Reddit and Google Activity Related to Non-COVID Epidemic Diseases Surged at Start of COVID-19 Pandemic: Retrospective Study.

BACKGROUND: Resources such as Google Trends and Reddit provide opportunities to gauge real-time popular interest in public health issues. Despite the potential for these publicly available and free resources to help optimize public health campaigns, use for this purpose has been limited. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study is to determine whether early public awareness of COVID-19 correlated with elevated public interest in other infectious diseases of public health importance. METHODS: Google Trends search data and Reddit comment data were analyzed from 2018 through 2020 for the frequency of keywords "chikungunya," "Ebola," "H1N1," "MERS," "SARS," and "Zika," 6 highly publicized epidemic diseases in recent decades. After collecting Google Trends relative popularity scores for each of these 6 terms, unpaired 2-tailed t tests were used to compare the 2020 weekly scores for each term to their average level over the 3-year study period. The number of Reddit comments per month with each of these 6 terms was collected and then adjusted for the total estimated Reddit monthly comment volume to derive a measure of relative use, analogous to the Google Trends popularity score. The relative monthly incidence of comments with each search term was then compared to the corresponding search term's pre-COVID monthly comment data, again using unpaired 2-tailed t tests. P value cutoffs for statistical significance were determined a priori with a Bonferroni correction. RESULTS: Google Trends and Reddit data both demonstrate large and statistically significant increases in the usage of each evaluated disease term through at least the initial months of the pandemic. Google searches and Reddit comments that included any of the evaluated infectious disease search terms rose significantly in the first months of 2020 above their baseline usage, peaking in March 2020. Google searches for "SARS" and "MERS" remained elevated for the entirety of the 2020 calendar year, as did Reddit comments with the words "Ebola," "H1N1," "MERS," and "SARS" (P<.001, for each weekly or monthly comparison, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: Google Trends and Reddit can readily be used to evaluate real-time general interest levels in public health-related topics, providing a tool to better time and direct public health initiatives that require a receptive target audience. The start of the COVID-19 pandemic correlated with increased public interest in other epidemic infectious diseases. We have demonstrated that for 6 distinct infectious causes of epidemics over the last 2 decades, public interest rose substantially and rapidly with the outbreak of COVID-19. Our data suggests that for at least several months after the initial outbreak, the public may have been particularly receptive to dialogue on these topics. Public health officials should consider using Google Trends and social media data to identify patterns of engagement with public health topics in real time and to optimize the timing of public health campaigns.

Fake news in a time of plague: Exploring individuals' online information management in the COVID-19 era

Online health information is critical during pandemics. Previous research has focused on examining antecedents or consequences of particular information behaviors (e.g., seeking, sharing), but the process by which one information behavior influences or transforms into other information behaviors remains poorly understood. Guided by theories of information behavior and the literature on online misinformation, this study proposes an interaction model of online information behaviors that theorizes relationships among online information scanning, misinformation exposure, misinformation elaboration, information sharing, and information avoidance. Conducting a two-wave representative panel survey in Hong Kong during the COVID-19 pandemic (N = 1501), we found that online information scanning at Wave 1 had a direct, positive impact on misinformation exposure and information sharing at Wave 2, while it did not have an impact on information avoidance at Wave 2. Additionally, misinformation exposure was positively related to both information sharing and information avoidance at Wave 2. Importantly, we underlined that evaluations of crisis-related misinformation are aided by misinformation elaboration, which plays a moderating role in catalyzing appropriate information behaviors. Results of this study could help scholars and practitioners propose evidence-based interventions for enhancing the public's ability to manage crisis information on the Internet in times of heightened uncertainty. © 2023 Elsevier Ltd

Do students look for information differently? Information-seeking behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to explore the COVID-19 information-seeking behavior of the students in a developing country. This study also explores how the use of information sources changes over time by the students of a public university in Bangladesh.Design/methodology/approachAn e-mail was sent along with an online questionnaire to 350 students in a public university in Bangladesh. After sending a couple of follow-up e-mails in May and June 2022, we got limited responses. Later in July, we distributed the same questionnaire in the printed form to the students in the seminar library, computer laboratory and in the classroom. Finally, we got back 270 responses, and the response rate was 77.14%. Pearson's correlation coefficient (effect size) and nonparametric test (Mann–Whitney U test) were used to see the differences in using information sources over times and overall understanding of choosing the COVID-19 information sources by the demographic variables.FindingsThis study found that the COVID-19 pandemic has made an increased demand for a variety of information, and the sources of information changes over time before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. The majority of the students faced challenges while seeking COVID-19 information which mostly falls under the availability of mis–disinformation. Students used more social media tools during the COVID-19 than the pre-COVID-19 time, and there are some significant relationships found between the students' demographic variables and students' understanding of choosing the COVID-19 information sources.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors' knowledge, this study is one of the first to analyze changes in information behavior patterns of students in a developing country and understand the challenges faced by the students during the pandemic.

