From Information Seeking and Scanning to the Practice of Healthy Habits: A Longitudinal Test of the Integrative Model of Behavioral Prediction in the Context of Fruit and Vegetable Consumption.

Fruit and vegetable intake is essential for health, but global adherence to recommended levels remains insufficient. Health information exposure positively influences consumption, yet the underlying mechanisms are not fully understood. This study aims to explore the relationships between information seeking and scanning, attitudes, norms, perceived behavioral control (PBC), intentions, and fruit and vegetable intake, following the main tenets of the Integrative Model of Behavioral Prediction (IM). Data were collected through face-to-face surveys in Santiago, Chile, with a representative sample of individuals aged 25 and older in two waves. Findings revealed that intentions in Wave 1 predicted fruit and vegetable consumption in Wave 2, with positive associations between attitudes, norms, PBC, and intentions. Information seeking was positively associated with attitudes, norms, and PBC, and it had indirect effects on fruit and vegetable consumption through attitudes, norms, PBC, and intentions. Information scanning did not show significant indirect effects on fruit and vegetable consumption, even though the path between scanning and attitudes was significant. The study provides support for the IM and highlights the importance of information seeking in promoting fruit and vegetable consumption through its influence on attitudes, norms, and PBC. The findings have practical implications for health campaigns, educational programs, healthcare interactions, and public policies targeting healthier dietary habits.

Information scanning in the COVID-19 pandemic: a test and expansion of the channel complementarity theory using latent class analysis.

BACKGROUND: During health crisis, individuals need information to comprehend their circumstances. Channel complementarity theory posits that in meeting their informational needs, people will use different sources in a complementary fashion. This paper puts to test the main tenet of channel complementarity theory by focusing on information scanning (i.e. routine health information exposure) in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic in Chile. METHOD: A survey was conducted among a sample of Chilean adults (N = 2,805). The questionnaire addressed information scanning across six sources (television, radio, internet, social media, family, and friends or coworkers) and explores how socioeconomic and demographic variables, as well as COVID-19 perceived risk related to scanning. Latent class analysis was employed to identify patterns of complementarity across channels. RESULTS: The analysis yielded a solution of five classes, namely 'high complementarity and high frequency' (21%), 'high complementarity and low frequency' (34%), 'high frequency on television and digital media' (19%), 'mass media predominant' (11%), and 'no scanning' (15%). Educational attainment, age, and COVID-19 perceived risk were associated with scanning. CONCLUSIONS: Television was a central channel for information scanning during the pandemic in Chile and more than half of participants scanned COVID-19 information complementarily. Our findings expand channel complementarity theory to information scanning in a non-US context and provide guidelines for designing communication interventions aiming at informing individuals during a global health crisis.

[COVID-19 risk groups and their strategies for navigating information overload during the first year of the pandemic in Chile]. / Grupos de riesgo por COVID-19 y sus estrategias para enfrentar la sobrecarga informativa en el primer año de la pandemia en Chile.

As a part of the EIS-COVID project on the access and use of information during the COVID-19 pandemic in Chile, the objective of this paper was to ascertain how people's informational environment was constructed during the first stage of the pandemic. It discusses the results of a qualitative study of people belonging to risk groups for COVID-19: people over 18 and under 65 with chronic diseases (hypertension and diabetes) and people 65 and over. Ninety semi-structured interviews were conducted in the Metropolitan and Valparaíso regions between September 2020 and January 2021. The results reveal the problematic nature of the information overload encountered by these groups and the strategies they used to navigate it: a) information avoidance; b) content corroboration and active search for reliable sources; and c) differentiated media use.

Este artículo se enmarca en el proyecto EIS-COVID sobre acceso y uso de información en el contexto de la pandemia de COVID-19 en Chile. Su objetivo fue conocer cómo se constituyó el entorno informativo de las personas en la primera etapa de la pandemia. El artículo muestra los resultados de un estudio cualitativo enfocado en personas pertenecientes a grupos de riesgo por COVID-19: personas mayores de 18 y menores de 65 años con enfermedades crónicas (hipertensión y diabetes) y personas de 65 años y más. Se realizaron 90 entrevistas semiestructuradas en las regiones Metropolitana y de Valparaíso entre septiembre de 2020 y enero de 2021. Se identifica la problemática de la sobrecarga informativa para estos grupos y las estrategias que utilizaron para enfrentarla: a) la evitación de información, b) la corroboración de contenidos y búsqueda activa de fuentes confiables, o c) el uso diferenciado de medios.

Can High Exposure Help to Close Gaps? The Influence of COVID-19 Preventive Messages on Behavioral Intentions by Educational Attainment in Chile.

