ABSTRACT
Social media have become crucial communication channels for human papilloma virus (HPV) patients to seek and receive social support that can benefit their physical and psychological health. To promote supportive communication on online social platforms, we analyzed 96,543 messages, including 7,407 posts and 89,136 comments, concerning social support on Baidu HPV Forum, one of China's largest online HPV support groups. We examined factors (i.e., threat and efficacy) in posts requesting social support associated with the amount of social support received in comments. Results revealed that the majority of social support messages received in comments represented informational support, whereas relatively few comments featured instrumental social support. Beyond that, high-threat, non-efficacy posts requesting social support received a greater amount of informational and emotional support in the comments than other types of posts requesting social support. Theoretical and practical implications of our study are discussed as well.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: With the rise of mobile technology, an increasing number of people use mobile-based social media to access health information. Many scholars have explored the nature of health information on social media; however, the impact of such information on people was understudied. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to examine the nature and impact of health information on mobile-based social media. Specifically, we investigated how the levels of threat and efficacy of breast cancer prevention information affect individuals' engagement with the information, such as readings and likes. METHODS: Breast cancer prevention articles posted on a Chinese mobile-based social media platform (ie, WeChat Subscription Account [WeChat SA]) from January 1 to December 31, 2017, were extracted using the Python Web Crawler. We used content analysis and analysis of covariance to analyze our data. RESULTS: The results revealed that the vast majority of titles and main bodies of the articles involved one of the extended parallel process model components: threat or efficacy. CONCLUSIONS: Breast cancer prevention information on WeChat SA was well designed. Both threat and efficacy significantly affected the number of readings, whereas only efficacy had a significant effect on the number of likes. Moreover, breast cancer prevention information that contained both high levels of threat and efficacy gained the largest number of readings and likes.