Impacts of Information Source and Perceived Health on Information Behavior

This preliminary study revisits a fundamental information problem of information behavior, focusing on needs, overload, and information source use, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The associations between the impact of information source use on the extent of information needs, being exposed to information, and feeling of overload was examined. Furthermore, to understand the impact of context on information behavior, the differences in the degree of information resource use, needs, exposure, and overload between the two groups with different levels of health were investigated. 85th Annual Meeting of the Association for Information Science & Technology ;Oct. 29 – Nov. 1, 2022 ;Pittsburgh, PA. Author(s) retain copyright, but ASIS&T receives an exclusive publication license.

Health information behavior and related factors among Estonians aged ≥ 50 years during the COVID-19 pandemic

Purpose: The purpose of the article is to introduce the outcomes of a study analyzing the relationships between willingness to use technology for health purposes, health information behavior (HIB), health behavior (HB) choices, readiness for COVID-19 vaccination, socioeconomic indicators and self-reported health among older adults aged = 50 years living in Estonia. Design/methodology/approach: A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 501 people aged = 50 in Estonia in 2020, a month after the end of lockdown. Findings: The results of the study indicate that the more recurrent the need for HI was (rho = 0.11, p < 0.05) and the more regularly one searched for it (rho = 0.14, p < 0.01), the more willing a person was to get vaccinated. Also, interest in digital applications corresponded to vaccination readiness (rho = 0.25, p < 0.001). However, this relationship did not emerge in the case of other HBs such as healthy eating and exercise. Differences in HIB should be taken into account when developing effective means of health communication designed especially for crisis situations. Originality/value: Estonia is known as one of the digital front runners in the world. However, social welfare and the well-being of disadvantaged groups among the population (e.g. older people) have not yet caught up with the more developed Western countries. Thus, learning more about the health-related information behavior of older adults, e.g. the kind of health information they are seeking and using in Estonia, allows policymakers, health information providers and libraries in Estonia to plan and carry out more effective interventions and help them to improve the existing systems so as to furnish older adults with relevant information. © 2023, Emerald Publishing Limited.

Digital Divide Faced by the Elderly Under the Covid-19 Pandemic

Under the Covid-19 situation, the older people's lack of understanding of the epidemic information, resulting in poor self-protection, limited travel, affects the purchase of life and medical items. These made a significant threat to their health. Due to the rules of home isolation, the Internet has become the primary source of information. But this leads to the digital divide faced by the elderly becoming more prominent, which has already existed before. This research studies the specific difficulties faced by the elderly in the digital divide in the epidemic. This paper used a semi-structured interview and recruited 25 older people to participate. By analyzing the interview content, this study used the content analysis method to analyze the difficulties of information acquisition and utilization of the elderly. In addition, this study analyzed the main reasons for the digital divide faced by the elderly from internal and external factors. Then, this study proposed suggestions for IT enterprises and government to solve the digital divide in the Covid-19 from the perspective of the elderly. Through this study, the findings can help solve the digital divide faced by the elderly in the epidemic, help them better obtain accurate information, and help them better protect their health. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

"I Try to Find a Balance”: Investigating Strategies for Self-Regulating Covid News Consumption

Excessive news consumption during global crises (e.g., through regularly monitoring fast-moving developments), can result in information fatigue and anxiety. Indeed, research has highlighted dangerous risks to mental wellbeing from "over-consumption” of Covid-related news. While prior research has examined how people find Covid-related information and sometimes avoid it to prevent overwhelm, no existing studies have investigated how people leverage information seeking, encountering and avoidance (often in concert) to self-regulate their Covid news consumption. We conducted a two-week diary study and follow-up interviews with 16 people. An inductive Thematic Analysis identified several strategies for self-regulating Covid news consumption: short-term avoidance of all Covid news, selective avoidance (e.g., of news on particular Covid topics), selective consumption of Covid news from particular sources, news perceived to be within one's control, or news likely to be of personal benefit and conscious consumption of Covid news by limiting time spent consuming it, relying on passively encountering (rather than actively seeking) it and consuming it less frequently by returning to pre-pandemic news-browsing routines. An understanding of Covid news self-regulation strategies can help digital platforms that provide crisis-related news better support people in regulating their information consumption more effectively which, in turn, can help safeguard their mental wellbeing. 85th Annual Meeting of the Association for Information Science & Technology ;Oct. 29 – Nov. 1, 2022 ;Pittsburgh, PA. Author(s) retain copyright, but ASIS&T receives an exclusive publication license.

