Chul-joo Lee
The Interplay Between Media Use and Interpersonal Communication in the Context of Healthy Lifestyle Behaviors: Reinforcing or Substituting?
The Ohio State University
abstract study aims explore media use health information interpersonal health communication interact context healthy lifestyle behaviors study hypothesizes media use health information interpersonal health communication serve substitutes one another test hypothesis study uses nationally representative survey 2107 civilian noninstitutionalized adults united states results show associations television use internet use healthy lifestyle behaviors enhanced among talk health issues family friends less frequently supports substitution model implications findings future research discussed view correction statementnotice republication notes 1the current research focuses healthinducing interpersonal interaction clearly delineated wording interpersonal health communication construct see measurement section admittedly interpersonal communication networks provide healththreatening information contradicts media information type information diminish beneficial effects media exposure healthy lifestyle behaviors bearman moody stovel citation2004 christakis fowler citation2007 maxwell citation2002 therefore even media interpersonal sources provide contradictory information substitution effects rather reinforcement effects supported however beyond scope present research discuss issue greater detail 2additional detailed information data collection procedure described elsewhere ie lee citation2008 3this study report cronbachs alpha index healthy lifestyle behaviors cronbachs alpha assumes items comprising scale commonly capture one latent variable whereas index consists mutually exclusive items healthy lifestyle behaviors overview see bollen lennox citation1991 streiner citation2003 content validity face validity crucial constructing indexes whereas statistics tapping internal consistency relevant streiner argued validity indexes heavily depends prior research one evidence validity index healthy lifestyle behaviors comes fact index used fields public health eg gottlieb green citation1984 health communication eg rimal et al citation1999 epidemiology eg berkman syme citation1979 past couple decades 4weights us population available used verify results however use weights produces inflated standard errors thus reduces statistical power article meant test theory willing sacrifice surer claims national representativeness increase power thus maximize sensitivity tests theory notes n 2107 p 05 p 01 p 001 cell entries final standardized regression coefficients blocks 1 2 beforeentry standardized regression coefficients block 3 5i indebted anonymous reviewer point additional informationnotes contributorschuljoo lee chuljoo lee phd university pennsylvania 2009 assistant professor school communication ohio state university research interests include effects public health campaigns ehealth