The literature in the field of health communication has shown the existence of gaps between groups of different socioeconomic levels both in exposure to health campaign messages and in the influence these messages exert on individuals' health decisions. In this article, we examine the association between educational attainment and exposure to messages promoting COVID-19 preventive behaviors, namely, physical distancing, handwashing, and masks wearing in Chile. In addition, we model the association between exposure to these messages and the intentions to carry out the behaviors, as well as the differences attributable to educational attainment in the influence of exposure. A cross-sectional population survey combining online and telephone techniques was conducted among 3,592 adults in Chile. Regression analysis revealed that lower educational level and frequency of television use were positively associated with greater exposure to preventive messages. Exposure to preventive messages, in turn, was positively associated with intentions to maintain the three behaviors examined. Individuals in the lower educational attainment group had lower intentions to engage in two of the three behaviors, but those in these segments who were more exposed to preventive messages were as likely as their more educated counterparts to intend wearing masks and adhering to physical distance. The findings of this study underscore the importance of reaching the least educated segments with campaign messages in the context of public health crisis, since these messages can close gaps between the more and less educated group in their intentions to engage in preventive behaviors.

Búsqueda y exposición incidental a información de salud entre adultos en Santiago, Chile: resultados descriptivos de la primera encuesta sobre entornos informativos de salud EIS Chile / Health information acquisition among Chilean adults

BACKGROUND: People base their health decisions on the information they obtained from their environment, which includes health care providers, the media, and interpersonal networks. Learning about patterns of information acquisition allows the identification of people's preferred sources. Aim: To report the results of a survey about health information seeking, source trust, and routine exposure to health information. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A health information trend survey, modeled after the U.S. National Cancer Institute's Health Information National Trends Survey was answered by 1411 Chilean participants aged over 25 years. Results: Seventy six percent of respondents sought general health information at least once. Internet (32%) and the health care center (30%) were the most common sources. One fourth of respondents sought, during the last 30 days, information about physical activity, and one third about fruit and vegetable consumption. Physicians and other healthcare workers were the most trusted sources, but only half of participants recalled having received a recommendation from them regarding the practice of healthy behaviors. CONCLUSIONS: This survey about health information seeking is a valuable tool to learn about people's health information environments and how these contents can influence their practices.

[Health information acquisition among Chilean adults]. / Búsqueda y exposición incidental a información de salud entre adultos en Santiago, Chile: resultados descriptivos de la primera encuesta sobre entornos informativos de salud EIS Chile.

BACKGROUND: People base their health decisions on the information they obtained from their environment, which includes health care providers, the media, and interpersonal networks. Learning about patterns of information acquisition allows the identification of people's preferred sources. AIM: To report the results of a survey about health information seeking, source trust, and routine exposure to health information. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A health information trend survey, modeled after the U.S. National Cancer Institute's Health Information National Trends Survey was answered by 1411 Chilean participants aged over 25 years. RESULTS: Seventy six percent of respondents sought general health information at least once. Internet (32%) and the health care center (30%) were the most common sources. One fourth of respondents sought, during the last 30 days, information about physical activity, and one third about fruit and vegetable consumption. Physicians and other healthcare workers were the most trusted sources, but only half of participants recalled having received a recommendation from them regarding the practice of healthy behaviors. CONCLUSIONS: This survey about health information seeking is a valuable tool to learn about people's health information environments and how these contents can influence their practices.

A communication inequalities approach to disparities in fruit and vegetable consumption: Findings from a national survey with U.S. adults.

OBJECTIVES: This study assessed whether socioeconomic disparities in fruit and vegetable consumption and its differences by social capital are accounted for by exposure to media information about fruits and vegetables and reflective integration of that information. METHODS: Online survey data were collected in July 2014 from 572 U.S. adults from a nationally representative online panel. Path analysis was employed to test our models. RESULTS: Education and social capital were positively associated with media exposure, which was in turn positively related to reflective integration and finally led to fruit and vegetable consumption. Education and income were positively associated with social capital. CONCLUSION: Differences in fruit and vegetable consumption across social groups are at least partly explained by exposure to information about fruits and vegetables from the media, and by reflective integration of that information. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: Healthcare professionals and health educators should create health messages delivered via the media that are easy to understand with an appropriate level of health literacy. Also, health interventions that aim to build social capital may promote health media use and its reasoning processes, thereby reducing communication inequalities by SES as well as disparities in fruit and vegetable consumption.

A Communication Inequalities Approach to Disparities in Physical Activities: The Case of the VERB Campaign.

This study focuses on the VERB campaign and explores whether the campaign effects differed across socioeconomic status and race/ethnicity groups. Using a three-wave longitudinal survey dataset, this study found that the effects of exposure to the VERB campaign on behaviors were mediated by descriptive norms, perceived behavioral control (PBC), and intentions. More importantly, the VERB campaign increased intentions of being physically active by affecting PBC and descriptive norms across all social groups. When the link between intentions and behavior was taken into consideration, however, disparities between high and low SES, and majority and minority racial/ethnic group children emerged. The implications of this study for research on health disparities and public health communication campaigns are discussed.

Theorizing the Pathways From Seeking and Scanning to Mammography Screening.

This study combines insights from existing theories in mass communication and health communication, and builds an integrated model accounting for the mechanisms by which an individual's acquisition of mammogram-related media information becomes associated with intentions to obtain a mammogram. Our model was largely supported by a survey with a nationally representative sample of American females between the ages of 40 and 70 years. As expected, seeking and scanning mammogram-related information from the media were both positively associated with reflective integration of media health information, which in turn was positively related to behavioral attitudes and perceived normative pressures. Attitudes and normative pressures were then positively linked to the intention to get a mammogram. Based on these findings, we offer some suggestions for future research in this area.