Conclusion

The health risks of socially vulnerable groups, such as the elderly, the sick, and the disabled, are significantly elevated under the COVID-19 epidemic. Therefore, the different factors affecting the use of information technology by socially vulnerable groups under COVID-19 are explored at the level of the use of emerging information technology. The impact on the information behavior of socially vulnerable groups under COVID-19 is also explored at the level of information behavior, including health information needs, the digital divide phenomenon, and the utilization of public information services. Based on the above findings, the current status of information behavior research for socially vulnerable groups is combined. Future research directions of information technology and information behavior for socially vulnerable groups are proposed. First, to improve the research theory of information behavior of socially vulnerable groups regarding information technology. Second, to apply big data technology and data analysis technology to explore the information technology adoption behavior of socially vulnerable groups in-depth. Third, to construct the information behavior model of socially vulnerable groups based on empirical research cases. Fourth, to use information technology for socially vulnerable groups according to information technology and the barriers faced by socially vulnerable groups in using information technology, and to provide strategies for using information technology that meet the needs of socially vulnerable groups. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Everyday information behavior during the "new normal” of the Covid-19 pandemic: approaching the notions of experiential and local knowledge

Purpose: The purpose of this research is to understand everyday information behavior (IB) during the Covid-19 pandemic at the "new normal” stage, focusing on the notions of experiential knowledge (EK), i.e. knowledge acquired by first-hand experience or in personal interactions, and local knowledge (LK) as perception of local environment. Design/methodology/approach: Seventeen interviews were carried out in February–May 2021, in a district of the city of Madrid (Spain). Interview transcripts were analyzed according to grounded theory, to identify major and complementary themes of EK and LK. Findings: Participants' stories show that EK cooperated with information originating from government, scientific authorities and mainstream media, in patterns of convergence and divergence. While convergence produces "thick knowledge” (knowledge perceived as solid, real and multidimensional), divergence leads to uncertainty and collaboration, but it also supports a critical stance on authorities' information. In addition, participants' perceptions of LK emphasize its human component. LK and EK are exchanged both explicitly and tacitly. Originality/value: The paper presents the first approach to understanding EK and LK and their function during the health crisis, characterizing them as alternative information systems and as topics deserving major attention in research on IB and crisis management. © 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited.

Website analytics for government user behavior during COVID-19 pandemic

Purpose: The present study aims to clarify the following two research objectives: (1) the user behavior of government websites during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) period and (2) how the government improved government's website design during the COVID-19 period. Design/methodology/approach: The authors used website analytics to examine usage patterns and behaviors of the government website via personal computer (PC) and mobile devices during the COVID-19 pandemic. In-depth interviews were conducted to understand the user experience of government website users and to gather users' opinions about how government websites should be redesigned. Findings: With the rising of the COIVID-19 pandemic, most studies expect that the use of government websites through a mobile device will grow astonishingly. The authors uncovered that the COVID-19 pandemic did not increase the use of government websites. Instead, severe declines in website usage were observed for all device users with the declines being more pronounced in mobile device users than in PC users. This is an admonitory caveat that reveals public health and pandemic prevention information announced on government websites cannot be effectively transmitted to the general public through official online platforms. Originality/value: The study highlights the gap in information behavior and usage patterns between PC and mobile device users when visiting government websites. Although mobile devices brought many new visitors, mobile devices are ineffective in retaining visitors and continuous long-term use. The results of localize experience is helpful in the improvement of government website evaluation worldwide. © 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited.

Information avoidance in the age of COVID-19: A meta-analysis.

