women. More extensive statistical analysis is needed to discover more interesting findings while qualitative analysis can help to detect humanistic design opportunities. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Objective: This paper is an exploratory study that investigates Singaporean women''s acceptance of using mobile phones to seek health information. Method: A mobile web containing health topics was developed to track Singaporean women''s actual use of their mobile phones to seek health information. A survey questionnaire measured variables hypothesized to predict Behavioural Intention. The survey responses were then matched to the data collected on actual use. Correlation analysis and hierarchical regression were used to analyze the data collected. Results: Findings revealed that Perceived Usefulness and Self-efficacy positively predicted the intention to use mobile phones to seek health information. The study also confirmed the presence of an intention–behaviour gap among participants. The conversion of intention to actual behaviour hinges on technical concerns and design factors. Prior experiences with health information seeking reinforced women''s evaluations of the usefulness of the mobile web application and helped them to feel more self-efficacious about using their mobile phones to seek health information. Using mobile phones to seek health information was found to be complementary to online health information seeking and can be regarded as an alternative source to the internet for seeking health information. Conclusion: This study contributes to the existing literature by applying the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) in the context of mobile health information seeking, for which there has been a lack of studies, and demonstrated that the inclusion of additional variables can enhance TAM''s predictive power. The empirical presence of an intention–behaviour gap calls for future research to investigate the reasons behind the gap. Finally, the findings from this study can serve as input to promote women''s use of mobile phones for better self-management of health. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]