Guided by three major theoretical frameworks, this meta-analysis synthesizes 17 empirical studies (15 articles with 18,297 participants, 13 of them are from non-representative samples) and quantifies the effect sizes of a list of antecedents (e.g., cognitive, affective, and social factors) on information avoidance during the COVID-19 context. Findings indicated that information-related factors including channel belief (r = -0.35, p < .01) and information overload (r = 0.23, p < .01) are more important in determining individual's avoidance behaviors toward COVID-19 information. Factors from the psychosocial aspects, however, had low correlations with information avoidance. While informational subjective norms released a negative correlation (r = -0.16, p < .1) which was approaching significant, positive and negative risk responses were not associated with information avoidance. Moderator analysis further revealed that the impacts of several antecedents varied for people with different demographic characteristics (i.e., age, gender, region of origin), and under certain sampling methods. Theoretically, this meta-analysis may help determine the most dominant factors from a larger landscape, thus providing valuable directions to refine frameworks and approaches in health information behaviors. Findings from moderator analysis have also practically inspired certain audience segmentation strategies to tackle occurrence of information avoidance during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Can the crowd judge truthfulness? A longitudinal study on recent misinformation about COVID-19.

Recently, the misinformation problem has been addressed with a crowdsourcing-based approach: to assess the truthfulness of a statement, instead of relying on a few experts, a crowd of non-expert is exploited. We study whether crowdsourcing is an effective and reliable method to assess truthfulness during a pandemic, targeting statements related to COVID-19, thus addressing (mis)information that is both related to a sensitive and personal issue and very recent as compared to when the judgment is done. In our experiments, crowd workers are asked to assess the truthfulness of statements, and to provide evidence for the assessments. Besides showing that the crowd is able to accurately judge the truthfulness of the statements, we report results on workers' behavior, agreement among workers, effect of aggregation functions, of scales transformations, and of workers background and bias. We perform a longitudinal study by re-launching the task multiple times with both novice and experienced workers, deriving important insights on how the behavior and quality change over time. Our results show that workers are able to detect and objectively categorize online (mis)information related to COVID-19; both crowdsourced and expert judgments can be transformed and aggregated to improve quality; worker background and other signals (e.g., source of information, behavior) impact the quality of the data. The longitudinal study demonstrates that the time-span has a major effect on the quality of the judgments, for both novice and experienced workers. Finally, we provide an extensive failure analysis of the statements misjudged by the crowd-workers.

Internet Use for Obtaining Medicine Information: Cross-sectional Survey.

BACKGROUND: The internet is increasingly being used as a source of medicine-related information. People want information to facilitate decision-making and self-management, and they tend to prefer the internet for ease of access. However, it is widely acknowledged that the quality of web-based information varies. Poor interpretation of medicine information can lead to anxiety and poor adherence to drug therapy. It is therefore important to understand how people search, select, and trust medicine information. OBJECTIVE: The objectives of this study were to establish the extent of internet use for seeking medicine information among Norwegian pharmacy customers, analyze factors associated with internet use, and investigate the level of trust in different sources and websites. METHODS: This is a cross-sectional study with a convenience sample of pharmacy customers recruited from all but one community pharmacy in Tromsø, a medium size municipality in Norway (77,000 inhabitants). Persons (aged ≥16 years) able to complete a questionnaire in Norwegian were asked to participate in the study. The recruitment took place in September and October 2020. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, social media was also used to recruit medicine users. RESULTS: A total of 303 respondents reported which sources they used to obtain information about their medicines (both prescription and over the counter) and to what extent they trusted these sources. A total of 125 (41.3%) respondents used the internet for medicine information, and the only factor associated with internet use was age. The odds of using the internet declined by 5% per year of age (odds ratio 0.95, 95% CI 0.94-0.97; P=.048). We found no association between internet use and gender, level of education, or regular medicine use. The main purpose reported for using the internet was to obtain information about side effects. Other main sources of medicine information were physicians (n=191, 63%), pharmacy personnel (n=142, 47%), and medication package leaflets (n=124, 42%), while 36 (12%) respondents did not obtain medicine information from any sources. Note that 272 (91%) respondents trusted health professionals as a source of medicine information, whereas 58 (46%) respondents who used the internet trusted the information they found on the internet. The most reliable websites were the national health portals and other official health information sites. CONCLUSIONS: Norwegian pharmacy customers use the internet as a source of medicine information, but most still obtain medicine information from health professionals and packet leaflets. People are aware of the potential for misinformation on websites, and they mainly trust high-quality sites run by health authorities.

Data Protection: Trust to Government and Willingness to Provide Information

The COVID-19 pandemic has seen many countries took their best measures to prevent the spread of the virus. Hence, the use of contact tracing apps to track infection and help to diagnose symptoms has become common. However, digital innovation for public health management has posed some challenges to the government and the society. There are trade-offs between the benefits of health protection and the risks of loss of data privacy. Therefore, the study aims to examine what data protection factors will predict users' trust to the government, and whether the trust will impact on how the users provide data to COVID-19 contact tracing apps. A self-administered survey was conducted, and 497 data was obtained. Analysis on structural equation modeling was done by using SmartPLS. The findings show trust to government is determined by perception of the users on ethics of data collection, regulation by the government, data protection policy, and information disclosure prevalence. Trust affects willingness to provide information in a different manner. The willingness to provide information is determined by cognitive trust. But affective trust increases people's willingness for falsification. The research contributes to data privacy field by demonstrating how different forms of trust to government during the pandemic influence cooperative behavior, and the identification of clear distinction of trust antecedents, which will be useful for the redesign of government relationship with the people. © 2022 IEEE.

Do students look for information differently? Information-seeking behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to explore the COVID-19 information-seeking behavior of the students in a developing country. This study also explores how the use of information sources changes over time by the students of a public university in Bangladesh. Design/methodology/approachAn e-mail was sent along with an online questionnaire to 350 students in a public university in Bangladesh. After sending a couple of follow-up e-mails in May and June 2022, we got limited responses. Later in July, we distributed the same questionnaire in the printed form to the students in the seminar library, computer laboratory and in the classroom. Finally, we got back 270 responses, and the response rate was 77.14%. Pearson's correlation coefficient (effect size) and nonparametric test (Mann-Whitney U test) were used to see the differences in using information sources over times and overall understanding of choosing the COVID-19 information sources by the demographic variables. FindingsThis study found that the COVID-19 pandemic has made an increased demand for a variety of information, and the sources of information changes over time before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. The majority of the students faced challenges while seeking COVID-19 information which mostly falls under the availability of mis-disinformation. Students used more social media tools during the COVID-19 than the pre-COVID-19 time, and there are some significant relationships found between the students' demographic variables and students' understanding of choosing the COVID-19 information sources. Originality/valueTo the best of the authors' knowledge, this study is one of the first to analyze changes in information behavior patterns of students in a developing country and understand the challenges faced by the students during the pandemic.

Website analytics for government user behavior during COVID-19 pandemic

Purpose>The present study aims to clarify the following two research objectives: (1) the user behavior of government websites during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) period and (2) how the government improved government's website design during the COVID-19 period.Design/methodology/approach>The authors used website analytics to examine usage patterns and behaviors of the government website via personal computer (PC) and mobile devices during the COVID-19 pandemic. In-depth interviews were conducted to understand the user experience of government website users and to gather users' opinions about how government websites should be redesigned.Findings>With the rising of the COIVID-19 pandemic, most studies expect that the use of government websites through a mobile device will grow astonishingly. The authors uncovered that the COVID-19 pandemic did not increase the use of government websites. Instead, severe declines in website usage were observed for all device users with the declines being more pronounced in mobile device users than in PC users. This is an admonitory caveat that reveals public health and pandemic prevention information announced on government websites cannot be effectively transmitted to the general public through official online platforms.Originality/value>The study highlights the gap in information behavior and usage patterns between PC and mobile device users when visiting government websites. Although mobile devices brought many new visitors, mobile devices are ineffective in retaining visitors and continuous long-term use. The results of localize experience is helpful in the improvement of government website evaluation worldwide.

Differences in User Information Behavior between Official Media and Private Media during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Weibo is a widely used social media platform showing all kinds of information related to the COVID-19 pandemic promptly in China. Official media and private media are two typical types of media on Weibo. Due to the different characteristics of these two media types, in the context of public health emergencies, it is worth exploring whether there are differences in the users' interactive behavior with information from these two types of media. This is of great significance to the integration and development of these two types of media.This study obtained data on the interaction behaviors of Weibo users with posts published by the two media types at various stages of the pandemic. Statistical analyses have confirmed significant differences in interaction behavior data between users and these two media types. In future research, based on the findings of this study, we will investigate the reasons behind these differences to provide relevant guidelines and suggestions for the release of different media in public health emergencies by conducting a deep dive analysis of user reviews.

Social media and the role of libraries during the COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a huge impact on a person's life, both physically and mentally. With the amount of information available, people can use this information to overcome the anxiety they face. This study aims to identify the information behavior of COVID-19 survivors and the role of libraries in social media as information institutions during the COVID-19 pandemic. The research method used is quantitative descriptive. Data collection was carried out through a survey using Google Forms. The number of data collected was 148 respondents. The location was East Java, including Surabaya, Sidoarjo, Tuban, Bangkalan, Magetan, Blitar, Situbondo, Jombang, Gresik, Kediri, Ponorogo, Lamongan, Madiun, Ngawi, Banyuwangi, and Tulungagung. The results show that most people fulfill their information needs regarding the treatment of COVID and its development (48.6%), as well as a healthy lifestyle (15.5%) through social media. In accessing information, a small number of respondents experienced obstacles such as the amount of hoax information (6.1%), the available information was considered incomplete (5.4%), limited internet quota (4.1%), and problematic network signal (4.1%). Based on these results, we need the role of libraries that are able to provide information to meet the information needs of users. (English) [ FROM AUTHOR] Pandemi COVID-19 telah memberikan dampak yang sangat besar bagi kehidupan seseorang, baik secara fisik maupun mental. Dengan banyaknya informasi yang tersedia, orang dapat menggunakan informasi ini untuk mengatasi kecemasan yang mereka hadapi. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengidentifikasi perilaku informasi para penyintas COVID-19 dan peran perpustakaan di media sosial sebagai lembaga informasi di masa pandemi COVID-19. Metode penelitian yang digunakan adalah deskriptif kuantitatif. Pengumpulan data dilakukan melalui survei menggunakan google form. Jumlah data yang dikumpulkan adalah 148 responden. Lokasi yang diambil meliputi Jawa Timur antara lain Surabaya, Sidoarjo, Tuban, Bangkalan, Magetan, Blitar, Situbondo, Jombang, Gresik, Kediri, Ponorogo, Lamongan, Madiun, Ngawi, Banyuwangi, dan Tulungagung. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa sebagian besar masyarakat memenuhi kebutuhan informasinya melalui media sosial. Informasi yang mereka butuhkan mengenai pengobatan COVID dan perkembangannya (48,6%), serta pola hidup sehat (15,5%). Dalam mengakses informasi, sebagian kecil responden mengalami kendala seperti banyaknya informasi hoax (6,1%), informasi yang tersedia dianggap tidak lengkap (5,4%), kuota internet terbatas (4,1%), dan sinyal bermasalah. jaringan (4,1%). Berdasarkan hasil tersebut, diperlukan peran perpustakaan yang mampu menyediakan informasi untuk memenuhi kebutuhan informasi pengguna. (Indonesian) [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Masyarakat, Kebudayaan & Politik is the property of Universitas Airlangga and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

Initial Stage of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Perspective on Health Risk Communications in the Restaurant Industry.

Restaurant online review websites have made changes to adapt to customers' shifting needs during the COVID-19 crisis. Based on information behavior theory and social penetration theory, the present study investigated the changes in customers' emotions and how the volume of online reviews as an indication of sales is impacted by the instructional (i.e., with quantitative variables) and emotional (i.e., with qualitative variables) information on review websites. By comparing the same month (January-April) during 2017-2020, positive sentiment experienced a plunge, while negative sentiment showed an upsurge in April 2020. The volume of reviews was impacted by five quantitative variables (i.e., confirmed COVID-19 case number, food delivery option, takeout option, delivery fee, and delivery time) and seven qualitative variables (i.e., anticipation, fear, trust, anger, disgust, joy, and sadness). This study provides new insight into understanding information content on review websites during the crisis (e.g., pandemic) from the perspective of health risk communication.

Libraries and Librarians as Agents of Health Information Justice: Concluding Thoughts

In this closing chapter, the authors first draw on the contributed chapters in this volume to highlight some of the many ways in which libraries and librarians are moving us closer to health justice by working with their communities to increase consumer health literacy and to decrease health disparities. The authors then focus our attention on the COVID-19 pandemic, discussing the fact that disadvantaged populations are bearing the brunt of the negative impacts of this situation and the many existing and novel roles that libraries and librarians are playing to help to fight consumer health information injustice and to contribute toward better health outcomes for all. Next, Dr Beth Barnett brings her viewpoint as a Board Certified Patient Advocate to the volume, pointing out parallels between the roles of librarians and those of patient advocates, as well as important lessons for patient advocates gleaned from the volume. To conclude the chapter, the authors reiterate our aims for the volume and issue a call to the reader to join libraries and librarians in their important role as agents of health information justice.